All The Rallies Will Never Set Them Free

Cheerleading is a full-contact performance of collective gymnastics and collective dance meant to inspire enthusiasm. Oftentimes, the cheerleading team is affiliated with a sports team or few and appear at those events. There are also cheerleading competitions between cheerleading squads. To be clear, I respect the athleticism of cheerleading.

Socially, however, I do not care for the disproportionate status boost that being a cheerleader provides because this attracts people that are selfish and superficial rather than only those committed to spreading good cheer. Obviously, I do not mean that every individual cheerleader is selfish and superficial. What I mean is that selfish and superficial people tend to crave social status. Cheerleading happens to be one of an assortment of social utilities, such as law school or the Apple Store ⇒, that are not bad in and of themselves but which are used by social climbers to attain status at the expense of developing worthwhile friendships.

From what I understand, the base pay for cheerleading at professional sporting events is very low per game though one can be augmented somewhat through additional appearance fees. A practical requirement would be to have an additional job and consider cheerleading to be supplemental income and a chance to get public exposure.

The potential for a college scholarship for cheerleading is an opportunity to cash in on school spirit. If the market is there, a cheerleader ought to take advantage. When I have attended college athletic competitions, I have noticed a higher number of male cheerleaders than at any other level.

The institution of high school cheerleading seems to thrive due to taxpayers wanting to indulge in vicarious living. For some, high school was the peak of their lives. To be able to relive those times through a younger person provides an opportunity to reinforce a diluted form of a memory. People from all subcultures like to have the decisions that they made in life reaffirmed. Seeing local youngsters allows a certain part of the adult audience to go back in time while also outwardly supporting their own kid or their neighbor’s kid. I find this to be creepy.

Friends Are Preferable To Team Mates

I would prefer to not redefine what a friend is because I have a number of true, quality friends. None of them, to the best of my knowledge, have ever been cheerleaders. So it goes. I am not opposed to befriending a cheerleader, but so far it just has not happened.

I can not even recall if I have ever been team mates with any of my friends in an organized setting. Informal teams are much more fun to me. I have been team mates, and opposition, of countless donors and friends. It is just a part of the fun of informal games. Let’s be real; friendship is much more valuable than being team mates. Each individual friend is more interesting and special than whichever teams into which we decide to split. To think about in parlance of this shirt, I would state that “Friends are Team Mates in addition to being Friends, but being Team Mates does not matter outside the game at present”.

The Free Shirt Archive is a celebration of friendship. I look at this site as nothing less than as a way to acknowledge that my friends have given me material gifts in addition to the greatest gift of friendship over time. I wear these shirts not just for myself, but also to demonstrate to my friends that I appreciate what they do for me. Not doing so would be dishonorable. If by mentioning them on a website means that I provide donors with the benefit that other people know that they are generous, I suppose that is a small repayment. I like to think, though, that I do more to better their lives than by merely mentioning them on a website. If not, I have some extra work to do.