Getting girls into sports where you can be pretty?

I suppose it is about getting fit rather than competitive sport. I am not particularly competitive when it comes to sports/games etc and I enjoyed dance. Dance is a popular form of exercise for both boys and girls.

But I agree ballet and cheerleading are not sports..though there will be a certain amount of competitive behaviour to get picked for the team /corps!

I heard the minister on Woman's Hour this morning. She said she had been misrepresented by the Telegraph and had not advocated more feminine sports activities. What she was really suggesting was a wider range of physical activities - not only for girls. She was, herself, a junior judo champion!
www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03vh0c4 about 30 minutes into the programme

Despite being nifty and fit (as a kid rather than now), if your school report says you could be in the team if you grew 6inches, you give up! I also felt so sorry for girls who had huge boobs who couldn't run at all! Sport is for those built athletically. If you always get picked last for whatever reason, you are going to be demoralisedbefore you start.
I could never dance either, but could have been a cox or a jockey potentially! Am still only 5'1" and now shrinking!
Have now started canoeing! Yeah!

When we were children we walked 3/4 mile to and from school - including going home for lunch - which made three miles a day. From 11 onwards I did it on my bike. Stayed after school at least once a week for hockey practice which I enjoyed. We played tennis and went swimming in the summer, again, cycling everywhere. As an adult I played tennis and squash and went swimming with or without the children. I don't think it ever occurred to any of us that playing games was un-feminine but then we weren't subjected to films where the pretty cheerleader got the football captain. I don't think I ever aspired to the rugby captain!

It could well be that the minister was misreported, or at least that the emphasis was distorted, but under all the fuss there is a serious point.

I think we need to separate out the purpose of sport and PE. Is is to produce winning international teams of sportspeople or is to make the nation fit?

If the former, then inevitably the majority of people, probably more women than men will drop it as swiftly as possible for all the reasons mentioned up thread. If the latter, then it's important to offer as wide a range of physical activities as possible. And to accompany that, clean, attractive private changing rooms and sportswear which is warm comfortable and not unattractive.

And, I'm the girl who skived off every games lesson and then climbed Kilimanjaro when I was twenty five. So there's always hope.

I think it is right to ask what sport is for. I have yet to come up with an answer!

I really enjoyed sport at school - it was a chance to be outside and it gave me a feeling of freedom. Hated the sports hall though. Too small and smelly.
Every now and then I have happy-running-dreams in which I effortlessly run long-distance through the countryside.

Now I just walk - lots, and do a bit of prancing around with Zumba Gold (cheerleading for over-50's perhaps?) - and gardening. Doing physical activity still gives me the same sense of release as it did when I was a child.

Perhaps that's what sport is for. The feel good factor. Certainly works for me.

As for what's worn - it never worried me and still doesn't.

In the light of this reported comment concerning prettiness, I wonder about the only sport I was really good at – fencing.

Oh God! School sports, how I loathed them.

I wasn't built for speed in those days, being very well developed for my age, but added to that our sports/PE kit was simply our brown school knickers which we accessed by just removing our skirts.

The school was co-ed and all the boys would be learing out of the windows at us in our knickers.

The embarrassment was terrible. After all, you wouldn't normally let a boy see your underwear (in those days).

Not having to worry about boys sniggering was at least one of the advantages of attending an all-girls' school! The knickers thing was bad, though. At least for hockey we had to wear hockey shorts.

I remember my school sports shorts! They were box pleated and made of a grey wool material, very itchy! Imagine that now. They probably couldn't even be washed. But hating any sort of sports, mine probably didn't get dirty.

My PE teacher wore shorts like that with long and too-visible shiny knickers under them. She was a useless teacher too.

Before being too hard on the minister and cheerleading have a look at www.ascensioneagles.com/.

There is no doubt that this initiative has done a great deal for girls growing up in a very deprived part of the East End of London.

Reminds me of the boxing club argument... Keeps those poor boys off the streets.

The thing that I think puts people off sport more than anything else is the way government and the Sports Authorities promote sport, it is presented as something unpleasant that all must do as part of a healthy life or the NHS will refuse to treat you and you will die a miserable death.

Why not just talk about the pleasures of being active, forget about it being healthy or GOOD FOR YOU. Just the joys of seeing and feeling the elements, rain on your face, wind at your back, the chance to meet new friends. I have indulged in lots of pleasant outdoor activities in my life, dinghy sailing, ballet, swimming, walking (a lot), I once even tried orienteering. I would have been horrified to have any of them defined as a SPORT. They were all things I did and still do because I enjoy/enjoyed them and I refuse to let the government and sports bodies ruin them for me by making me see them as sports and good for me.

Only just read this thread. * MicElf's * Friday post brought back memories for me. I hated games especially netball. I was always the last to be picked. My friend was good at games bu still hated them as she was an early developer and hated having to stand naked in the communal showers by a sadistic P E teacher. We both used to sneak out of school and sit in the local dairy with a strawberry milkshake until it was find to back for a science lesson. How we were never caught I don't know but I still don'tregret it. I was very slim and active, used to walking miles on family walks and went to ballet lessons.

A kindred spirit grandma 60

Maybe so JessM, but cheerleading doesn't involve two youngsters knocking hell out of each other.

Ballet isn't a sport, but it is athletic. Archery is a sport but it is not athletic.

Ballet isn't a sport but it is incredibly hard exercise if you're doing it properly.
I think an awful lot of girls don't want to do sports that they see as unattractive and sweat inducing. On the other hand dance classes always seem to be greeted with enthusiasm and why not cheer leading if you enjoy it? At least the girls would be moving about a bit.
Once I got into the 6th form I spent games lessons lurking in the Art Room and was rarely seen at matches, even as a spectator.

Never thought I would write in defence of Cheerleading, but my GDs do it and I am amazed by how strenuous and athletic it is. It combines dance, gymnastics and tumbling. There doesn't seem to be any ra-ra stuff involved (or indeed any cheering). They come home exhausted after their class on a Friday night. The elder one is an exceptionally good ballet dancer and I tremble a bit watching her, but she is a support rather than a flyer, while the younger, who is a good gymnast, does the flying bit. The elder (who is eleven) represents the school in athletics and cross-country running too.

I think team games don't appeal to as many girls as they do to boys, but teachers of the more unusual sports are scarce. It's quite hard to track down decent fencing teachers, as my daughter's school discovered. What physical activities I wanted to do, as a girl, were unavailable to me. Fencing, skating, ballet even. The only thing I could do was ballroom dancing. I sort of enjoyed it, but at school was stuck with hockey, netball and rounders and tennis. I wasn't overkeen on any of those, although i didlike badminton years later.

This made me remember how appalled I was when 'majorettes' took off in a big way. I thought they looked ridiculous, still do.

There is no reason why dance lessons, if they included street dance, shouldn't be enjoyed by boys as well as girls. Some boys aren't keen on the kind of sports that involve getting sweaty and dirty. Such sports are also hard on kids who have poor eyesight or are hard of hearing.

Sorry - I have no love of playing games OR of dancing... other than trained show dancers of course.

@annodomini - What on earth is 'street dance'? Sounds positively dangerous to me...

Street dance used to be called "breakdancing" Feetle and is very popular with some boys. Try looking for some examples on Youtube?