Texas Lawmakers Approve Bill to Ban Sexually Suggestive Cheerleading
The Associated Press
April Castro
05/03/05

After an alternately comic and fiery debate - punctuated by several lawmakers waving pompons - the state House on Tuesday approved a bill to restrict "overtly sexually suggestive" cheerleading to more ladylike performances. The bill would give the state education commissioner authority to request that school districts review high school performances.

"Girls can get out and do all of these overly sexually performances and we applaud them and that's not right," said Democratic Rep. Al Edwards, who filed the legislation.

Edwards argued bawdy performances are a distraction for students resulting in pregnancies, dropouts and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

Ribald performances are not defined in the bill. "Any adult that's been involved with sex in their lives, they know it when they see it," he said.

The bill passed on a 65-56 vote. It still must be approved by the Senate and signed by Republican Gov. Rick Perry.

Link: http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBVQBH0B8E.html

If you can get pregnant and STDs from cheerleading, then the activity has sure changed a lot since I was in high school!
:P

But seriously...cheerleading and sexually suggestive have gone hand in hand (or pom-pom in hand) ever since I can remember.

Texas Lawmakers Approve Bill to Ban Sexually Suggestive Cheerleading
The Associated Press
April Castro
05/03/05


Edwards argued bawdy performances are a distraction for students resulting in pregnancies, dropouts and the spread of sexually transmitted diseases.

Ribald performances are not defined in the bill. "Any adult that's been involved with sex in their lives, they know it when they see it," he said.

The bill passed on a 65-56 vote. It still must be approved by the Senate and signed by Republican Gov. Rick Perry.

Link: http://ap.tbo.com/ap/breaking/MGBVQBH0B8E.html


Know what when they see it?  Sex?  We all have one.  Seems to me, given the state of education in Texas, there are a lot more important things to worry about than teenagers shaking their booty's.  Things like learning to read and doing math come to mind.

Know what when they see it?  Sex?  We all have one.  Seems to me, given the state of education in Texas, there are a lot more important things to worry about than teenagers shaking their booty's.  Things like learning to read and doing math come to mind.


Long live economy driven society! Screw morality, get them kids to learn that there math so we can make more money and be more powerful than China!

Long live economy driven society! Screw morality, get them kids to learn that there math so we can make more money and be more powerful than China!


How asinine! So it's OK if we're a nation of imbeciles as long as we behave "morally?" What warped thinking!

I wouldn't be very sad to see the whole regime of high school football thrown out the goddamn window. But to just put some vague restriction on cheerleaders is useless and only tackling part of the problem... I can't understand this country sometimes... we're more worried about cheerleaders being too suggestive than we are about cheerleaders being too, well, anorexic/bulemic.

I work with a woman whose nine-year-old daughter is about to start cheerleading, and she's wanted to be a cheerleader since she was like three... Is that like sick or what? Shouldn't she be in the readers club or the peer mediators? Maybe she could be taking Karate and learning some self-confidence... But no, she's learning how to become an object of male desire and a weight-obsessive youth.

How asinine! So it's OK if we're a nation of imbeciles as long as we behave "morally?" What warped thinking!

I wouldn't be very sad to see the whole regime of high school football thrown out the darn window. But to just put some vague restriction on cheerleaders is useless and only tackling part of the problem... I can't understand this country sometimes... we're more worried about cheerleaders being too suggestive than we are about cheerleaders being too, well, anorexic/bulemic.

I work with a woman whose nine-year-old daughter is about to start cheerleading, and she's wanted to be a cheerleader since she was like three... Is that like sick or what? Shouldn't she be in the readers club or the peer mediators? Maybe she could be taking Karate and learning some self-confidence... But no, she's learning how to become an object of male desire and a weight-obsessive youth.



I know some cheerleaders that do it for fun, treat it like a sport.  They don't exist though, even though they're flesh and blood the same way the body showers are, even though they're right there in front of me.

Um... isn't the whole point of cheerleading sexual suggestion?  ;D


Don't get me wrong, I enjoy suggestion as much as the next guy, but it IS getting a bit CRAAAAAAAAZY!, I think. Although to place a very general and vague law... don't make sense. Unless you specify what is "sexually suggestive", and by anyone's standards what is suggestive would ban nearly all modern-day cheerleading.

I know some cheerleaders that do it for fun, treat it like a sport.  They don't exist though, even though they're flesh and blood the same way the body showers are, even though they're right there in front of me.


