Give me an F: Radical cheerleading and feminist performance

Rah-Rah-Radical: The Radical Cheerleaders' Challenge to the Public Sphere

“…They published the first Radical Cheerbook as an independent 'zine in 1997, describing their project as "activism with pom-poms and middle fingers extended" (Vacarro 2004 The Cheerleaders refer to themselves as feminists, but they do not have a single message and are not united by a single issue, or even under the broad rubric of (what some call) "women's issues." Instead, they emphasize the interconnectedness of problems, and the squads describe themselves as diverse, open to new members and to new ideas.…”

“…-Susan Buck-Morss, "The Flâneur, the Sandwichman, and the Whore" (1986) The Radical Cheerleaders began in 1996, when three sisters living in Florida (Cara, Aimee, and Colleen Jennings) decided to experiment with new ways of staging political protest. They published the first Radical Cheerbook as an independent 'zine in 1997, describing their project as "activism with pom-poms and middle fingers extended" (Vacarro 2004). Radical cheerleading spread quickly and with great enthusiasm.…”

“…Indeed, the Radical Cheerleaders have had some experience with this; when their antics were picked up by mainstream media publications, the Cheerleaders' message was construed to be less angry, less offensive, less outrageous, and more feminine. When Glamour UK printed its 2004 interview with Cheerleader Mary Xmas, for example, the accompanying photographs featured Cheerleaders with airbrushed armpits, lest underarm hair appear too "radical" for Glamour advertisers (Vacarro 2004).…”

Humor and Social Movements

“…This sincere enjoyment may particularly help to sustain participation and facilitate engagement. This may happen in public protests, like the cheering routines used by the group Radical Cheerleaders in which activists dressed in homemade cheerleading costumes to perform protest chants in the form of cheers, like “If I can't dance it's not my revolution,” and “I'm hot, I'm cute, political to boot.” In both videos and written statements, they assert that they are trying to make protest fun for both themselves and audiences while simultaneously critiquing gender norms and creating a community (Kitaeff ; Vaccaro ). Haugerud's () ethnography of the Billionaires for Bush examines these themes as well, quoting billionaires who emphasized that they appreciated that the satirical performances and costumes made protesting enjoyable in contrast to some of the other forms of activism they had experienced.…”