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Transcript

Feminist Movie Friday: Bring it On · Stuff Mom Never Told You

0:05
Speaker 1: Hey, this is Sandy and Samantha and welcome to Steffan.
0:07
Speaker 1: I never told your prediction if I heard you.
0:18
Speaker 2: And today for Tom in this movie Friday, we are
0:21
Speaker 2: going to jump into a Sam's classic. Guess I'm titling
0:25
Speaker 2: my own uh one. We've been talking about so with
0:29
Speaker 2: all of the talks of competition, but the fact that
0:32
Speaker 2: the Olympics has ended and the Paralympics I was about
0:35
Speaker 2: to start, We're going to jump into bring it on
0:39
Speaker 2: for this movie this month. And yes it's competitive. If
0:43
Speaker 2: you've ever been in the world of cheerleading, which I have,
0:46
Speaker 2: we were not good. I will say that, like I
0:48
Speaker 2: would never place in any competitions ever. I barely could
0:51
Speaker 2: get off the ground. My strengths were dancing, being loud,
0:56
Speaker 2: and able to pick people up. I did injure my
0:58
Speaker 2: back a lot because I've tossed a lot of people.
1:00
Speaker 2: I was a base as they would call it, and
1:02
Speaker 2: not a flyer. So I think by the time I left,
1:06
Speaker 2: I went to a chiropractor in a very stressful job,
1:09
Speaker 2: finished college, you know, went through a very stressful job,
1:13
Speaker 2: went to a chiropractor. They're like, you're back, what happened?
1:15
Speaker 2: And I was like yeah, They're like, do you do sports?
1:19
Speaker 2: What did you do? And I was like, I did cheerleading.
1:20
Speaker 2: He was like, oh, yeah, yeah, I'm guessing you were
1:22
Speaker 2: the base because the way you are like, yeah, okay,
1:25
Speaker 2: so it's leg like I got some injuries and if
1:29
Speaker 2: you watch the competitive level, it's intense.
1:33
Speaker 3: Yes, yes, it is very intense.
1:36
Speaker 1: I didn't want to ask you about your cheerleading experience
1:38
Speaker 1: because I never did it.
1:41
Speaker 3: Yeah, so I was watching this like is this what it's.
1:44
Speaker 2: Like because we are from a small town. I am
1:47
Speaker 2: from a small town. We did not have male cheerleaders
1:50
Speaker 2: at the time, and it was, even though in the movie,
1:53
Speaker 2: is very looked down on. Also even more so when
1:58
Speaker 2: you're in a small town and cheerleader, not a big
2:02
Speaker 2: athletics as it could be. And of course the debate
2:06
Speaker 2: still goes back to whether cheerleading is a sport. All
2:08
Speaker 2: those conversations happen. What's funny is our my quarterback at
2:15
Speaker 2: the time. Again, our football team was not good when
2:17
Speaker 2: I was there. Apparently there was a better one later on,
2:19
Speaker 2: but we were not we were good. But he went
2:23
Speaker 2: on to become a cheerleader at UGA or University of
2:28
Speaker 2: Georgia because Obviously he didn't make it as a football player,
2:31
Speaker 2: but because of the intensity and the level of like
2:34
Speaker 2: challenge and sportsmanship, he went into that instead and I
2:39
Speaker 2: think he did pretty well until he left. But whatever.
2:42
Speaker 2: But all that to say is, yes, it's intense. If
2:45
Speaker 2: you're truly like doing it for competition levels, you can
2:49
Speaker 2: get scholarships. Sometimes not a lot of it hasn't gotten international.
2:56
Speaker 2: I don't know if you've been watching my TikTok, has
2:58
Speaker 2: all of a sudden gotten like cheerleaders from South Korea,
3:02
Speaker 2: which legitimately you see them putting on makeup or doing
3:06
Speaker 2: something completely like they're so removed from whatever game it is,
3:10
Speaker 2: and then all of a sudden they have a music
3:11
Speaker 2: and they do like two step moves that are so
3:13
Speaker 2: like trivial that you're like, what what is? It's quite funny.
