Oh, no.
Ronin Shimizu, a 12-year-old boy in California, killed himself after he was bullied for being the only male cheerleader on an all girl team. Does “after” mean “because” here? It’s impossible to know for sure, even if he left a note saying so, but…being bullied doesn’t generally make kids happier.
‘I heard that people called him gay because he was a cheerleader,’ one of his teammates told CBS Sacramento at the vigil.
Ronin was the only male cheerleader with the Vista Junior Eagles Cheer Team.
Contempt for girls hurts boys as well as girls. It hurts everyone. It sucks. It’s not healthy that it’s just normal for half of all human beings to be held in contempt.
He liked cheerleading. He thought it was fun.
That’s heartbreaking.
A report I read said he had changed schools because of being targeted for bullying at his previous school too.
Cue the MRArseholes blaming that poor kid’s death on the feminization of society or some such horsehockey and completely missing the point.
That poor child. Fuck, I hate bullies.
“Ronin” is such a cool name, too. 🙁
This breaks my goddamn heart. His parents and grandparents, what must they be going through.
And fuck, why is cheering a bad thing? Why should supporting your team be deemed as ‘gay'(meaning bad or lesser in this case)? Doesn’t the team want to be cheered on? Why should it matter if a boy wants to cheer? This is the sort of toxic ideology that teaches boys that things deemed too feminine (by some arbitrary bullshit standard) like cheering are bad. Things like cheering are not bad, they are good. Supporting people is a great thing to do. Fuck. This story breaks by heart.
This legitimately shocks me.
I remember, when I was in high school, that guys were not allowed on the Cheerleading squad, but it was often talked about amongst the boys about how ace it’d be to actually be a guy on the squad because… you know… hot cheerleaders. Then in my senior year, that whispering got put to the test when a boy did get on the Cheerleading squad, while dating the squad Captain. And he was quite literally hailed as a hero amongst us male students, and was even voted Homecoming King.
Still creepy-as-fuck, considering why we boys fantasized about being on the squad, and then lionized him when he actually got in, but this story (the one in the OP) is so opposite my (admittedly second-hand) experience in high school.
God I hate bullies, though. Fuck ’em. I’m so sick of hearing stories about kids who commit suicide because of bullies. When are we going to start taking bullying seriously? Because this, right here, is utter bullshit.
for example
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=UT_e5jq2hEQ
male cheerleading
Damn.
And he was in distinguished (male) company.
http://glo.com/style/famous-people-who-used-to-be-cheerleaders-10025.gallery?photoId=195186
Pity. If people absolutely have to bully cheerleaders to death, couldn’t they at least have been consistent and started with The Shrub?
So bizarre. My school had lots of male cheerleaders; turns out they are very useful for tricks that require heavy lifting. My younger male cousin was a cheerleader and I recall that some of my fellow classmates were also cheerleaders. I’m talking about 3 to 5 guys not a lot, but not an oddity either.