This is nothing to cheer about

Fans watching certain National Football League teams this season will have to endure a most unwelcome sight: male cheerleaders.

I’m not talking about the tall, muscular ones you occasionally see performing at high school or college football and basketball games. You know, the strapping young lads who launch pretty, waifish co-eds skyward to perform jaw-dropping aerobatics to the roars of thousands during breaks in game action, then catch them on their downward trajectory, gently setting them down to continue their squad’s choreographed routine as Flo Rida’s song Apple Bottom Jeans blares in the background.

No, I’m talking about guys wearing tank tops and short shorts—if not mini-skirts—strutting about effeminately and shaking pom-poms alongside otherwise all-female squads. Specifically, I’m talking about the Minnesota Vikings’ Blaize Shiek and Louie Conn and the New England Patriots’ Jeremy Greer, whose performances at preseason games sparked a furor among conservative commentators.

“These are dudes who are shaking curves that they don’t have the way that a woman would,” MRCTV’s Brittany Hughes remarked. “These are males taking a female’s spot on a cheerleading squad because apparently, the left believes that there is absolutely nothing that women should not have to sacrifice to men.”

At least Shiek, Conn, and Greer make no pretense of being female. Shiek and Greer even sport facial hair in certain videos where they show off their moves, though Shiek’s long blonde mane does evoke femininity. By contrast, the Carolina Panthers boast Justine Lindsay, who self-identifies as the NFL’s only “out” transgender cheerleader.

According to multiple websites, twelve NFL teams will have male cheerleaders this year. These teams proudly tout this fact, calling themselves “models of inclusivity” or similar such nonsense. The Los Angeles Rams—who became the first team to add male cheerleaders in 2018 and have five on their roster—even have two openly gay men, Jose Capetillo and Eswinn Diaz, among their cheer squad’s four captains. By contrast, the NFL’s most celebrated sideline/halftime performers, the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, remain an all-female troupe.

I thus have to ask those male cheerleaders’ respective employers: Did you learn nothing from Bud Light’s financially disastrous decision to feature female-cosplaying social media influencer Dylan Mulvaney’s likeness on its cans?

Forget, momentarily, that female cheerleaders are frequently objects of lust—something the Bible explicitly condemns (Matthew 5:27-28). I’m not promoting that here. Cheerleading can be a very wholesome activity, something many young women who love dance and performing can aspire to do. In fact, it was once a distinctly feminine pursuit, and it overwhelmingly remains so.

Sadly, for a long time, cheerleading was the closest thing to a sport that girls and women could participate in. While I’m not sure it actually qualifies as a sport—there is much heated debate on that topic, and yes, I’m aware cheer competitions do exist—anyone can appreciate the sheer grace and athleticism cheerleading requires.

More than that, though, America seems to have once again embraced the idea that women, not men, make the best women. Say what you will about buxom blonde bombshell Sydney Sweeney sending jeans manufacturer American Eagle’s stock skyrocketing—while sex does sell, that’s not something we, as Christians, should celebrate. In a world where makeup retailers’ commercials feature bearded dudes in sundresses, Sweeney’s success as the face of American Eagle at least signals a return to appreciating the unique physical beauty God endowed woman with when He created her (Genesis 2:22-23).

It's a beauty men can try to imitate but will never successfully duplicate. Men can put on dresses and wear makeup. They can undergo plastic surgery to make themselves look more feminine, perhaps get breast implants and remove their male sex organs. They can even perform sexually suggestive dance moves that, if done by women, would have average red-blooded American males’ attention.

People see right through it: The man wearing a skimpy outfit meant to accentuate a woman’s curves and shaking what he’s got simply isn’t feminine—no matter how badly he wants to be, no matter how hard he tries to be. All he can offer is a cheap knockoff of femininity that comes off as mockery.

NFL teams may think they’re bulletproof. Disney thought that, too. But after a string of movie flops that promoted woke ideology—this year’s live-action version of Snow White being perhaps the ultimate example—the entertainment giant has to be rethinking its position, if only to avoid free-falling into bankruptcy.

Most male football fans hate the concept of male cheerleaders who try to act like females, and many women find it insulting. I get that liberals like watching football too, and teams—especially ones in blue states—believe “inclusiveness” broadens their appeal to that audience. But pro football, at its core, is a business, and alienating the larger majority of customers in the name of woke ideology is not a smart business move.