3:20
Speaker 2: And then you have things like the Texas cheerleaders. The
3:22
Speaker 2: Cowboys were really really big and they did some big
3:25
Speaker 2: performances and they had to go through the ringer to
3:28
Speaker 2: audition and they get paid nothing, nothing. So it's kind
3:33
Speaker 2: of like a whole thing. But all those controversies aside,
3:36
Speaker 2: all those opinions aside, we're talking about bringing on which
3:39
Speaker 2: I actually did a pretty good job in representing I
3:42
Speaker 2: think like the depth of athleticism that needs to be involved.
3:47
Speaker 2: I don't love their cheer routines. And this is when
3:49
Speaker 2: I graduated high school, y'all, because I was like, this
3:52
Speaker 2: is not this is not what this sounds like. That
3:57
Speaker 2: is so goofy, and like like we had to sound
4:01
Speaker 2: we have the person who had the deepest, loudest voice
4:04
Speaker 2: was able to carry the squad. So that was the
4:07
Speaker 2: difference that I'm like, Okay, they kind of do mock
4:08
Speaker 2: the whole cheerleading portion a little bit too much, although
4:13
Speaker 2: I think when the Clovers did it, they did a
4:15
Speaker 2: better job in representing what it sounded like and like
4:19
Speaker 2: what it should be sounding like. Personal opinion maybe, but anyway, Yes,
4:23
Speaker 2: So we are talking about the original release of Bring
4:27
Speaker 2: It On, which was in two thousand. It came out
4:30
Speaker 2: in two thousand. We had this whole debate because apparently, yeah,
4:32
Speaker 2: we're just bringing all my era of movie which are
4:35
Speaker 2: now classics. So yes, twenty four years ago, and it
4:40
Speaker 2: has had several sequels in additions to the series, all
4:44
Speaker 2: apparently direct to video. I didn't know that. I was like, no,
4:47
Speaker 2: that that kind of makes sense, and you'll see some
4:49
Speaker 2: big names in there if you look for them. I
4:53
Speaker 2: believe again, in total about six of them. I didn't
4:58
Speaker 2: realize there that many. I thought there was Manbe too,
5:01
Speaker 2: with a musical that was actually co written by Lynn Miranda,
5:06
Speaker 2: so he was a part of this whole thing. So hey, hey,
5:09
Speaker 2: I've never seen it. I've never heard clips of it.
5:11
Speaker 2: So if you have, let us know. I want to
5:13
Speaker 2: know about this. How did they translate this? Is it
5:16
Speaker 2: like you know, stomp like? I would imagine it's something
5:20
Speaker 2: along those lines, but who knows. So the movie was
5:23
Speaker 2: directed by Peyton Read and written by Jessica Bendinger, who
5:27
Speaker 2: also wrote an episode of Sex and the City. I
5:29
Speaker 2: love this little trivias. She recently actually like asked for
5:32
Speaker 2: the twentyth anniversary, wrote a book about it as well,
5:36
Speaker 2: so she went on a little tour. I'm not sure
5:38
Speaker 2: what's in that book, but something about along the lines
5:40
Speaker 2: of like, after a certain amount of time, you can
5:42
Speaker 2: release a script and that's your property, all these things.
5:46
Speaker 2: So she decided to take the extra step and make
5:48
Speaker 2: it a book, and I believe it's fairly successful, and I,
5:51
Speaker 2: again I have not read it, So if you have,
5:53
Speaker 2: let me know what's about. I have no idea. If
5:56
Speaker 2: it's just the plot, I don't know. If it's like
5:58
Speaker 2: a making of who knows. I guess I could research that.
6:02
Speaker 2: I didn't go that far anyway, So let's jump into
6:04
Speaker 2: the plot. I feel like we probably should put this caveat.
6:08
Speaker 2: It is a two thousand movie, did not age really well.
6:11
Speaker 2: There's a lot of parts you're like, what theF So
6:14
Speaker 2: go ahead and put that in there. It is one
6:16
Speaker 2: of those teenage comedies that were like highbrow, lowbrew both
6:21
Speaker 2: I think all in one. And of course you have
6:27
Speaker 2: Kirsten Dunce, who was the Queen at that point in time.