This is some pretty sloppy sarcasm. Care to make your point a bit clearer...? I know that a lot of cheerleaders do treat it like a sport, and the object of the game is... looking perfect. You don't have to explain cheerleading to me. Believe it or not, I did go to high school. I even graduated with a high GPA, and I'm even attending college. Imagine that...  :o

Like it or not, cheerleading is almost entirely for attractive, thin girls. Sometimes you'll see a fat girl or maybe a guy cheerleader... but the overwhelming majority is perfect looking.

My cousin plays basketball for a private Christian high school here in Texas, and I commend their cheer squad for having a girl who is seriously fat. I'm not talking a couple of vanity pounds, I mean she is obese. I commend the squad, even though I still here negative comments from some of the parents and students about it whenever I attend one of the games. But what am I talking about... Screw the squad and the parents! I commend the girl for doing what she wants despite her weight.

There was also a male cheerleader at one of the local high schools here in TX where I go to college. A few months ago he was accosted by some rednecks and they beat the shhh out of him and almost killed him...

Next I suppose they'll be regulating how close basketball players can get to one another out on the court, and how naked everyone is allowed to get in the showers. Morality first!

Long live economy driven society! Screw morality, get them kids to learn that there math so we can make more money and be more powerful than China!

I'm not quite sure what you are saying here, but all societies are economy-driven.  I suspect you are implying you want the arbiters of religious virture to be top dogs, and I know of a guy named Osama who would be right with you there!

This is some pretty sloppy sarcasm. Care to make your point a bit clearer...? I know that a lot of cheerleaders do treat it like a sport, and the object of the game is... looking perfect. You don't have to explain cheerleading to me. Believe it or not, I did go to high school. I even graduated with a high GPA, and I'm even attending college. Imagine that...  :o

Like it or not, cheerleading is almost entirely for attractive, thin girls. Sometimes you'll see a fat girl or maybe a guy cheerleader... but the overwhelming majority is perfect looking.

My cousin plays basketball for a private Christian high school here in Texas, and I commend their cheer squad for having a girl who is seriously fat. I'm not talking a couple of vanity pounds, I mean she is obese. I commend the squad, even though I still here negative comments from some of the parents and students about it whenever I attend one of the games. But what am I talking about... Screw the squad and the parents! I commend the girl for doing what she wants despite her weight.

There was also a male cheerleader at one of the local high schools here in TX where I go to college. A few months ago he was accosted by some rednecks and they beat the shhh out of him and almost killed him...

Next I suppose they'll be regulating how close basketball players can get to one another out on the court, and how naked everyone is allowed to get in the showers. Morality first!


It was very sloppy sacasam considering I was being serious. 

I went to high school too, and we had cheerleading for 4 different sports.  I know what it is. I experienced it up close.

I applaud you on that fat cheerleader, I have known plenty in my day.  Now unfortunately the Football team cheerleading coach picks girls do to their pretty face and their hot bodies.  In other words, it's based on the sexual appeal.  However the boy's basketball cheerleading coach, the girls basketball cheerleading coach, and the wrestling cheerleading coach all pick girls based on talent and desire. Looks has nothing to do with it.  Some might  say, "obviously" if they were to look at the squads.  So that makes 1/4 in your direction.

Texas is one heck of a state about the absurd things like that.....about 12 years maybe even more...four girls beat up and raped a homosexual on Texas University campus in Austin.

And yes Morality first...I have my priorities straight.

I'm not quite sure what you are saying here, but all societies are economy-driven.  I suspect you are implying you want the arbiters of religious virture to be top dogs, and I know of a guy named Osama who would be right with you there!


No what I'm saying is that if Don Carlos wants to act like he cares so much about education then he ought to say something about social studies, theatre, art, band, chorus and such rather than just focus on Math and science.

I don't want the kids of the future to know everything about how to set goals for higher financial gain, and to know how to build a nuclear bomb.

I want the kids of the future to be well balanced, know how to think philosophically, analytically, anologically, not just economically.

No what I'm saying is that if Don Carlos wants to act like he cares so much about education then he ought to say something about social studies, theatre, art, band, chorus and such rather than just focus on Math and science.

I don't want the kids of the future to know everything about how to set goals for higher financial gain, and to know how to build a nuclear bomb.

I want the kids of the future to be well balanced, know how to think philosophically, analytically, anologically, not just economically.


  I think you're reading into DC's comment too much. Just because he doesn't mention other academic subjects doesn't mean he doesn't care about them, but i think the point is that some texas schools are prioritizing sports over basic education, not that math and science should be given priority over the humanities.

I'd like a world where no one has to worry about money as long as they are making an intellectual contribution as well, but unfortunately i don't think that's going to happen.

And i might have said this before in another thread but morality as in treating yourself and others well is a good thing. But blindly following what others say you should do, which seems to be a common definition of morality, is one of the most dangerous things that someone can do.

