(no subject)

[rivka]

Alex's new favorite game:

Leaaaan to the left!
Leaaaan to the right!
Stand up! Sit down!
Fight fight fight!

I'm reminded of the story about an appointee to Reagan's Justice Department coming to speak at Reed College, and being met by students dressed in cheerleading costumes, chanting:

Leaaaan to the left!
Leaaaan to the right!
Leaaaan to the right!
Leaaaan to the right!
Leaaaan to the right!...

Comments

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

I just had a mental image of Alex in a little tiny cheerleader's outfit with teeny-tiny pompoms. Okaaaayyyy..

[wcg.livejournal.com]

I think she'll have to be at least six before she can get into any of the Pop Warner football cheerleading squads around here. On the other hand, some of the girl's gymnastics groups will let her start at five...

[richtermom.livejournal.com]

Luckily, NFL teams offer cheerleading outfits down to toddlers size (eBay! eBay!). Squeaky already outgrew two Packers sweatshirts.

My college never did football.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Alex has the cutest little Baltimore Orioles outfit. :-)

[rivka.livejournal.com]

She'll have to be a damn sight older than six, if she's going to be able to do a convincing enough job of forging Mommy's signature to be put onto a cheerleading squad.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

Well yes, there is that.

dangerous

[(Anonymous)]

I agree. I was shocked when I read of how athletic and risky cheerleading has become. Cheerleaders are especially prone to head and neck injuries from jumps and falls. Hopefully, changes will be made in the sport before Alex comes of age, should she be inclined to cheer.

[wcg.livejournal.com]

So what do the Reed College cheerleaders cheer for? The varsity croquet team?

[rivka.livejournal.com]

Reed had a phenomenally successful women's rugby team, actually. But of course the college had no actual cheerleaders.

[(Anonymous)]

Heck, I'd think that for a women's rugby team, it'd be possible to recruit a large contingent of unofficial cheerleaders.

[alecaustin.livejournal.com]

Reed's women's rugby team was very good. And, to be perfectly frank, rather intimidating.

As an aside, the version of the cheer that I learned at Reed went:

Leaaaan to the left!
Leaaaan to the left!
Leaaaan to the left!
(repeat)

[wcg.livejournal.com]

That last was from me. I'm at my office in TU.

[ailbhe]

I am missing some cultural context here. *baffled*

[eeyorerin]

The "lean to the left, lean to the right" bit is a cheer that gets done at sporting events, usually school ones. The cheerleaaders (and sometimes the audience) do it before or during a match.

Does that help?

[rivka.livejournal.com]

The part that Alex and I do is a cheer, something that would be used to build up enthusiasm during a football game. American high schools have teams of girls (and rarely, boys) called "cheerleaders" whose job is to do dance/gymnastic/cheer combinations to rev up the crowd and inspire the sports teams.

We just treat it like any other lap game: we chant the words and act out the motions, except that we bounce up and down for "fight fight fight."

The part that the Reed College students did was a political protest. They were commenting on the well-known tendency of Reagan's Justice Department to be more than a little bit biased towards the right.

[ailbhe]

Actually, I think it was the specific mention of "cheerleading costumes" that threw me - I know what a cheerleader is, but somehow it being *explicit* that it was people in cheerleading costumes saying it made me think there was more to it than that.

I must say, it makes as much sense as any other cheers I've read. Sounds like a good game though :)

[treacle-well.livejournal.com]

I think the intent was that these weren't actual cheerleaders, just students wearing cheerleading costumes in order to more flauntingly stage their protest.

[lcohen]

hey! i could teach her how to cheer for women's softball in a heartbeat!

[lysana.livejournal.com]

Think a spirit dance routine to "Cool, Cool, Considerate Men" from 1776.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

That is one fine baby game.

K.

[riverheart.livejournal.com]

The one rab taught me went more like this:
Shift to the left!
Shift to the right!
Pop up, push down
Byte, byte, byte!

Mostly I dropped by to find out if you are/were rivka from the WELL.

[rivka.livejournal.com]

I don't think I am, no.

[riverheart.livejournal.com]

OK, thanks. You'd know if you were.