6:30
Speaker 2: She was making some big movies, including like Virgin Suicides
6:34
Speaker 2: and all of that, so you know we know who
6:36
Speaker 2: Kirsten Dune is. So jumping into plot again, we have
6:40
Speaker 2: an opener heard around the world probably what was so funny?
6:44
Speaker 2: Annie is like, right as we were talking about we're
6:47
Speaker 2: going to do this, I saw La called Touristas, who
6:51
Speaker 2: is a podcast on our network, doing the entire your
6:55
Speaker 2: chair number of the opener for UH for this movie,
7:01
Speaker 2: And I was like what. Because they were talking about
7:02
Speaker 2: the fact that it influenced so many people and once
7:05
Speaker 2: you start hearing it, you can't stop in the middle
7:08
Speaker 2: of it. So apparently again the role call introducing the
7:12
Speaker 2: cheer squad of the Ranchocarne Toros so it was led
7:16
Speaker 2: by a newly made captain, Torrens Shipman, played again by
7:21
Speaker 2: Kirsten Duns. The Toros cheerleading squad has been the national
7:25
Speaker 2: champion for six consecutive years and the pride of their school. Literally,
7:29
Speaker 2: the joke is they come to see the cheer squad,
7:31
Speaker 2: not the football team, who are the worst. With some
7:33
Speaker 2: big goals in Dreams and her boyfriend who by the way,
7:36
Speaker 2: just left for college and her friends Torrence, as eager
7:39
Speaker 2: to prove herself as the new leader. Unfortunately, being a
7:43
Speaker 2: bit too eager, her practice leads to the injury of
7:47
Speaker 2: one of her squad members, which leaves an opening that
7:49
Speaker 2: needs to be filled immediately. We are soon introduced to
7:52
Speaker 2: a transfer student, Missy Patone, played by Eliza Dushku, who
7:56
Speaker 2: is not really interested in cheerleading, but more so in gymnasia,
8:00
Speaker 2: but because the school does not offer that as an option,
8:03
Speaker 2: she has opted for cheerleading squad. After an intense audition,
8:08
Speaker 2: she makes it on a trial basis. Here we insert
8:11
Speaker 2: typical homophobic rant due to her being quote unquote different
8:15
Speaker 2: because you know, prep school versus everything else. With Missy
8:19
Speaker 2: being the newbie, the squad goes on with their their practices,
8:23
Speaker 2: which angers Missy, who walks out only to be chased
8:26
Speaker 2: by Torrents, causing a small conflict here that leads to
8:30
Speaker 2: a road trip to East Compton to see the Clovers
8:33
Speaker 2: do their routine. Here we discover that all the original
8:37
Speaker 2: that'son quotes materials the Toros have been using are actually
8:40
Speaker 2: stolen from East Compton Clovers, and as they leave, they
8:45
Speaker 2: are confronted by the Clovers, led by Isis played by
8:48
Speaker 2: Gabrielle Union, who is accompanied by the hip hop group
8:52
Speaker 2: Black and if you know what I'm talking about you
8:54
Speaker 2: if you know from Alana, if you know like you
8:57
Speaker 2: love TLC and Black came through as they are kind
8:59
Speaker 2: of like their protege. I believe Left Eye was the
9:02
Speaker 2: one that formed this group, which is really unfortunate because
9:06
Speaker 2: the rapper and the one with the most attitude in
9:09
Speaker 2: the movie also died later on in Tragic Accident. There's
9:13
Speaker 2: so many things of like, oh, that's so sad. But anyway,
9:18
Speaker 2: all that to say, we do get to see them.
9:20
Speaker 2: They do a great job. They have a great song,
9:22
Speaker 2: bring it All to Me, Oh Baby, bring it all
9:25
Speaker 2: to Me anyway, and all of that. So if you know,
9:27
Speaker 2: you know. And during this confrontation, we learned that the
9:30
Speaker 2: former leader, big Red, had been coming to watch record
9:34
Speaker 2: and steal all of their materials, which Torrens knew nothing
9:36
Speaker 2: about at the time. Also, we find out that at
9:39
Speaker 2: the previous cheer camp, Torrance had dropped the spirit stick,
9:43
Speaker 2: and this is legitimate. There's a spirit stick. I went
9:46
Speaker 2: to cheer camp. We had spirits sticks. I don't remember
9:49
Speaker 2: if we won one. I think we did. I think
9:51
Speaker 2: we all got one anyway, which is very bad luck.