It was very sloppy sacasam considering I was being serious. 

I went to high school too, and we had cheerleading for 4 different sports.  I know what it is. I experienced it up close.

I applaud you on that fat cheerleader, I have known plenty in my day.  Now unfortunately the Football team cheerleading coach picks girls do to their pretty face and their hot bodies.  In other words, it's based on the sexual appeal.  However the boy's basketball cheerleading coach, the girls basketball cheerleading coach, and the wrestling cheerleading coach all pick girls based on talent and desire. Looks has nothing to do with it.  Some might  say, "obviously" if they were to look at the squads.  So that makes 1/4 in your direction.

Texas is one heck of a state about the absurd things like that.....about 12 years maybe even more...four girls beat up and raped a homosexual on Texas University campus in Austin.

And yes Morality first...I have my priorities straight.



I assume you have been chaste you entire adult life. but there's far more to morality than an arbitrary assessment of sexual virtue.  I do agree with conservative commentators that our society is too sexualized, and that women, while being sold horsesh*t about "empowerment," are on the losing end of this sexualization.  The big winners are those who profit from commerce.  Sexual immorality is promoted because sex sells, when sex sells, corporations profit.  The corporations to a much greater degree favor the Republican party, the more socially conservative of the two major parties.  The hypocrisy doesn't bother either the corporations or the Republicans much.  The Republicans make feeble overtures of objection to corporate smut-peddling, but only when prompted.  They reserve their invective for Hollywood and public schools.  Hollywood, of course, is just another wing of corporate America at this point, and if the public schools taught our citizens to be self-respecting and critically-thinking, corporate America would lose big bucks because there would be far fewer dopes to gull with the allure of sexualized commerce.
Sexual morality is an important part of overall morality, and a place where I admit I have lapsed--even though I don't judge myself under Christian strictures.  The greatest area of morality for society to consider is "economic morality" at which America fails miserably.

amazing... we've been debating cloning and stem cells in Massachusetts, and one of the other states with a high concentration of technology has it's politicians debating the merits of cheerleading. 

I know Texans take their sports really serious, but if I were looking to start a new hi-tech company I think watching politicians in action in that state would help me make my mind up a little quicker.

anologically

Huh?  Sounds like one of Dubya's words!
:D

Huh?  Sounds like one of Dubya's words!
:D


LMAO ;D

Huh?  Sounds like one of Dubya's words!
:D


I'd like kids to be able to make anologies.......

I don't know that I'd commend a school for having a seriously overweight person on the cheerleading squad.  From what I've seen recently, cheerleading is an extremely athletic activity these days (with more than a 'token' number of guys participating, I might add), and not an activity that is appropriate for anyone (thin, fat or otherwise) who's not in pretty darn good shape.

We have some like that... "competitive" cheering... no one watches it, not any motivational purpose for crowds at games {although I must say, cheerleaders at the games never got me motivated to cheer for the team any more}.... just for sport. It's supposed to be hard, and it sounds like these girls sustain more injury then any other athlete. I see more of those girls with broken limbs and torn crap then any football player, who only then and again get broken bones... these girls got a new thing destroyed every year.. sometimes two or three times a year.

But I digress. These routines are much more physically involved.. requiring more actual strength, requiring less physical development and the ability to create an air of lust. I can respect that, too.

I'd like kids to be able to make anologies.......

So would I, but I think I'd like them to make analogies analogously if we MUST apply an adverb.


--Maxwell Smart, aka Mr. Smartypants
::)

As a former cheerleader, I feel I have to defend us "good" ones.  At my school, cheerleading WAS considered a "sport".  It wasn't a popularity contest, it wasn't all the "good looking" girls (I am PROOF of that because I wasn't very popular OR beautiful).  It IS getting waaaaayyyy out of hand, though.  I went with my Cub Scout den to a high school basketball game and was shocked at what they were doing.  My SIL's sister was a cheerleader in high school and I saw a videotape of one of their competition performances.  They had male & female cheerleaders and were basically dry humping each other.  That kind of stuff has no place in cheerleading.


Must be a blue moon.....I not only agree with what you had to say, but I stand by it too.

So would I, but I think I'd like them to make analogies analogously if we MUST apply an adverb.


--Maxwell Smart, aka Mr. Smartypants
::)


Once again, my vocabulary proves to be rather peccable....if that too is a word.

Once again, my vocabulary proves to be rather peccable....if that too is a word.

Yes, it means liable to sin or to error.

