Pom Poms and Politics

Published: Glamour UK, France,  ELLE, Canada

Politics and Pom Poms

Think cheerleaders and you imagine girls in frilly skirts on the sidelines, doing the splits for slam dunks. But squads with a serious political message are gaining notoriety in the US.

‘Riot – Don’t diet, Get up, Get out, and try it,’ shout seven excitable women, standing on the corner of 42nd Street. In a blaze of pom-pom shaking red and black, one girl turns a cartwheel across New York’s famous theatre district. ‘I can’t believe they are protesting on Broadway,’ mutters a startled passer-by in disbelief.

Meet the New York City Radical Cheerleaders. They aren’t just college bimbos, high kicking to score themselves a gorgeous guy from the football team. They’re sassy, switched on, socially aware activists. They stand up for women’s rights and shout out against sexism.

In 2001, they protested in Central Park to draw attention to a series of shocking sexual attacks. In 2003 they were anti-war and anti-Bush. Last weekend they chanted in protest against women being forced to have Caesareans if they’d been in labour for over 24 hours. And today, a busy Saturday in February, they’re as mad as hell about pressure on women to embark on starvation diets.

To match their bright red tops, short skirts and legwarmers the girls tie red tassels around their knees and fashion pom-poms out of plastic bags.

They congregate a few blocks up from Times Square to discuss tactics. ‘I don’t think we’ll get arrested,’ says Cheri Yanek, a 24-year-old Librarians assistant, fiddling with the red ribbons in her hair, ‘we’re far to cute.’ Pedestrians on Broadway get ready…..

The Radical Cheerleader movement originated in Florida in 1996 when two sisters, Aimee and Cara Jennings, wanted to find a more creative way to make a statement than just standing holding banners emblazed with feminist slogans. ‘I was a high-school cheerleader,’ explains Aimee, now 32. ‘My sister and I realised that to get our message across we needed to be louder. Cheerleading was a good way for our voice to be heard. We were often dismissed for wearing short skirts and carrying pom-poms but people started to realise what we said really packed a wallop.’

The Radical Cheerleaders’ goal is to lobby for changes in the law, including an end to the Patriot Act, a set of anti-terrorist measures passed after September 11th, which include the provision of imprisonment without trial. Although they are no allied to any political party exactly, a clear part of their remit is to oppose the anti-abortion, pro-war Bush government. They have also been recognised by organisations such as the ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) who describe them as, ‘imperative in raising awareness of civil liberties.’

The Radical Cheerleader movement is spreading by word of mouth and the internet. Since it’s inception, squads have sprung up across the US, including the Rocky Mountain rebels in Colorado and the Memphis Dirty Southern Belles in Tennessee. Each squad is autonomous and the movement is growing.

March 2001 saw the first cheerleaders’ convention in Ottawa, Canada and in September 2002 over 1000 women travelled to Miami to support a Free Trade conference. The NYC squad, founded in 2000 is now 13-strong and ranges in age from 15 to 33 (most are twentysomethings). With equal opportunities at the top of their agenda there are even a couple of men in the squad.

Every Friday evening at 7pm the New York squad hold their weekly practice in a house on the Upper East side. The lounge coffee table has been pushed out the way and the girls are careful not to knock over the TV as they stand in two lines and bounce through a rousing cheer. As ever, they’re loud and effervescent. When a cheer finishes they whoop and squeal, high-kicking in celebration.

The house belongs to Jessica Joy, a 25 year old secretary and actress. ‘I found out about the squad on the Internet,’ she explains, ‘I’ve been to other feminist groups that don’t like it if you wear lipstick and are girly. That’s what I love about the squad’ we are so flexible. I came along to the cheerleaders’ sleepover in January. Raising awareness through cheering seemed like such fun I joined up.’

One girl pulls out a well-thumbed copy of the cheerleader’s handbook, put together by movement founders Aimee and Cara Jennings. In its third edition it contains dozens of different cheers on issues like equal rights for women, anti-rape and positive body image and urges cheerleaders to get  “off the side-lines and onto the front lines.” The girls learn cheers from the handbook or write their own.

Cherie is an old hand. ‘I cheered with the New York squad two years ago, and then joined the Rocky Mountain Rebels while I was studying in Colorado. Then I came back to New York,’ she says, ‘I feel strongly about feminism and the fact that a woman’s body is her own,’ she explains, ‘I want our cheering to empower women to stand up for their rights.’ About tomorrows anti-diet message she explains, ‘When I was younger I was totally obsessed with being skinny and getting boys. I want to show girls you don’t have to be thin to get ahead in life. It is not the only way to think.’

‘Activists make better lovers,’ reads a t-shirt made by Jen Nedbalsky, a 24 year old New Yorker who works for a ‘I was captain of the Kick Line squad in high school and I loved it. People get excited when Radical Cheerleaders show up and that means we can draw attention to the issues we believe strongly in.’

The girls take the issues seriously and are resolute in their political beliefs but practice is still a very girly gathering. Raising her voice above the excited chatter Cherie asks, ‘Does anybody want some chocolate?’ she puts two boxes down on the coffee table and the girls tuck in before running through dance moves and perfecting the words to their cheers. The squad are practising for a day of ‘spontaneous’ action in Times Square tomorrow.

Saturday, 1pm, Times Square. ‘Squad Set,’ shouts Jen, pom-poms held aloft, ‘You Bet,’ the squad reply as they flip the middle finger to the world in general. ‘Kiss the back of my butt.’ Hardnosed New Yorkers, jostling for pavement space, hurry past trying to ignore the disruption in their city. A guy in a blue parka, eating a sandwich, stops and dances along with them. ‘What are they?’ drawls a short women trussed up in a fur coat.

Under the riot of flashing billboards, a crowd gathers to watch. Jen is wearing a tiny pleated black skirt, fishnet tights, legwarmers and a black and red top emblazed with the slogan, ‘Doing it herself.’ Her bright red lipstick matches the squads colours. ‘I’m travelling a bit lighter today,’ she confided earlier to the rest of the girls. ’I only have one lipstick instead of the usual four.’ A bemused cop wanders over to see what the commotion is all about. He doesn’t faze the confident girls and they continue to high- kick and cartwheel through their routines in one of New York’s busiest squares.

Exhausted after a day of spontaneous cheering the squad head to Blue Stockings, a radical bookstore and favourite cheerleader hangout on the Lower East Side.

Over coffee and chocolate brownies Jessica, who works on Wall Street, tells the group she wears her activist T-Shirts under her suit and secretly leaves cheerleading flyers around her office. ‘My parents are terrified that I am on some sort of list,’ says Jen, ’and my brother keeps getting stopped at the airport and they are sure it is because of me.’ Cherie laughs, ‘Well my parents just think I am nuts. But my boyfriend, Trevor, is totally supportive. He shares my views but is far to shy to ever join in.’

According to Aimee Jennings the movement has spread far beyond what she ever anticipated. Radical Cheerleading has captured the imagination women standing up for what they believe in.

‘We want to show women there is another way to think. When I was growing up I felt constantly pressured to please somebody else,‘ explains Jen. ‘We are doing this for us, for women. Putting across important messages and having a ball at the same time.’