9:54
Speaker 2: And she thinks all this misfortunes are due to that
9:57
Speaker 2: bad luck. So that's something that's in the back of
10:00
Speaker 2: her head. But moving on, we also meet Missy's brother,
10:03
Speaker 2: Cliff played by Jesse Bradford swim fan. I think people
10:07
Speaker 2: know that movie if you're from my era. Moving on,
10:11
Speaker 2: who also is a bit different and is obviously very
10:15
Speaker 2: interested in Torren's and she's not sad about that. She's
10:18
Speaker 2: not sad about that. In fact, she does some flirting
10:20
Speaker 2: on her own or as the other cheerleaders called it
10:23
Speaker 2: cheer sex jeers. I I am during the cheers again,
10:29
Speaker 2: that's not a thing anyway. But with all of that
10:32
Speaker 2: and some really awkward sexual assault that turns into a
10:35
Speaker 2: joke that I'm like, what the is happening to prove
10:39
Speaker 2: that not all male cheerleaders are gay, I guess. Anyway,
10:45
Speaker 2: we have a bit of a cheer off as a
10:48
Speaker 2: few of the clovers come through and though they had
10:51
Speaker 2: gone originally gone against Torrens's suggestion about changing up the routine,
10:54
Speaker 2: since they found out they were all stolen. After another vote,
10:58
Speaker 2: they all decide to change the routine. And also we
11:01
Speaker 2: found here that he's cheating because you know, you see
11:03
Speaker 2: the girl in the bed whatever. Again, with the advice
11:05
Speaker 2: from Aaron, Torrence decides to bring in a professional Sparky Pilastrie.
11:11
Speaker 2: Also cue sexy sexist car wash fundraisers scene here. Soon
11:17
Speaker 2: after some fat shaming and chaming of looks, Sparky teaches
11:21
Speaker 2: the meaning of spirit fingers. These aren't spirit fingers, these
11:26
Speaker 2: any are spirit fingers. She welcome and yes, I actually
11:29
Speaker 2: did have to do those as well. Still, probably one
11:32
Speaker 2: of the best lines, which is they learned this new
11:36
Speaker 2: routine and they take that to the regionals, but oh
11:40
Speaker 2: Sparky has been busy and turns out has been selling
11:42
Speaker 2: the same routine to different cheered squads, which is illegal
11:46
Speaker 2: against the rules, but fortunately for the Toros, they by
11:50
Speaker 2: default get to go to the Nationals. After a grow
11:54
Speaker 2: up glow up scene because she doesn't change her looks
11:56
Speaker 2: but her attitude for Torrence, she who now has some backbone,
12:01
Speaker 2: dumps her boyfriend in a very dramatic way and uses
12:05
Speaker 2: the influences around her cue a montage of like backdated
12:10
Speaker 2: old moves they decided to research as some karate moves
12:14
Speaker 2: here are swing dancing, and they come through with a
12:17
Speaker 2: new routine. Of course, it also includes a song from
12:21
Speaker 2: Cliff which he had made a mixtape for her of
12:23
Speaker 2: his original songs there You Go. At the same time,
12:27
Speaker 2: the Clovers have also made it to Nationals and is
12:29
Speaker 2: looking to get funded to go and having some troubles.
12:33
Speaker 2: There's a scene in which Torrance finds out. So Torrence
12:37
Speaker 2: decides to give them the money, which is all of
12:40
Speaker 2: the other conversation, and you know, Isa's calls her out
12:44
Speaker 2: saying this is guilt money because y'all know you are
12:46
Speaker 2: in the wrong and you know towards is like, no, no, no,
12:48
Speaker 2: it's just that we want to compete again the best
12:50
Speaker 2: against the best, and you're the best. Blah blah blah.
