Rah! Rah! Sis-boom-ba!!!!!

My daughter, who turned 7 this year, decided to try cheerleading. For several years, my son has been playing Pop Warner football and we sometimes watched the cheerleaders from afar. So this year, instead of her sitting around watching the football players, I suggested she join the cheerleaders. In my mind, I pictured Sandy in the movie 'Grease'. She'd have pom poms and cheer the team on with lots of spirit.

How naive I am.

The first night of practice I watched while 15 little girls did their exercises and started learning the cheers. I didn't pay too much attention since I brought a magazine and my favorite Sudoko book.

The next night I DID pay attention and wished I hadn't. After about an hour of listening to 'cheers', I started furiously scribbling in my little notebook. Within a few minutes, this is what I had written:

Oh my God! Am I in the twilight zone??? Here I am watching 7 and 8 year olds
cheerleading. Could they possibly be spelling 'H-O-T T-O G-O? I know they're
supposedly talking about the team, but come on! Who in their right mind wouldn't
read other meanings into it?

If that's not bad enough, they just completed the 'Firecracker' cheer:

"....the players have the muscles,
the coaches have the brains,
the girls have the pretty legs and
WE'LL WIN THE GAME!!!!"

WHAT???????!!!!!! The 'girls have the pretty legs ?(as they run their hands up their leg).
Are they insinuating they have neither muscles or brains?

I guess the feminist side of me is incredulous.

"Get over it!" hubby says.

Sorry, but I find it incredibly sexist. Here are a bunch of girls cheering on a sports
team, extolling their virtues while showing off their tiny 7 and 8 year old legs. Is
this our future as women? I hope not. Visions of Libby Lu are dancing in my head...

My daughter loves cheerleading and doesn't seem to notice the obvious sexism. I don't want to make her quit, but I will talk to her regarding the content of the cheers so she knows it's just pretend.

Geez... I wonder why women today are so uptight about their appearance......