Cheerleaders: feminist perspective?

Cheerleading in many ways has become its own sport complete with its own competitions and championships. And most competitive, well really all competitive squads employ both female and male cheerleaders. So if anything it's the stereotype, not the actual cheerleader that would fall into, not the media's, but pop cultures views on what women look like.

cheerleading is a bit like the tango - in a league of it's own

there are positives and negatives to the culture

but

at it's best, it is athletic, coordinated and a team sport

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wnie9sfnucU

Cheerleaders arent "subordinate" to men. They are simply there to do a job, and that's to cheer. There are girl sports with cheerleaders as well, such as women's basketball. The cheerleaders are just there to look pretty and cheer as a way to show support and motivate the players

They add glamour and an element of fun to the adrenaline show, that's about it i think.

I have no strong opinions on the matter, or at least not clear ones. It slightly bothers me that there are high school cheerleader uniforms that would be (or at least are bordering on) violations of school dress codes if they weren't something the school gave them. And it kind of bothers me that, in a lot of conservative-type areas (like Texas), boy's sports are heavily promoted, but the only girl's sport that gets any real attention is the sport of, well, cheering on the boys.

But I do admire the athleticism, and... I am generally inclined to let people do whatever they want, as long as they're not hurting anyone else.