This research study observes the protection of gender and sexuality in a female-dominated sport, concentrating precisely on 5th and 6th grade boys who aspire to cheer. Data was gathered at Isla Vista Elementary using one-on-one interviews and observing first hand involvement with cheerleading activity. The interviews and activity provided me with themes considering the stigmatization of boy cheerleaders, the necessity to maintain a heterosexual status, and approaches of saving face. The findings signified that the gender and sexuality of these young boys who aspire to cheer are frequently questioned. In turn to affirm their gender and sexuality as masculine and heterosexual, the boys make inappropriate remarks regarding their female counterparts.
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Conversely, due to the feminization and sexualization of cheerleading in the years since, men who cheer are deemed as gender nonconformists. This nonconformity from gender norms affects the stigma, which, according to Goffman (1963), arises when an individual acquires an undesired deviation from what is foreseen as the standard. Significant effort goes into disputing the stigma. Davis (1990, 1994), for example, discovered that male cheerleaders essentially create and validate their masculinity as they cheer by accentuating the sex-based partition of cheering behaviors. Cheerleaders are anticipated to tumble, execute stunts, chant, inspire crowd involvement, and occasionally to dance. Males within this sport are inclined more toward doing stunts and tumbling, both of which are associated with power, whereas the females are reliable for these two activities, as well as for chanting and dancing (Hanson 1995). Male cheerleaders regularly claim that they are only in the sport to support the females. The boys play to the fact that they are secondary cheerleaders whose physical vigor is essential to assist the girls execute the arduous stunting tricks (Davis 1990; Hanson
Conversely, due to the feminization and sexualization of cheerleading in the years since, men who cheer are deemed as gender nonconformists. This nonconformity from gender norms affects the stigma, which, according to Goffman (1963), arises when an individual acquires an undesired deviation from what is foreseen as the standard. Significant effort goes into disputing the stigma. Davis (1990, 1994), for example, discovered that male cheerleaders essentially create and validate their masculinity as they cheer by accentuating the sex-based partition of cheering behaviors. Cheerleaders are anticipated to tumble, execute stunts, chant, inspire crowd involvement, and occasionally to dance. Males within this sport are inclined more toward doing stunts and tumbling, both of which are associated with power, whereas the females are reliable for these two activities, as well as for chanting and dancing (Hanson 1995). Male cheerleaders regularly claim that they are only in the sport to support the females. The boys play to the fact that they are secondary cheerleaders whose physical vigor is essential to assist the girls execute the arduous stunting tricks (Davis 1990; Hanson