Gender, Cheerleaders, and Hypermasculinity

What I learned from the Adler reading is that when put in positions that are typically deemed "feminized terrain," men exude hypermasculinity as a way of justifying their involvement. At least that was the case for the men in the "Orthodox Cheerleading Association." This is evident when the author quotes a pep talk given by a veteran cheerleader, named Randy, instructing the younger men on their first day. He charges the young men to be respectful of the women and to not rub the fact that men can do things better in the female cheerleaders face. The author writes, "Randy's talk illustrates the institutional and cultural attitudes of masculinity, homophobia, and sexism among men categorized as belonging to the orthodox group." (Anderson, 286). In light of the findings in the study, I learned that men seem to have a need to justify why they would be involved in something that society wouldn't typically consider manly. 

One idea from my life that I can connect to these ideas about gender in social life is how being, what could be called by some, a sensitive man is viewed. I recently had an exchange with my boss in which be called be sensitive and feminine because I brought up a situation where I believed that our organization wasn't being very thoughtful in a particular area. I was kind of shocked by his assessment of me, but the further I though about it I wasn't surprised. My boss is what would be consider by some a man's man. He rides a Harley, used to own a construction company, has three sons, and exudes a fair share of bravado and machismo. For him to call me sensitive and feminine is to say that I don't fall into his idea of how a man should think and behave. Honestly, I'm okay with that. 

In reading the material for this week though I found that this paradigm is really wide spread. I never really gave much thought to cheerleading or men cheerleaders for that matter. One new idea that came across in the reading is this need to be hyper-manly on the part of the orthodox male cheerleaders. I wasn't aware that a dichotomy existed between the orthodox and inclusive cheerleading associations. I was very surprised that former football players were on the cheerleading squads considering the locker room, only the strong survive, culture of football. Then, the more I thought about it, the more it made sense that this hypermasculinity existed because some of these male cheerleaders were former "jocks." I found the article to be very interesting and thought provoking. It definitely exposed me to things that I had not previously known or given much thought to.