Texas Cheer Moms
Last night I watched an hour of Texas Cheer Moms, a new reality show on TLC. This show is about a group of girls on a cheerleading team and their mothers. This show takes place in Waco, Texas where, “it’s an honor and a matter of pride when your son is a part of the football team or your daughter makes the cheerleading squad� (TLC website). All of the girls on the team are white, skinny, and tall. They all wear heavy make-up and designer clothes. Their houses are typical suburban with a dash of classic southern style, with huge family portraits in gaudy frames. Many of the girls on this program are obviously spoiled and explode in a fit of tears when they do not get their way or are spoken to rudely. They are the obvious queen bees of their lives and their school. What is almost worse are their mothers, whom are a clique of teased hair women with ‘midway high school’ sweatshirts, heavy eyeliner, and a deep interest in their child’s ability to tumble. These women seem to be only interested in their daughters’ lives. In Kristy Fairclough’s essay “Women’s Work? Wife Swap and the Reality Problem� she talks about reality TV’s portrayal of women and homemaking, “…Wife Swap achieves nothing except to further emphasize the fact that women should be natural homemakers by virtue of their gender…�. This can also be applied to Texas Cheer Moms because the mothers are mostly homemakers, and there is no talk about other jobs.
One of these women, the mother of Meagan who has been cheerleading since she was 3, seems to care more about her daughter’s weight and cheerleading abilities than her education. This show, like many others, pays great attention to the girl’s weight and body type. In Laura Mulvey’s essay, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema�, she states that “the conventions of mainstream film focus attention on the human form�. In the beginning of the first episode there is a segment focusing on Meagan’s weight. She is forced by her mom to “get in shape� before the upcoming cheerleading season, even though she is quite skinny. In Iris Marion Young’s essay “The Scaling of Bodies� she states that, “Beauty in women, like beauty in men, is a disembodied, desexualized, unfleshy aesthetic: light-colored hair and skin, and slenderness�. There is a definite scaling of bodies in this show; all the girls are pressured by each other, their mothers, and their coaches into being skinny and blond.
This show bothers me because of the incessant use of stereotypes. As I mentioned before the moms are obsessed with their daughters and don’t have a life to themselves. They are “typical� suburban moms. The girls only care about wearing the right clothes, and having the right friends. They are not worried about their education at all. Most of these girl’s dreams were to become cheerleaders. In my opinion, women should be able to choose what they want to do, from cheerleading to construction working. But this show is demeaning to me because it makes it seem that all girls just want to be cheerleaders, and should want to be like cheerleaders.
Comments
Well I would just like to say that I WAS one of those cheerleaders at Midway. To say that none of us were concerned with anything but cheerleading is by FAR innaccurate and very demeaning. I graduated from Midway 21/420 and am now attending the University of Texas at Austin. I did many other sports in highschool including: basketball, volleyball, track, cross country, and softball. I never considered myself to be TOO absorbed in cheerleading. It was just ONE of my passions. I did excel in academics, and I do take it personal when so many people make a blanket stereotype of the ENTIRE squad.
Posted by: Brittney | December 6, 2006 02:16 PM
omg this show is the bestttttt don't take it off the air
Posted by: Leslie | December 7, 2006 04:11 PM
umm i live in peterbrough ontario canada and i hate it theres no cheerleading teams here and i hate it!!!! no high school has cheerleading errrr!
Posted by: Leslie again lol | December 7, 2006 04:15 PM
um.. i watch this show and the ONLY information i have ever gotten from the show had to do with the cheerleading aspect of their lives. There is no evidence of acedemics etc because that's not what the show is about. I do find it weird that it looks like they can barely stunt without dropping anything (because that's pretty much all they play on the show) but writing they don't care about anything else is ridiculous.
Posted by: D | December 18, 2006 05:49 PM
I'm not really sure why you all are even wanting to see this show. I am a senior cheerleader for an elite competitive team from the midwest in which I've cheered for 8 years. I have to tell you this little team is WAYYYY to into themselves to even think about competing. Girls, stick to the sidelines. Disrespecting your coaches, not hitting stunts, not throwing tumbling,and not even showing up to practice would absolutely NEVER be permitted on an actual competitive Elite team.
