America has turned dancing into a culture war

The first ever cheerleader — according to USA Cheer, the governing body of American sport cheering — was a man from Minnesota. The sport was born in 1898, when a male student at the University of Minnesota spontaneously got up and led the crowd in a cheer for the football team. Men have always been a part of cheerleading; multiple US presidents, including Ronald Reagan, were cheerleaders in college, and male cheerleaders have been a part of the NFL sidelines for decades.

So how is it that Blaize Shiek and Louie Conn, the two male cheerleaders added to the Minnesota Vikings’ squad last May, have received such widespread backlash? After a recent social media promo, the range of people who spoke out against the Vikings for adding the duo to their squad included a former Viking, a senator, an