Edited by Azizi Powell
This is Part II of a pancocojams series about what appears from online videos to be an increased number of middle school and high school girls wearing glasses while performing stomp and shake cheerleading.
This pancocojams series focuses on stomp and shake cheerleading.
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This post presents my notes about possible reasons why a
seemingly increased number of middle school and high school students are
wearing glasses while performing stomp and shake cheerleading. I also share my
speculations in this post about what the custom of cheerleaders wearing glasses
might mean to the cheerleaders themselves and to people watching those
cheerleaders.
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2025/02/stomp-and-shake-high-school-middle.html for Part I of this pancocojams series. That post provides five examples of YouTube videos or YouTube video shorts of middle school or high school stomp and shake cheerleaders wearing glasses while cheering.
The links to these videos and the words for each cheer are given below its video.
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The content of this post is presented for historical and
socio-cultural purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks
to the publishers of these YouTube videos and YouTube video shorts.
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WHY IT HAS BECOME NORMAL FOR SOME MIDDLE SCHOOL AND HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS CHEERLEADERS TO WEAR
GLASSES WHILE PEFORMING STOMP & SHAKE CHEERING
.1. It has become normal for females and males in the United States, if not elsewhere to wear glasses.
Here's an excerpt from two articles about the rise of nearsightedness in kids:
From
https://www.henryford.com/blog/2024/02/nearsightedness-in-kids "Why Is
Nearsightedness In Kids Becoming More Common?" Posted on February 29, 2024 by Henry Ford Health Staff
"Feel like you’re seeing more kids—and increasingly
younger kids—wearing glasses these days? That’s because rates of
nearsightedness (also called myopia) are on the rise. About 42% of Americans
are nearsighted, compared with just 25% in 1971. By some estimates, about half
the world’s population will be nearsighted by 2050."...
From
https://www.mvsvision.com/myopia/1-in-3-children-now-have-nearsightedness-myopia/
"I in 3 Children Now Have Nearsightedness (Myopia) published byModern
Visions Solutions, October 29, 2024
"According to a recent study published in the British
Journal of Ophthalmology, one out of every three children is struggling with
myopia. This statistic represents a sharp increase from just a few decades ago,
where only 24% of children were affected by nearsightedness between 1990 and
2000"...
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2. The increased number of children (and other
people-including celebrities and online "influencers") wearing glasses means that children have normalized wearing glasses nearly any time or any
place.
**
3. Anecdotally (as per my 11 year old grand daughter's
opinion and, according to her, the opinions of her friends), it appears that
some children think that wearing glasses is "cool". Even though her eyes are fine, every now and then my granddaughter wears "blue tooth" glasses. Sometimes she alternates different color frames to match her clothes) and takes pictures
of herself in public wearing those
According to my granddaughter, wearing glasses also adds to
the image of a person being smart. This conforms with this 2012 psychological study about what children think about people who wear glasses:
https://www.bps.org.uk/research-digest/what-children-think-people-who-wear-glasses "What Children Think Of People Who Wear Glasses" published by Christine Jarrett, 13 September 2012
..."Francine Jellesma ... conducted a literature review
finding 28 relevant studies on this subject published since 1980....
The one positive caveat [that that study found] was that
many children associate the wearing of glasses with superior intelligence. For
example, asked to draw a smart person or a scientist, children tend to depict
their creations as wearing glasses (but they don't do so when asked to draw a
stupid, nice or nasty person). Jellesma said this association was probably
aided by the prevalence of intelligent, glass-wearing fictional characters like
Harry Potter and John in Peter Pan."...
-end of quote-
Francine Jellesma's 2012 study found that children considered females who didn't wear glasses to be prettier than females who wear glasses.
"Jellesma's study "showed glasses were far less
salient to children than other identifying features, such as gender, their
views on glass-wearers were largely negative. For example, asked to compare
pairs of children, one of whom was always wearing glasses, 5- to 9-year-olds
consistently rated the child without glasses as prettier and better looking.
Another study found that children were less interested in being friends with
glass-wearing peers....
Also relevant are studies looking at children's willingness
to wear glasses. Younger children don't' seem too bothered, but there's
evidence of older children refusing to wear glasses, especially in urban areas.
Jellesma said this could be due to fears of bullying in larger schools with
more hostile social environments."...
-end of quote-
I'm not sure if pe-teens and teenagers still think that wearing glasses is unattractive. At least among stomp and shake cheerleaders it appears that wearing glasses is no big deal. This is the opposite of the image of female cheerleaders in the past since cheerleaders were considered "pretty girls"-and pretty girls didn't wear glasses.
My granddaughter's comments and the presence of a number of YouTube videos and YouTube video shorts (from around 2022 to date) of girls on stomp and shake cheerleading squads wearing glasses suggests that wearing glasses don't appear to lessen these cheerleaders' self-esteem and these girls don't appear to be bullied because they wear glasses.
Indeed, it's likely that some of the girls in these videos* that I've watched may have chosen to wear glasses as a fashion accessory.
It's also important to note that stomp and shake cheerleaders mostly cheer while standing erect or while seated. This is one reason why wearing glasses while cheering is safer for stomp and shake cheerleaders than for "mainstream" cheerleaders who are expected to perform cartwheels, handsprings, tumbling passes, and other stunts
* It should be mentioned that most but not all of the cheerleaders in those stomp and shake videos are Black. I haven't done any online research about the frequency of non-Black cheerleaders-apart from those who are members of stomp and shake cheerleading squad-wearing glasses.
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COMMENTS FROM DISCUSSION THREADS ABOUT STOMP AND SHAKE FEMALE CHEERLEADERS WEARING GLASSES
Unfortunately, many YouTube videos and YouTube video
shorts (i.e. very brief videos continuously repeat themselves) of stomp and
shake cheerleading have no comments or very few comments in their discussion
threads. But in these videos/video shorts that do have comments, its rare that
any of those comments refer to the fact that a cheerleader or cheerleaders
is/are wearing glasses. When those types of comments are made, its usually for
identification purposes and/or to praise that particular cheerleader. This may
suggest that wearing glasses has become so common, that in and of itself,
wearing glasses isn't something that people feel the need to comment about.
Here are a few comments from two of the
discussion threads for the videos that were showcased in Part I of this
pancocojams series: Notice how some commenters described the girls wearing glasses as being "killing it" or "da stuff" (being a skilled cheerleader.) These commenters also described these girls wearing glasses as "cute" or included her in the description of the girls being beautiful.
(Numbers are added for referencing purposes only).
1.
@MsCarringtonsYoutube, 2023
"Girl in the glasses was killing it"
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Reply
2. @MsCarringtonsYoutube, 2023
"The one in the front"
-snip-
This comment differentiates that particular cheerleader from
another cheerleader wearing glasses in the second row.
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Reply
3. @LLOOYYYDD, 2023
"@MsCarringtonsYoutube
she cute"
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Reply
4. @GoPoundSalt, 2023
"The girl wearing eyeglasses - English"
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Reply
5. @GoPoundSalt, 2023
"@LLOOYYYDD She
is cute – English"
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"That gal in front with the glasses da stuff."
2,
"Beautiful BLACK girls"
This concludes Part II of this pancocojams series.
Visitor comments are welcome.
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