What exactly goes through the mind of a cheerleader?  Honestly, it’s very eluding, yet oddly hilarious.  What makes a girl want to bend over and show off her dumper during a football game to a crowd of hormonal teens and overly-enthused fathers?  Well, clearly, it’s because they’re a bunch of attention-seeking girls who think that “cheerleading” is an activity composed of, well, one: dancing to popular pop songs, and two: the modern-day activities of lap-dancers.

Did that get your attention?

Well, that’s at least what my school thinks cheerleading is.  No offense to any cheerleaders out there who ACTUALLY come up with a decent cheer for their football team for their halftime show, and don’t shake their tushies to some new Taylor Swift song.

Forgive me for being so candid, but, honestly, I thought the whole point of cheerleading was to cheer on a sport’s team, while possibly performing some acrobatic moves to display their excitement and enthusiasm.  I guess I was wrong.

My school’s cheerleading team feels the need to, during their halftime shows, show off their bodies in order to entertain the audience.  It’s always composed of the same typical stripper moves: they start off in a squatting position and slowly stand up while slightly bending over in order to give the audience a “nice preview” of what to expect.  After turning around to do some amazingly complex hip shaking and hand-waving (note the sarcasm), the girls lie on the ground, lean back on their elbows, spread their legs to the sky and present to the audience a splendid view of their underwear-covered—and may I emphasize PRIVATE—lady parts.  It's disgusting and demoralizing.

The girls seem to love the attention though, because they smile and make flirtatious kissy faces at the audience.  That's what bothers me the most: the fact that these girls are completely okay with people—especially guys—whistling and calling at them because of their looks.  That's embarrassing and disappointing.  And I'm not just talking about the girls.  Our entire generation is made up of naïve, foolish, and just plain stupid teenagers who are obsessed with sex, drugs, and alcohol.

I realize that I'm being extremely bold and risking whatever reputation I have, but this needs to be said.  Nobody in my school questions or complains about all of this disturbing and inappropriate behavior, and it's very concerning.  Would a teacher or faculty member of our school tolerate a girl in her cheerleading uniform sitting on her desk during class and spreading her legs so that the whole classroom could see?  Absolutely not!  (Although it wouldn’t surprise me if that wasn’t the case.)  So, why on Earth is it okay for a girl to do that on a football field, during a game, and in front of an entire school and their family members?  I can’t comprehend it.

This issue needs to be confronted.  It needs to be faced, and it needs to be justified.  I, a normal high school student, am the one speaking up about this, not some older teacher or parent who thinks that society is drifting away from traditional values.  I, a regular teenage girl, am offended and think this type of behavior is inappropriate.  And it is!  Is anybody going to tell me that a fifteen year-old girl who is presenting her butt in an extremely short skirt to a crowd of teenage boys and grown men isn’t inappropriate?  This is blasphemous!  Why is this allowed?  Is our school a nighttime stripper club?  Are we okay with the fact that we offer visual lap dances for ten dollars at our basketball and football games?  Are we okay with the fact that we exploit our cheerleaders by utilizing their foolishness and stupidity to earn more money from our sports’ games?

My generation isn’t the only one that is to blame for this ridiculous enigma.  Adults!  Aren’t you supposed to be the people who regulate students’ and kids’ behavior when things go awry?  Aren’t you supposed to supervise school activities to make sure nothing inappropriate occurs?  And adults, shouldn’t you definitely make sure that students aren’t showing their private body parts for exhibiting on display?  I mean, honestly!  How was this ever passed by the school board?  How is this behavior allowed?  Don’t tell me that the adults are fine with this!

I understand that students have a right to express themselves, but this form of expression is seriously shameful.  Way to represent our gender, girls.  Woo!  Gold star!  Give me an S!  Give me an A!  Give me an R!  Give me a C!  Give me an A!  Give me an S!  Give me an M!  What’s that spell?  Yeah, if you couldn’t tell, I’m being sarcastic.

Look, my point is that this behavior is simply senseless.  It’s not even practical!  Cheerleading nowadays seems to be about getting the audience’s attention focused on the cheerleaders, when its whole purpose is supposed to be about rousing the excitement of the audience and motivating the sport’s team that is playing. 

I hate to sound like an old traditionalist (Actually, I really don’t), but our values are shifting towards a direction that doesn’t seem morally correct.  Yes, we are changing into a society that advocates freedom and the right to express ourselves, which is good, but in certain areas, like the one that I am discussing which concerns cheerleading, we are developing negatively.  Encouraging sexual behaviors at school should never, ever be something that we encourage, and much more, tolerate.  What a student does or wants, concerning their sex life, should be strictly private and should not make its way onto our football field for the eyes of hundreds to see.

So, why do those of you cheerleaders whom I speak of—if I may ask—participate in such an activity that publicizes such despicable, amusing, and plain immoral behavior?  I really am very curious.