WTF is the world coming too?
Yahoo News
Yahoo News
AUSTIN, United States (AFP) - Legislators in Texas, famed for its Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders, considered legislation to ban 'sexually suggestive' performances in schools.
The law would ban dance routines by school cheerleaders at sports events that one politician said was like something out of a strip club.
Exposed midriffs and ever shorter shorts and skirts have particularly outraged some legislators.
"Some of them are just downright vulgar, something you would see at an adult club or something," said Joe Deshotel, a Democratic member of the Texas House of Representatives, which is considering the bill. "The problem is in the eye of the beholder, I guess."
One of the co-authors of the bill, Republican Corbin Van Arsdale, said many parents want restrictions because they go to Friday night games to see young men clashing on the football field, not girls shaking their behinds on the sidelines.
"You've got children seeing things that their parents would rather them not see," said Van Arsdale.
But the proposed ban is not popular with the National Cheerleaders Association or the
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The bill would allow the Texas Education Agency to ban routines deemed vulgar or excessive.
"Without a specific definition of what these kids cannot perform, the sky is the limit," the ACLU warned. "Any complaintant can construe any dance step, cheer or movement of any sort as sexually suggestive."
The Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders began captivating audiences with their sexy drill team routines, knee-high white boots and low-cut tops, in the 1970s. Cheerleaders have since become a fixture of football games across the United States from high school to professional teams.
In Texas, the obsession came into violent focus in 1991, when Wanda Holloway, nicknamed the "pompom mom", was accused of trying to murder the mother of her daughter's cheerleading rival.
Supporters of the legislation say those kinds of excesses show why change is necessary. They want to take Texas back to simpler days, when drill teams performed traditional routines, wore patriotic clothing and longer skirts.
"I think we should look at going back to the old traditions, to the art of dance," said Representative Tommy Merritt, a Republican. "It doesn't have to be all bumpin' and grindin'," he declared.
The law would ban dance routines by school cheerleaders at sports events that one politician said was like something out of a strip club.
Exposed midriffs and ever shorter shorts and skirts have particularly outraged some legislators.
"Some of them are just downright vulgar, something you would see at an adult club or something," said Joe Deshotel, a Democratic member of the Texas House of Representatives, which is considering the bill. "The problem is in the eye of the beholder, I guess."
One of the co-authors of the bill, Republican Corbin Van Arsdale, said many parents want restrictions because they go to Friday night games to see young men clashing on the football field, not girls shaking their behinds on the sidelines.
"You've got children seeing things that their parents would rather them not see," said Van Arsdale.
But the proposed ban is not popular with the National Cheerleaders Association or the
American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). The bill would allow the Texas Education Agency to ban routines deemed vulgar or excessive.
"Without a specific definition of what these kids cannot perform, the sky is the limit," the ACLU warned. "Any complaintant can construe any dance step, cheer or movement of any sort as sexually suggestive."
The Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders began captivating audiences with their sexy drill team routines, knee-high white boots and low-cut tops, in the 1970s. Cheerleaders have since become a fixture of football games across the United States from high school to professional teams.
In Texas, the obsession came into violent focus in 1991, when Wanda Holloway, nicknamed the "pompom mom", was accused of trying to murder the mother of her daughter's cheerleading rival.
Supporters of the legislation say those kinds of excesses show why change is necessary. They want to take Texas back to simpler days, when drill teams performed traditional routines, wore patriotic clothing and longer skirts.
"I think we should look at going back to the old traditions, to the art of dance," said Representative Tommy Merritt, a Republican. "It doesn't have to be all bumpin' and grindin'," he declared.
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