When I became a cheerleader I did not realize it came with being put down a lot. When my team walks past a crowd all done up in our uniforms we hear all the smirks. We are bashed, the laughing and grunts and awful comments come flying at us. When we hear the hurtful comments we still have to keep a smile on our faces and keep going. I do not think people realize how hard it is to go in front of a crowd who just makes fun of you. These crowds are usually the crowds we found at games we cheer for, not cheer competition crowds.
The types of things we hear from the crowds are, cheerleaders don’t have smarts, are to sparkly and full of makeup, and that cheer is not a sport. We cheerleaders have all heard the same things over and over again. People do not realize that cheerleading is like a performing art like dancing. Cheer also comes with the hard work of staying fit, practices, and performing on stage.
An upsetting part about cheer is that you fund yourself not always wanting to tell people that you are a cheerleader. This is because of all the hurtful things we hear all the time. It just gets to a point that you cannot deal with hearing the comments anymore so you avoid saying your apart of the sport at all.
I myself love cheerleading so much but there has been decently times were I avoid talking about cheer or bringing up the fact that I am a cheerleader because I’m afraid of what people may say.
I strongly suggest that if you meet a cheerleader or even talk about cheerleading think about the things I have mentioned. You could really be hurting someone more than you realize. Don’t judge a book by its cover. Cheerleading is filled with so many components that most people have no idea about, and this is why I am writing my blog, to explain and demonstrate all the things that don’t get included in the stereotypes.
The World of Cheer 