Why couldn't TLC follow a competitive team? Texas is known around the country for their amazing athletes. I think it's a real shame that TLC took the time to worry about this little high school team and the mommys behind it. If the moms were so worried about making it to competition why didn't they teach their girls better mannners so they could learn an actual routine good enough to take/win at competition?
How dare they even bother going to a UCA competition? That's ridiculous and I am embarrassed for them.
This is just another reason for people to say cheerleading isn't a sport and we're all just a bunch of lazy pageant queens.
Posted by: Jennifer | December 18, 2006 07:14 PM
If I were these girls I wouldnt even compete. Letting flyers hit the ground out of elementary level stunts is ridiculous. If TLC would have shown a real competitive squad, you have seen a girl hit the floor 2 maybe 3 times. These girls need to learn the basics of stunting before they worry about nationals.
Posted by: ashley | December 18, 2006 10:26 PM
I think this is really RUDE im a cheerleader and that is not what we are all about. Im sick of everyone sterotyping us we are not like that im a cheerleader and im totally NOT spoiled so stop acting like that is how we are if you knew me you would no that im just a normal 13 year old and i have a heart
Posted by: Jackie | December 28, 2006 05:38 PM
I'm sorry if you think what I wrote is rude. But when I was writing this assingment, I wasn't specifically speaking about cheerleading. I was speaking about this particular show and what it portrays to girls and women. I think that the reality shows on t.v. are demeaning to women. I feel that cheerleading can be a good thing and that women should do what they want. I explained that in my last paragraph.
Posted by: Alison Havey | January 19, 2007 04:32 PM
I'm from Waco Texas and have had to put up with the Barbie dolls we know as Midway cheerleaders all my life, and I have to say 100% of what you say is completely true. And just as a reference, Midway is in Woodway, Texas, a suburb of Waco. At Midway feminism is thought as quote "...a bunch of ugly lesbians who are jealous..." (quoted by an actual Midway student). A lot of my friends and I are feminists, I don't think we look half bad, and most of us are straight. straight.
I don't think what Alison said was rude. And I want you to know that not everyone from Waco is that snobbish, and because of Midway's crappy football team sadly the mediocre sport we know as cheer leading has become the only sport they can look forward to.
Posted by: Mary Parrish | June 1, 2007 08:23 PM
I'm from Waco Texas and have had to put up with the Barbie dolls we know as Midway cheerleaders all my life, and I have to say 100% of what you say is completely true. And just as a reference, Midway is in Woodway, Texas, a suburb of Waco. At Midway feminism is thought as quote "...a bunch of ugly lesbians who are jealous..." (quoted by an actual Midway student). A lot of my friends and I are feminists, I don't think we look half bad, and most of us are straight. straight.
I don't think what Alison said was rude. And I want you to know that not everyone from Waco is that snobbish, and because of Midway's crappy football team sadly the mediocre sport we know as cheer leading has become the only sport they can look forward to.
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Posted by: nacsmwredo | August 5, 2007 05:20 PM
Im a previous Midway cheerleader and have graduated but what you have said about us is not accurate.
Posted by: Midway | September 9, 2007 03:13 PM
hahaha i went to this school and i actually messed around with a few of the broads on this show it was awesome and it didn't take much for meagan whitt to drop it like its hot if you know what i mean = ) i had never even said a word to her all i did was call her on a christmas break picked her up and took her to my cousins house and maybe 15minutes later it was on and poppin
Posted by: Taylor Elliott | December 23, 2007 03:01 AM
omg. as much as i don't want to be maegans friend,
that last comment was so
unnecessary. really rude,
actually. but watever.
Posted by: noneya. | December 26, 2007 12:28 AM
even though i don't know maegan that well,i still don't think its necessary
for that last comment.
i mean, for real, who says
that shit.
Posted by: midwaygirls07 | December 26, 2007 12:31 AM
even though i don't know maegan that well,i still don't think its necessary
for that last comment.
i mean, for real, who says
that shit.
Posted by: midwaygirls07 | December 26, 2007 12:32 AM