Cheerleading and the Gendered Politics of Sport

“Being Masculine is not About who you Sleep with...:” Heterosexual Athletes Contesting Masculinity and the One-time Rule of Homosexuality

“…While these men still embody many of the cultural symbols of hegemonic masculinity-their new sport has not decreased their muscular strength or aesthetic appealthey nonetheless believe those outside cheerleading view their masculine capital as diminished and their heterosexuality as suspect because cheerleading is a culturally feminized sport (Adams and Bettis 2003;Grindstaff and West 2006;Hanson 1995). In their research on collegiate cheerleading Grindstaff and West (2006, p. 515) note, "Cheerleading is a key site for the production of emphasized femininity," and men who cheer are commonly perceived as homosexual because of this.…”

“…Whereas these men once occupied a dominant position at the top of the heteromasculine stratification as football players, they now view their current sporting location as subordinating their masculinity and subjecting their heterosexuality to scrutiny. Where they were once masculinized and heterosexualized because of their association with football, their transgression from it now homosexualizes and feminizes them (Grindstaff and West 2006).…”

“…These studies attribute sport's influence to the socialization of almost all boys into gendersegregated teamsports, where they are normally taught to devalue women, femininity and gay men (Anderson 2008b;Messner 2002). Conversely, boys and men who occupy feminine terrain or play feminized sports are often thought gay; homosexualized by the institutional culture associated with feminine terrain (Adams 1993;Anderson 2005b;Grindstaff and West 2006;Hanson 1995). However, I have previously shown that the hegemonic form of masculinity produced in teamsports is challenged in two instances: first, by gender-integrating men into women's sports (Anderson 2008b) and also by openly gay athletes (Anderson 2002(Anderson , 2005a.…”

Paradise under the Field House Lights: When Rituals and Spectacles Suppress Female Students’ Agency

“…For many people, gender-bending in the public sphere can be a liberating, educational, or validating experience, or all three. Gender-bending is boundary work and, as the Senior Boys matched their doing of gender in cheerleading with their gendered identities and beliefs (Grindstaff & West, 2006), they had the capacity to play out, among other choices, the histories of institutionalized misogyny or progressive liberation.…”

Making the Perfect Queen: The Cultural Production of Identities in Beauty Pageants

“…Following the turn from the sociology of culture to 'cultural sociology' (Becker 1984), studies of popular culture have moved to focus not just on cultural objects or symbols as texts, but also to delve into the processes of their production. Beauty pageants are sites rich in both symbolism and cultural production and have much in common with other popular cultural production sites such as talk shows (Gamson 1998), cheerleading teams (Grindstaff and West 2006), and youth car modification (Best 2006). Through the rehearsals, judging and selection of beauty queens each year (often at cultural festivals), beauty pageants reveal processes that social groups go through in defining, debating, and changing their cultural identities.…”