Monday, May 12, 2003

'We're teens, we're cute, we're radical to boot!'
Duncan Campbell brings us trendoids up to date with Cheerleaders twirl pom-poms of protest:
Cheerleaders are a wholesome symbol of America. They feature at every major sports event, in films from American Beauty to Bring It On and are the source of a multi-million-dollar industry in costumes and training camps. Yet now cheerleading has become political.
...
Anyone attending recent political rallies in LA will have noticed the most visible sign of this, a team called Radical Teen Cheer, who chant: 'We're teens, we're cute, we're radical to boot!'

Instead of backing the Oakland Raiders or the LA Lakers, they chant: 'Who trained, who trained, bin Laden? Who armed, who armed, Saddam Hussein?'

Now other radical teams - among them the Dirty Southern Belles in Memphis and the Rocky Mountain Rebels in Colorado - are springing up in dozens of US and Canadian cities, shaking pom-poms for causes from gay and lesbian rights to foreign policy.
Hmm, there are some problems with this approach, not the least of which is that even if you give some wingnuts red t-shirts, they are still wingnuts. It also doesn't help that the cheers are rather lame. From one of the radical cheerleader web sites:
So kiss the back o' my butt Uh!
Kiss the back o' my butt Uh!
Kiss the back o' my
Kiss the back o' my
Kiss the back o' my butt Uh!
My Acka backa, my soda cracker
Your institutions never listen
To the people's needs
It's all about greed --
I Said Beep beep beep
Take your voice to the street Grrrl
Wow, that's entertainment! But back to Duncan Campbell:
Formed last year in LA, Radical Teen Cheer are from a working-class area with a large Latino population. There are around 20 of them, aged between 14 and 18, almost all pupils at Franklin High School.

'Cheerleading is just our way of getting our message across,' said Natalia, who is also in her school team. 'We get a lot of attention, people saying "wow, that's cool".'
...
Meredith Ryley, a teacher and a team organiser, said demonstrators were stunned by the cheerleaders bursting into action. 'One guy told me it was the coolest thing he'd seen in 20 years.
Apparently he doesn't get out much. I did a little Googling for this particular cast of characters and it turns out that Lonewacko spotted them at a demo in February (pics here) performing their cheer for Uday. That ought to bring in the fans!

And let's hear more from public servant and scholar, Meredith Ryley:
Ryley was thinking of encouraging girls to start a punk cheerleading team when she read about a radical team in Minnesota and decided to form Radical Teen Cheer.
Way to encourage the tykes, Meredith! Although a punk cheerleading team would certainly be, er, interesting. And at least you didn't travel the tired, old sagging nude protest route.