12:52
Speaker 2: All that to say they turned that down. But in
12:55
Speaker 2: the end, the Clovers are able to get some sponsorship
12:58
Speaker 2: from a celebrity or an on air personality who is
13:02
Speaker 2: I think supposed to be like an Oprah to sponsor
13:05
Speaker 2: their trips. So yeah, they get to go. Soon we
13:07
Speaker 2: have the face off between the two, both showing some
13:10
Speaker 2: strong routines, but in the end, the Clovers are able
13:14
Speaker 2: to take the championship home with the Toros in second place. Also, yes,
13:18
Speaker 2: Cliff and Torrens get together. End of story, And yes
13:22
Speaker 2: we do have you know, Gabrielle's age bring it to Torrens.
13:26
Speaker 2: So there you go. That is the artistry of bringing
13:31
Speaker 2: on the original Annie. What did you think of this
13:45
Speaker 2: classic movie?
13:49
Speaker 3: I really enjoyed it.
13:51
Speaker 1: It was definitely for some reason, I thought I understood
13:55
Speaker 1: what it would be and it was not what I
13:57
Speaker 1: thought it was going to be.
13:58
Speaker 2: I need to know what you thought it was going
14:00
Speaker 2: to be.
14:01
Speaker 3: I thought, I don't know.
14:06
Speaker 1: I think because there's been so many sequels that I
14:08
Speaker 1: did know about the sequels, and I also there's just
14:12
Speaker 1: been a lot of talk about it because people love
14:13
Speaker 1: it over the years. I just it was not quite
14:18
Speaker 1: what I thought it was gonna be. I can't explain it,
14:22
Speaker 1: but I did the songs I remember, especially my older
14:27
Speaker 1: brother's name is Mickey, so you can imagine how that song.
14:36
Speaker 3: Our household. But no, I liked it.
14:40
Speaker 1: I thought it was fun and I liked that they
14:43
Speaker 1: got second place at the end. I enjoyed that. I
14:46
Speaker 1: thought it was a It was really enjoyable, and it
14:52
Speaker 1: didn't go where I thought it was going to go
14:54
Speaker 1: in a good way.
14:55
Speaker 2: In a good way. Did you think that the Toros
14:58
Speaker 2: would end up winning?
14:59
Speaker 1: Yeah, because I feel like if usually that's what happened.
15:04
Speaker 2: Yeah, correct, Yes, yes, I think there's a lot of
15:06
Speaker 2: conversation about, you know, is this a film that is
15:10
Speaker 2: very problematic? How did they do well? Did they do
15:13
Speaker 2: well and bring in black voices? Did they do well
15:16
Speaker 2: in representing what it looked like? And I think they
15:19
Speaker 2: did into a certain degree. I think in itself the
15:22
Speaker 2: two thousands had a lot of privilege in there that
15:26
Speaker 2: they really thought this type of attitude was okay. We
15:28
Speaker 2: do have again, the toxic masculinity of the football players,
15:32
Speaker 2: just going after the cheerleaders, specifically the male cheerleaders, and
15:37
Speaker 2: one of them did, I think, allude to the fact
15:40
Speaker 2: that he was gay. He seemed to have found his
15:42
Speaker 2: match at the cheer competition, while the other was like
15:46
Speaker 2: trying too hard to prove that he is straight. Also problematic.
15:53
Speaker 2: But yeah, so I guess these are not necessarily themes
15:58
Speaker 2: as much as like the environment. I don't know what
16:02
Speaker 2: we're talking about, kind of talking about like high school,
16:05
Speaker 2: and I know it can be a theme in that
16:08
Speaker 2: there's so much when it comes to high school. And
16:09
Speaker 2: a lot of these films that were successful at the
16:11
Speaker 2: time were based on teenage life. A lot of these shows,
16:14
Speaker 2: I guess they still are. I'm thinking about it, but
16:19
Speaker 2: I guess I just don't pay attention as much. But
16:22
Speaker 2: during that time, you know, classics like Bringing On were
16:24
Speaker 2: making big hits. We've talked about ten Things I Hate
16:27
Speaker 2: about You were making big hits at that time, really
16:29
Speaker 2: bringing in like ideal of high school culture and how
16:34
Speaker 2: real or unreal it is. We looked at things like
16:37
Speaker 2: Wintree Hill, Dawson's Creek, all of those had that similar names. Buffy,
16:41
Speaker 2: the Vampires, layer. It's the coming of age before college,
16:45
Speaker 2: which I think is really really interesting because when they
16:47
Speaker 2: hit college, it doesn't get the shows aren't successful. Yeah,
16:52
Speaker 2: you think about it, Saved by the Bell, same thing.
