I’m gonna go spit on Tommy Trojan, OK? Maybe throw a little paint on the old boy, too. And why shouldn’t I? None of USC’s traditions seem to matter anymore.First, we couldn’t hang the Bruin by the neck because it evoked a lynch-mob mentality for some of the student body. People were stringing up nooses in every tree in front of Doheny, for crying out loud.
Then we couldn’t burn the Bruin either. While UCLA mocks and makes fun of us during Troy Week a mere 15 miles away, we sit and twiddle our thumbs because the Burning of the Bruin just isn’t politically correct. Forget that staking a stuffed bear and burning it is about rallying behind your school. Forget that it isn’t racially motivated in any way and that it’s been part of the USC tradition for decades. It pissed off a small, vocal segment of the school, and everyone knows majority rule is the exception at USC!
So now women are trying out for the position of Yell Leader. Ha ha! That’s hilarious.
What isn’t funny is that one of the women who tried out for the position actually got on the squad.
You can call me old-fashioned, or sexist, or whatever, but you know what? Some things are better the way they used to be. I cannot believe in good conscience that it’s the right thing to do to diversify the Yell Squad.
There are Yell Leaders and Song Girls. Yell Leaders have been male since the beginning. Song Girls, as the name would tend to signify, are composed of females. There’s a clear delineation there.
The Yell Leaders don’t get a lot of respect, but they are a good group of guys that do a lot of good in promoting the image of USC. Their institution is a tradition that has been maintained for a long time, and I don’t think that tradition should be overturned just so we can “get with the times.” You wouldn’t want to see a guy dressed in Song Girl garb and swinging pom-poms, would you?
One of the women was quoted in the Daily Trojan as saying that the stunting the Yell Leaders do “is probably the biggest reason keeping more girls from trying out.” Really? You think?
Being a Yell Leader involves doing a ton of push-ups per game, standing on each other’s shoulders and other physically demanding activities. If you admit that you cannot do such activities, should you be able to participate in them? No.
If this school is so hell-bent on pushing every tradition out the window, why not eliminate both squads altogether and create a unisex cheer squad where there isn’t any posturing and primping, and everything in the squad is designed around the fact that both men and women are on the team?
I heard that the girl may not be allowed to stay on the team. Good. I’m glad. I’ve watched every tradition I cherished about this school disappear in the past couple of years. I don’t want to lose another one.
