I think you guys haven’t seen a lot of cheerleaders lately. I happen too because I have tall athletic kids who are above avg athletes (maybe college baseball someday who knows).
The girls today are not the doe-eyed little princesses who are skinny and petite while young, and soften into the middle ages. These girls hit gymnnastics training which is typically pretty grueling. Watch a college football troupe and you can bounce a quarter off the rear-end of most of those girls. It’s definitely a lot different than when I was chasing their skirts after games these girls work out much harder.
Having said all that if I had a daughter instead of two sons, I don’t know if we’d be going the dance route either. My wife was a college athlete and could have been a D1 swimmer had she not gotten tired of being in a pool before school every day of her life (to the chagrin of her parents she abruptly quit at 16 and never did it again). I tend to prefer team sports and softball or basketball I’d encourage and possibly volleyball since it’s not during softball. (for boys it’s right in the middle of baseball season in high school).
Also I find this dance recital to be tasteless as far as answering the original poster’s question. And I am far from prudish. Where I disagree is that I think almost every woman’s sport I watch on TV also has some degree of sexuality being sold (outside of maybe basketball). Volleyball you have tall fit girls wearing very tight clothing. Has anyone watched the women’s college softball championships lately? The uniforms are generally designed to flatter and these are not the same girls that played 20 years ago. A lot more Jenny Finch types than Rosie O’Donnell types.
Remember that there is a fine line between a woman wanting to feel pretty and sexy without but not looking to obvious. I was sitting around Encinitas Discount Tire today and saw two different 40+ women who could not have weighed more than 105 lbs, wearing the absolute tightest workout pants they could possibly paint on. These women were basically flawless in terms of figure, you could literally see the hamstring bulge on their tiny little legs. I personally find this to be VERY sexually appealing, every bit as much as a short business-suit and possibly more so. If a 42 year old hottie is going to wear something that appealing for the world to see what is her little girl going to wear? The message sent to these girls “look good”.
