Duly noted, Paris.
LANA DEL REYISM #492
I would need a fucking landfill for all of my unnecessary emotions.
Pussy, money, poetry.
What’s not to love? Drugs and psychoses abound.
Who you tellin’?
LANA DEL REYISM #184
Is Cheerleading the Modern Equivalent of a Witch’s Coven?
It’s strange to think that in a country that prides itself on progress, the organized “sport” of cheerleading still exists. Sure, the activity is associated with other vestiges of Americana, like baseball and apple pie (two somewhat banal vestiges, I might add), but it can also be associated with promiscuousness, dumbness and all-out bitchery. Those who champion cheerleading might argue that it’s a fun, self-esteem boosting extracurricular, but the cattiness and conniving that seems to stem from it would prove otherwise. The pressure to be a certain weight and to have a certain look tends to manifest itself in the form of acting like a total asshole to everyone around you—particularly those who don’t measure up to your standard of beauty.
Take, for instance, the most recent example of Kelsey Williams, an NBA cheerleader, accused of being “fat” by Claire Crawford, a writer for CBS. Williams’ slight pudginess could never be embraced in the physically elitist world of cheerleading—even by someone who doesn’t exist within it. Although Crawford was fired for the sake of saving face, it merely highlighted the point that, even as cheerleading “evolves,” the same archaic aesthetics and practices are expected. Moreover, when you consider that the sport was created in the United States and is essentially only performed in this country, it makes you question the inherent principles of what this nation stands for: Vacuousness and impossible beauty.
The cult-like nature of cheerleading doesn’t really serve to elevate the cause either. Attempting to talk to a cheerleader as a civilian woman is decidedly challenging, and a bit frightening. Their interests are somewhat limited and the topics open to discussion are less than scintillating, to say the least (tumble routine strategies aren’t exactly the most intellectual fodder). The fact that this sort of behavior is allowed to persist beyond high school also leads one to wonder if the cheerleading sects outside of this realm are on some sort of higher level of coven. As you reach your late twenties and suddenly become too old to cheerlead, are you sacrificed in a secret ritualistic effigy? Or do they let you back into the world to try your hand at a normal life?
If you were ever on the outside looking in with regard to cheerleader life, your first observation might have been: They all look the same. This is another way in which cheerleading embodies a coven mentality. The more close-knit and exclusive a group becomes, the more unwittingly they start to look and sound the same. Regular meetings and rehearsals of chants also suggest something decidedly witch-like.
Paranoia and literalness aside, there is something about cheerleading that is eerily similar to the craft of witches. And, in spite of this sport spawning Bring It On, I’m not entirely certain that its prominent place in modern society is positive or worthwhile.
© Genna Rivieccio 2013
Yes, I can.
Sisterhood.
