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EXERCISE 6.4

The following student essay, which includes all the elements of a Toulmin argument, was written in response to the question, “Are cheerleaders athletes?” After you read the essay, answer the questions that follow, consulting the outline on the previous page if necessary.

1

Recently, the call to make competitive cheerleading an official college sport and to recognize cheerleaders as athletes has gotten stronger. Critics of this proposal maintain that cheerleading is simply entertainment that occurs on the sidelines of real sporting events. According to them, although cheerleading may show strength and skill, it is not a competitive activity. This view of cheerleading, however, misses the point. Because competitive cheerleading pits teams against each other in physically and technically demanding athletic contests, it should be recognized as a sport. For this reason, those who participate in the sport of competitive cheerleading should be considered athletes.

2

Acknowledging cheerleaders as athletes gives them the respect and support they deserve. Many people associate cheerleading with pom-poms and short skirts and ignore the strength and skill competitive cheerleading requires. Like athletes in other female-dominated sports, cheerleaders unfortunately have had to fight to be taken seriously. For example, Title IX, the law that mandates gender equity in college sports, does not recognize competitive cheerleading as a sport. This situation demonstrates a very narrow definition of sports, one that needs to be updated. As one women’s sports advocate explains, “What we consider sports are things that men have traditionally played” (qtd. in Thomas). For this reason, women’s versions of long-accepted men’s sports—such as basketball, soccer, and track—are easy for people to respect and to support. Competitive cheerleading, however, departs from this model and is not seen as a sport even though those who compete in it are skilled, accomplished athletes. As one coach points out, the athleticism of cheerleading is undeniable: “We don’t throw balls, we throw people. And we catch them” (qtd. in Thomas).

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Recent proposals to rename competitive cheerleading “stunt” or “team acrobatics and tumbling” are an effort to reshape people’s ideas about what cheerleaders actually do. Although some cheerleading squads have kept to their original purpose—to lead fans in cheering on their teams—competitive teams practice rigorously, maintain impressive levels of physical fitness, and risk serious injuries. Like other sports, competitive cheerleading involves extraordinary feats of strength and skill. Cheerleaders perform elaborate floor routines and ambitious stunts, including flips from multilevel human pyramids. Competitive cheerleaders also do what all athletes must do: they compete. Even a critic concedes that cheerleading could be “considered a sport when cheerleading groups compete against one another” (Sandler). Competitive cheerleading teams do just that; they enter competitive contests, are judged, and emerge as winners or losers.

4

Those in authority, however, are slow to realize that cheerleading is a sport. In 2010, a federal judge declared that competitive cheerleading was “too underdeveloped and disorganized” to qualify as a legitimate varsity sport under Title IX (Tigay). This ruling was shortsighted. Before competitive cheerleading can develop as a sport, it needs to be acknowledged as a sport. Without their schools’ financial support, cheerleading teams cannot recruit, offer scholarships, or host competitions. To address this situation, several national groups are asking the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) to designate competitive cheerleading as an “emerging sport.” By doing this, the NCAA would show its support and help competitive cheerleading to develop and eventually to flourish. This does not mean, however, that all cheerleaders are athletes or that all cheerleading is a sport. In addition, the NCAA does have reason to be cautious when it comes to redefining competitive cheerleading. Some schools have taken sideline cheerleading teams and recategorized them just so they could comply with Title IX. These efforts to sidestep the purpose of the law are, as one expert puts it, “obviously transparent and unethical” (Tigay). Even so, fear of possible abuse should not keep the NCAA from doing what is right and giving legitimate athletes the respect and support they deserve.

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Competitive cheerleaders are athletes in every sense of the word. They are aggressive, highly skilled, physically fit competitors. For this reason, they deserve to be acknowledged as athletes under Title IX and supported by their schools and by the NCAA. Biased and outdated ideas about what is (and what is not) a sport should not keep competitive cheerleading from being recognized as the sport it is. As one proponent puts it, “Adding flexibility to the definition of college athletes is a common sense move that everyone can cheer for” (“Bona Fide”). It is time to give competitive cheerleaders the support and recognition they deserve.

Works Cited

“Bona Fide Athletes.” USA Today, 16 Oct. 2009, www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2019/10/16/bona-fide-athletes/81582044/. Editorial.

Sandler, Bernice R. “Certain Types of Competition Define Sports.” USA Today, 22 Oct. 2009, usatoday30.usatoday.com/printedition/news/20091022/letters22_st2.art.htm.

Thomas, Katie. “Born on the Sideline, Cheering Clamors to Be a Sport.” New York Times, 22 May 2011, www.nytimes.com/2011/05/23/sports/gender-games-born-on-sideline-cheering-clamors-to-be-sport.html.

Tigay, Chanan. “Is Cheerleading a Sport Protected by Title IX?” CQ Researcher, 25 Mar. 2011, p. 276. library.cqpress.com/cqresearcher/document.php?id=cqresrre2011032500.

Identifying the Elements of a Toulmin Argument

1. Summarize the position this essay takes as a three-part argument that includes the claim, the grounds, and the warrant.

2. Do you think the writer includes enough backing for her claim? What other supporting evidence could she have included?

3. Find the qualifier in the essay. How does it limit the argument? How else could the writer have qualified the argument?

4. Do you think the writer addresses enough objections to her claim? What other arguments could she have addressed?

5. Based on your reading of this essay, what advantages do you think Toulmin logic offers to writers? What disadvantages does it present?