Cheerleader!: An American Icon [Hardcover]

Natalie Guice Adams (Author), Pamela Jean Bettis (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 8, 2003

Entertainers, sex objects, or athletes? Leaders, porn stars, or superstars? Cheerleaders, numbering 3.8 million in the United States alone, are part of everyone's school experiences and memories. Looking beyond the poms and megaphones, Cheerleader! An American Icon explores how cheerleading reflects our shifting beliefs about sports, entertainment, gender, and national identity. Natalie Guice Adams and Pamela J. Bettis trace cheerleading's history from its inception 135 years ago as a male leadership activity, through the sexual and sassy era epitomized by the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, to its current incarnation as a physically demanding sport. Integrating history, pop culture, and interviews wiht cheerleaders of all ages, even those in the cheerleading business, Adams and Bettis simultaneously celebrate cheerleading and provide a critical analysis of this perennially popular activity. Poignant, hilarious, powerful, and ground-breaking, this is one book you won't want to be without.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Cheerleading, for all its frivolous bouncing and squealing, is a serious matter. So argue Adams and Bettis in their study of the most abhorred and adored of American pastimes. These two professors (Adams is in education; Bettis, qualitative research) bring a refreshing perspective to the subject; on the one hand, they are academics and self-described feminists, and on the other, they admit to being a bit smitten with the whole ordeal (Adams was a cheerleader; Bettis tried out and was cut "for unknown reasons"). They aren't afraid of asking questions, the mother of them all being: why does postfeminist America still have 3.8 million people involved in the cheerleading world? Adams and Bettis recognize the importance of anecdote, using smalltown examples to illustrate big-time problems like desegregation and the eroticism of young girls. Their historical account-who knew cheerleading used to be a strictly male sport?-is sound and colorful. They falter, however, when dealing with current models of radical cheerleading like performance artists X-Cheerleaders, a group of New York City-based feminists who shout "No ifs ands or buts, we're the virgin sluts!" Adams and Bettis astonishingly miss the opportunity to look at the concept of subversion in depth, instead choosing to state the obvious: "Through their performance, the X-Cheerleaders make explicit the contradictions, constraints, and joys of girls' and women's lives in this society." The authors rightly treat their subject with the joyful frivolity of a "pony mount," but they should have dug a little deeper when it came time to land on the ground.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

"Whether you grew up resenting cheerleaders or wanting to be one, this fascinating account of the history and significance of cheerleading will open your eyes to its unique place in American culture. It is an institution worthy of serious study, and the authors have done justice to it with a foundation of meticulous research, using anecdotal as well as academic sources. Cheerleader! should be required reading for anyone interested in the history of sports or the development of gender roles in this country."
-- Sue Macy, author of Winning Ways: A Photohistory of American Women in Sports and editor of Play Like a Girl: A Celebration of Women in Sports

"Adams and Bettis create a compelling and eye-opening look into what has become a multibillion dollar industry and a separate culture that affects those both involved with cheerleading and around it..."
--PhiladelphiaCityPaper.net

"...bring a refreshing perspective to the subject..."
--Publishers Weekly

"A book that finally takes cheerleading seriously! It is clear that the authors have spent a lot of time talking to cheerleaders -- they've captured the fun of cheerleading. Everyone, and especially cheerleaders, will want to read this interesting and balanced account of their favorite pastime. Three cheers for Adams and Bettis!"
-- Katie Boyd, Cheer LTD 2000 National Cheerleader of the Year, American Cheerleader Magazine's Cheerleader of the Year 2000, World Cheerleader Association Cheerleader of the Year and Dance Performer of the Year 1998 and 1999

"This is an impressive and fascinating account of why cheerleaders are both vilified and glorified: why cheerleading enacts both wholesome and erotic facets of American femininity. Adams and Bettis do a terrific job of chronicling the new culture of cheerleading -- cheering that goes far beyond traditional stereotypes."
-- Don E. Merten, Ball State University

"This lively, energetic book will interest anyone who has wondered about cheerleading's role in our society. . .a groundbreaking new book. . ."
-- Sherrie A. Inness, Miami University

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 208 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; 1st edition (November 8, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1403961840
• ISBN-13: 978-1403961846
• Product Dimensions: 8.7 x 5.5 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #625,764 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars New Ideas About Cheerleading, January 23, 2004

By 

Sally Quick (Salem, MA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cheerleader!: An American Icon (Hardcover)

As a former H.S. cheerleader (WAY back in the mid to late 60's), I really enjoyed this book. It's interesting to see how cheerleading developed after I left H.S. After the girls were able to participate in "real" sports after Title IX, cheerleading had to change. I'm amazed at what those girls do now. We jumped around a little, did a pyramid, yelled, swung pom poms around, but these girls today ARE real athletes. They are dancers and gymnasts - there is no way I could have made cheerleading in this day and age! LOL

It's a fun book to read, and it brings back a lot of memories, and also makes me think about what cheerleading meant to me, and how I've used it since. They talk about "radical cheerleading", which is so interesting to me, because when I left H.S., I marched in the streets against the Vietnam War. Unbeknownst to me, I was still a cheerleader!

I love this book, and highly recommend it.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Why does anyone want to be a cheerleader?, November 12, 2003

By 

JERRY W. THOMAS (WINNSBORO, LA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Cheerleader!: An American Icon (Hardcover)

In this day and age, when girls are told they don't have to be nurses, they can be doctors -- when girls don't have to be secretaries -- they can be CEO's, when girls don't have to stay off the playing field -- they belong between the lines, why would any girl want to be relagated to cheering for the boys?

Natalie Adams and Pam Bettis dig in to this post feminist phenomana. They not only supply answers, they ask the right questions. Why is it when Mia Hamm and the Williams sisters make the cover of major magazines, giving little girls a new role model, that most little girls still want to be a cheerleader?

Though cheerleading was originally an exclusively male endeavor,
since females took it over in the late '40's and early '50's, cheerleaders have been seen as the ideal "girl next door" whose only purpose in life was to support men. According to Adams and Bettis, nothing is so entrenched in American culture as the "quarterback finally marrying the cheerleader" and thus is born the All American couple.

Adams and Bettis do a fine job of seperating the myth from the reality. According to them, the cheerleader image has been used to sell everything from NFL football, to pornography to toothpaste. And today cheerleading has become a multi billion dollar business.

The authors also explore the question: "Is cheerleading now a competitive sport" and are the participants real athletes? They make a compeling case that the white, blond blue-eyed cheerleader of yesterday is now a finely tune athelete capable of incredible athletic activity.

What a fasinating book. The authors prove, indeed, that cheerleading is a subject deserving of serious study. At the same time, they preserve all that America has always loved about her favorite girl, the cheerleader.

Read this book and keep that cheerleader smile!!

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun and Informative!, May 9, 2006

By 

K. Loges "Kim's reading" (Boise, ID USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Cheerleader!: An American Icon (Paperback)

I read this book because one of the authors, Pam Bettis was going to give a talk about cheerleading culture. Eventhough I was a cheerleader I was skeptical of this book. I was worried that it would be one-sided and full of fluff. I was very wrong! I learned a great deal about the history of cheerleading, the economics of cheerleading and the use of cheerleading in organizing and activism. This book was so much fun to read and I really enjoyed being able to talk with Pam about it!