Getting girls into sports where you can be pretty?

Finding qualified teachers could be a problem. When my daughter was doing gymnastics she was not allowed to do any of it at school because the PE teacher said she wasn't qualified to supervise her.

@JessM - Thanks - but I think I'll sit that one out... Mind you, I made a record called 'Street Dance' once. It went out under the name 'The JALN Band' - one of Pete Waterman.s little wheezes...

feetle you don't know what you are missing. Try this one. It is a predominantly male art form .
www.youtube.com/watch?v=iITT9FT_Jn4

It appears to be some sort of keep fit for loonies, while bad music is played...

Not as funny as the ballroom session I used to play at the Empire, Leicester Square... our girl singer used to get fan letters, written in pencil on Friern Mental Hospital (Colney Hatch) notepaper... one chap died and they kept on fox-trotting round him - The Woman In White paraded beside the floor, making mystic gestures at the dancers - you had to be there. Now that WAS entertaining! Otherwise it was deadly dull - on one occasion I woke up to find I had not missed a note while asleep all the way through the 'turn-round' tune that we played when swapping bands via the revolve...

I loathed sports, asthma, dislocating shoulder, unrecognised hyper mobility syndrome.
The only things I was ok at were table tennis ( played for university and darts (that one required that I balanced myself with a pint of mild in the non throwing hand).
Having now, at almost 70 taken up the one sport I always wanted to try, ie:- seated archery, I'm a happy bunny!

I think they are doing for fun feetle not because they want to keep fit.

I think the thing that worried me about the OP is that the minister is so un-clued up. I kind of agree with the idea that PE offerings in school should be better suited to the preferences of girls. Easier said than done, given that PE departments are full of staff that love ball games, but some schools manage it.
The concern is that the minister talks like this - without appreciation of issues that concern so many people about girls, fitness, body image etc This presumably reflects the fact that the coalition has to scrape around to find women to fill junior ministerial posts as there are so few of them.

What issues - well this one for instance. The best swimmer of her generation, Rebecca Adlington, trying to make a living for herself (swimmers' careers end almost as soon as they have begun) is getting hounded by the press about her appearance. Having said that she feels insecure about her appearance, what do they do - run lots of stories about her appearance!

Here is just one example:

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2527438/I-know-I-look-mirror-not-person-I-want-Olympic-swimmer-Rebecca-Adlington-says-not-rule-surgery-make-pretty-girl.html

JessM : You may be right - who can tell? One bit, with a twerp spinning around on his back, put me in mind of spraying flies to kill them - they behaved just like that!

I assume this is part of 'street culture' - the sort of thing that would keep me indoors...

We played lacrosse, not hockey. I was goalie as I couldn't run. Hated it!

I was roped in to replace a pregnant goalie for the Old Girls' hockey team of the school where I taught in Dundee. I'd never been in that position before but think I did OK. Preferred umpiring - Saturday morning for the school and afternoon for the OGs. I must have been fit in my youth.

If women's sport were more highly valued, then perhaps girls would be more enthusiastic about taking it up. David Cameron's excited comments about Murray's Wimbledon championship, completely writing former British women champions out of the picture, displayed all that is wrong with attitudes to women's sport in Britain. Apart from the Olympics and some tennis, sportswomen rarely feature in mainstream news in the UK.

Sorry not a feminist so I don't see what the fuss is about.

My GD does attend a Cheer Leading Group and she loves it. It is very nice to see her interacting with such a lovely bunch of girls with ages from 4 - 15. The older girls are really kind and it most certainly does not, as the implication on here goes, concern being cute and beautiful.

What is the harm with it?. Did the W.I have to suffer such clap trap when they were 'I must, I must improve my bust'. Perhaps they did.

The fact is Cheer Leading, Snow Boarding, Street Dance etc. are nothing more than modern activities and I for one would rather my GD did something she enjoyed and kept fit as apposed to what, playing games on a computer.

By the way she did rugby too but gave that up, her choice.

As for the OP I look at the topic not as telling girls to simply go out and do 'girly' activities. I think she was simply trying to remind girls that there was a diversity of sports/activities that they could consider where maybe they hadn't thought about them. Better to do something rather than nothing.

i am sure cheerleading is great fun and a good way to keep fit. if girls just do it for those reasons and they enjoy it, that is great.
cheerleading, tho, is usually set in the context of scantily-dressed girls and young women cheering on teams of boys and men to success. that is the part that i object to.

Does anyone remember who it was who just before the London Olympics described Jessica Ennis as fat? Says something about attitudes towards women and sport.

No. My particular feminist heroine of the games was. www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2187395/Joanna-Rowsell-suffers-alopecia-refused-wear-wig-accept-gold-medal.html

Yes!

If women's sport were more highly valued, then perhaps girls would be more enthusiastic about taking it up.

I think that sums up why a lot of women don't go in for sport. Take the ladies England football team - they seriously outplayed the male England football team and yet little coverage of those games and hardly a mention in the press.

Both of my GDs play sport (football, hockey, netball, swimming) for the Island and I don't think it has ever entered their heads if they look attractive or not and I'm not sure why it should

I agree with those who are not fans of cheerleading and their reasons for it. I can appreciate that it takes a fair bit of skill and gymnastic abililty - so why not just do gymnastics instead? It does smack too much of fluffly little beauties jumping around to encourage their men to success; we have moved on from that.

I am a bit upset that there is a perceived attitude that cheerleading is fluffy and to titillate the male sex.

My grandchild is 7 nearly 8 years old for goodness sake.

As for doing gymnastics, she did try a gymnastic class but they pushed her too hard and it was hurting her. Cheerleading is more social as it is a group activity for 4 to 15 year olds in her particular group, they obviously learn to work as a team and she prefers that. I don't see it as anything other than being similar to a circus acrobatic act!

I am not silly enough to accept that cheerleading by nubile young wenches at sports venues 'could' be seen that way but it is a bit narrow minded to club all cheerleading groups into the one basket.

Perhaps the term 'Cheerleading' is the problem and it could be called Team Acrobatics, that might stop the stereotyping of what is a good source of exercise for youngsters.

I agree, POGS. Unless they're training specifically to 'cheerlead' a particular team for example, why on earth call it that? Team Acrobatics sounds much more fun - like the sort of stuff Diversity does.

(Hmm - think that should be 'do'!)

Ana

You've got it!.

I'm sure Bags would agree that archery can be feminine as well ( although if you look at my photo you'd think I was an old geyser) little did you know I was hunterF in disguise!
Remember people to make sure you put your £15000 into yourISA!

Diana was a huntress and archer.

Or Artemis if you prefer.

My DiL is training as a TA. Because she was a dancer previously, she was coerced into asked if she could help with an after school Cheerleading Club.

She is uber fit, swims 50 lengths front crawl for fun, is taking part in the Moonwalk (26 miles) soon. She found this class quite a challenge good work out!