Cyberbullying and a Green Bay Packers Cheerleader--(excellent!)

[Aldo Leopold]

35. I didn't think the Packers had cheerleaders anymore,

but that's obviously beside the point. I admire this young woman for standing up to the bullies. God damn, if it's one thing I hate, it's bullies.

On another note, doesn't the very fact teams use cheerleaders promote the objectification of women and judgment of them based on appearance? There are 6 NFL teams (including, I thought, the Packers) who do not have cheerleaders. They all have successful franchises, in terms of loyal fan bases, and four of them have perennially good win-loss records as well as some Super Bowl victories (Bears, Packers, Giants, Steelers). Obviously, a team doesn't need cheerleaders to be popular or to win games. I watched a lot of football while my daughters were growing up (and still do), and they both wanted to be cheerleaders when they were little, probably because, in part, they watched football with me and saw the cheerleaders on tv. My reaction was to encourage them to be an athlete on the field rather than the person cheering for them on the sideline.

I should emphasize this is not an attempt to denigrate the cheerleader in this case. Not at all. I'm just trying to look "higher up the food chain" at the people putting women like her in this position in the first place, even though, yes, I agree she chose this profession and shouldn't have to take any shit for having made that choice.