Author Heather E. Schwartz focuses on the biomechanical and physical principles behind the chants and stunts of sideline and competitive cheerleading. This book discusses the similarities between dance and cheerleading and the physical and psychological challenges faced by cheerleaders. Also addressed is the intense debate over whether or not cheerleading should be classified as an athletic sport or activity, and how this designation could affect athletes and athletic programs.

Entertainers or athletes? Leaders or losers? Cheerleaders, numbering 3.8 million in the United States alone, are part of everyone's school memories. Looking beyond the poms and megaphones, Cheerleader! An American Icon explores how the sport reflects our shifting beliefs about athletics, entertainment, gender, and national identity. Natalie Guice Adams and Pamela J. Bettis trace cheerleading's history, from its inception 135 years ago as a male leadership activity, through the sassy era epitomized by the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, to its current incarnation as a physically demanding sport. Integrating history, pop culture, and interviews with participants of all ages and even those in the business, Adams and Bettis simultaneously celebrate cheering and provide critical analysis as well. Cheerleader!: An American Icon is a poignant, hilarious, powerful, and revealing look at a perennially popular activity.

A comprehensive guide to coaching youth cheerleading that covers communication, rules, equipment, safety, teaching and shaping skills, cheers, sidelines, dances, partner stunts, pyramids, jumps, tumbling, preparing for the season, and game day.

In this first legal analysis of Title IX, Deborah L. Brake assesses the statute’s successes and failures, using a feminist theory lens to understand, defend, and critique the law. While the statute has created tremendous gains for female athletes, not only raising the visibility and cultural acceptance of women in sports, but also creating social bonds for women, positive body images, and leadership roles, the disparities in funding between men’s and women’s sports have remained remarkably resilient. At the same time, female athletes continue to receive less prestige and support than their male counterparts, which in turn filters into the arena of professional sports. Brake provides a richer understanding and appreciation of what Title IX has accomplished, while taking a critical look at the places where the law has fallen short. A unique contribution to the literature on Title IX, Getting in the Game fully explores the theory, policy choices, and successes and limitations of this historic law.

A behind-the-scenes tour of competitive college cheerleading describes every aspect of the sport from spring tryouts through the NCA Nationals, drawing on the personal experiences of accomplished athletes from three top cheer schools. Reprint.

This carefully edited companion anthology provides provocative, eye-opening examples of the practice of sociology in a well-edited, well-designed, and affordable format. It includes short articles, chapters, and excerpts that examine common everyday experiences, important social issues, or distinct historical events that illustrate the relationship between the individual and society. The new edition will provide more detail regarding the theory and/or history related to each issue presented. The revision will also include more coverage of global issues and world religions.

The 1970s tend to be allocated a slender role in American cultural and social history. The essays in Disco Divas reveal that the 1970s, far from being an era of cultural stasis, were a time of great social change, particularly for women.

The thoroughly revised and updated second edition of the Routledge Handbook of Cultural Sociology provides an unparalleled overview of sociological and related scholarship on the complex relations of culture to social structures and everyday life. With 70 essays written by scholars from around the world, the book brings diverse approaches into dialogue, charting new pathways for understanding culture in our global era. Short, accessible chapters by contributing authors address classic questions, emergent issues, and new scholarship on topics ranging from cultural and social theory to politics and the state, social stratification, identity, community, aesthetics, and social and cultural movements. In addition, contributors explore developments central to the constitution and reproduction of culture, such as power, technology, and the organization of work. This handbook is essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students interested in a wide range of subfields within sociology, as well as cultural studies, media and communication, and postcolonial theory.

Why do billions of people around the world love sports? The popular media is increasingly dedicated to the heated rivalries of sports teams, academic institutions are held in its thrall, sports metaphors are commonplace in our language, and most individuals participate in athletics or follow a team sport in some variation. This entertaining and informative book attempts to find out why—by examining sports in all its facets. The authors provide an overview of the history of sports, with a constant focus upon the social conditions through which sport arises and by which it continues to thrive.