Well, I was a cheerleader a LONG time ago (80-89), but it still makes me mad when what WE did back then is compared to what is done now.  I still remember all of our routines (I should, since I choreographed most of them) and the most "suggestive" we got was shaking our shoulders, and that was a routine we learned at camp :P


80-89?  9 years?

My own mother was a cheerleader in high school, I know exactly what your talking about by "What WE did back then".


Can I also say this?  Football cheerleading seems to be the worst of all.  The girls don't seem to get a radicle and rilled up at basketball games, as they do at football games and at wrestling meets they just sit there and hit the mat.

I played varsity soccer. We didn't get cheerleaders.  :-[

I played varsity soccer. We didn't get cheerleaders.  :-[


Because who cares about soccer in America when there is football and basketball going on?

Because who cares about soccer in America when there is football and basketball going on?

Yeah, those Soccer players won't stop the game, not even for beer commercials!
:(

Because who cares about soccer in America when there is football and basketball going on?



In just about every other country Soccer is the number 1 sport. 

There is a reason behind why it's not more popular here in the states...that may be one of them.

Can I also say this?  Football cheerleading seems to be the worst of all.  The girls don't seem to get a radicle and rilled up at basketball games, as they do at football games and at wrestling meets they just sit there and hit the mat.


I do notice that. They get a whole period at half-time to do the most suggestive things they can. I've only seen the other non-football cheerleaders a few times, and all they do is kinda sit there, sometimes cheering slightly. No real purpose...

. No real purpose...


Not me personally, but there are many that view cheerleading with that exact phrase.

Yes.  We had intramural sports in 5th & 6th grade so I started in 5th grade and kept , I was a cheerleader for basketball & football.

It's definitely basketball that's the worst here.  The football cheerleaders are usually bundled up as they'd freeze their behinds off if they weren't, but the basketball cheerleaders and dance teams look like they belong in a Vegas show ::)


The dance teams are worst of all. The coaches or teachers or whatever they are encourage to "Shake the body". Hell I even saw a coach getting a girl ready to go and she told her to put on a smaller shirt, as if the one she already had on wasn't tight enough.

The dance teams are worst of all. The coaches or teachers or whatever they are encourage to "Shake the body". Hell I even saw a coach getting a girl ready to go and she told her to put on a smaller shirt, as if the one she already had on wasn't tight enough.

Yeah, but considering the poverty, pollution, and economic ills of Texas, don't you think these legslators should focus on more pressing issues?  Telling teenage girls to dance more "lady-like" is NOT vital to the well-being of the state.  I'm not surprised a Democrat brought it up either.  Texas Dems are dumb enough to think they can beat Texas Republicans at the sanctimony game.  Uh-uh, honey, those guys are world-class and top-notch at the moralist hypocrisy game!

Not me personally, but there are many that view cheerleading with that exact phrase.


I don't think it's entirely purposeless... although these days, so much cheerleading is more for sexual stimulation then actual motivation, and they know it. If we had legitimate cheering, it wouldn't be a problem..

Yeah, but considering the poverty, pollution, and economic ills of Texas, don't you think these legslators should focus on more pressing issues?  Telling teenage girls to dance more "lady-like" is NOT vital to the well-being of the state.  I'm not surprised a Democrat brought it up either.  Texas Dems are dumb enough to think they can beat Texas Republicans at the sanctimony game.  Uh-uh, honey, those guys are world-class and top-notch at the moralist hypocrisy game!



well I also think it'd be wiser to worry about the people of Appalachia before we try and solve other countries problems.

They're both problems and sometimes things can't be done in chronological order.

I don't think it's entirely purposeless... although these days, so much cheerleading is more for sexual stimulation then actual motivation, and they know it. If we had legitimate cheering, it wouldn't be a problem..


We need that message to be sent out...and it's me and you that does that.

That message doesn't really need sent out... everyone KNOWS the cheers are waaaaay to whorish nowadays. What we NEED is people to get active about it. Do something. Give these girls actual cheering, not dancing for the sake of horny kids and brutish older men.

The message is there, it's clear, but no one will get off the arse and do anything. That's the issue.

Why does it needs to be a state problem? Instead of a school board or principle issue, which is where it belongs.  I'm sure the community standards would be quick to kick in if the people at a game were offended.  This type of mechanism already exists, and all these people are doing is adding more nonsense to the mix.

Why does it needs to be a state problem? Instead of a school board or principle issue, which is where it belongs.  I'm sure the community standards would be quick to kick in if the people at a game were offended.  This type of mechanism already exists, and all these people are doing is adding more nonsense to the mix.

The Texas legislature should be grateful teenage Texans have the respiratory health to dance and sing at all!  I mean, given all the filth they let the oil and chemical industries cough into the air down there!
:D