Cheerleading

Keri Purvis

Mini Ethnographic Research Paper

5/5/13

ENG 2001

MW 3:30

All Star Cheerleading: A Unique and Distinct Subculture

All Star Cheerleading is a sport in which a team of competitors executes a planned routine to be scored by a panel of judges. As the sport is becoming more popular, both in the United States, as well as internationally, its participants are developing into a distinct subculture. The subculture of All Star Cheerleading is defined by the jargon used to describe the different actions performed in a cheerleading routine, the relationships between teammates, athletes and their coaches, opposing teams, and athletes and their families, the style of uniforms that are chosen for each team, and the close-knit community that is forming within the sport, due to the addition of the Cheerleading Worlds competition, and social media..

There is a lot of jargon that is used specifically by All Star Cheerleaders. According to Dana Purvis, “If you don’t understand the technical terms that are used to describe different skills, then you won’t be able to understand the sport at all.” Most of the jargon that is used by All Star Cheerleaders is used to describe different tumbling skills (different flips executed by the cheerleaders), stunts (which refers to cheerleaders lifting other cheerleaders into the air), and other movements performed in the routine as well. There is also some regional variation to some cheerleading terms. For example, in some places, a stunt in which the flyer (or person who is in the air during a stunt) is standing with his or her legs together and straight with arms straight up in the air making a “V” shape is called a “Cupie,” while in other regions, the stunt is referred to as a “Trophy.”

One major thing that defines All Star Cheerleading as a subgroup is the relationships between members of a team. All Star Cheerleading Teams are determined by age as well as skill level. A cheerleading competition is divided into many...