16:54
Speaker 2: They try to take it to college. It wasn't that
16:55
Speaker 2: successful anyway. I don't know, Wow, that's on in my head.
16:59
Speaker 2: But at high school, we have senior year, which is
17:02
Speaker 2: the climactic year for every young person because a lot
17:05
Speaker 2: of decisions.
17:05
Speaker 3: Have to be made.
17:06
Speaker 2: It can make or break you. There's so many things
17:09
Speaker 2: in the end that you're so overwhelmed by, whether it's
17:12
Speaker 2: trying to get out of the house or wanting to
17:14
Speaker 2: stay in the house, or figuring it out if you
17:15
Speaker 2: have the money to get out of the house, what
17:17
Speaker 2: you can do, how long you can go, who to trust,
17:21
Speaker 2: who to go with, all of these things. So you
17:24
Speaker 2: have all of that, but it's also the year that
17:26
Speaker 2: you're the top. And this is kind of that level
17:30
Speaker 2: of conversation to be at the top. What is your
17:35
Speaker 2: senior year?
17:35
Speaker 1: Like I got the worst case of senior itis, and
17:39
Speaker 1: I would never have believed I would have.
17:43
Speaker 3: I was a very.
17:46
Speaker 1: Honors club like, I was very alays, you know, but
17:52
Speaker 1: I got the worst case of senioritis, and I would
17:55
Speaker 1: sit in my car in the parking lot and just
17:59
Speaker 1: imagine and driving away and never coming back. And it
18:04
Speaker 1: was bizarre, Like I don't know where it came from.
18:06
Speaker 1: I think I just knew things were coming to an end,
18:09
Speaker 1: that was gonna have to make these decisions. I didn't
18:12
Speaker 1: feel because when you're a freshman, I remember feeling like
18:17
Speaker 1: seniors are so cool. Yeah, I didn't feel that way.
18:21
Speaker 1: I felt tired and like, just don't look at me.
18:28
Speaker 1: This is so depressing. I mean, yeah, I was tired,
18:31
Speaker 1: all right. I didn't I wanted it to be over,
18:35
Speaker 1: but I also didn't know what else to do.
18:37
Speaker 2: Right, I think for me, like I had big dreams
18:40
Speaker 2: with big colleges, but realizing that my family didn't make
18:44
Speaker 2: money like that, so I couldn't go to private colleges,
18:47
Speaker 2: so working to get little scholarships here and there, knowing
18:50
Speaker 2: that I was at the top. I wasn't the worst.
18:52
Speaker 2: I think I was on the top twenty, but I
18:54
Speaker 2: was just like not gonna get all of the good
18:57
Speaker 2: good stuff, Like I was able to get Hope, which
18:59
Speaker 2: my decade around my time with the Hope A scholarship
19:03
Speaker 2: was just coming out and it was still had money.
19:05
Speaker 2: And for those of you who don't know, in the
19:07
Speaker 2: State of Georgia, Hope Scholarship is a grant for students
19:10
Speaker 2: with a certain GPAH to get to go to college
19:14
Speaker 2: and it usually covers most of the tuition for a
19:17
Speaker 2: state in Georgia. In the State of Georgia, yeah, for
19:20
Speaker 2: the state college in Georgia, And it started in nineteen
19:22
Speaker 2: ninety three, and it was a huge, big deal. It
19:25
Speaker 2: helps so many people, obviously, to get to college. It
19:28
Speaker 2: has changed because so many people were able to get
19:31
Speaker 2: that that they did not have enough money, which is
19:33
Speaker 2: kind of odd because we sure have millions and millions
19:35
Speaker 2: and millions and millions and dollars being spent in lottery
19:37
Speaker 2: but whatever, and lots of money for the roadwork. To
19:40
Speaker 2: be fair any it needs help. But all that to
19:47
Speaker 2: say so, these were opportunities, and so for me it
19:51
Speaker 2: was a lot of like looking at this and trying
19:53
Speaker 2: to see what was realistic or really really really wanted
19:56
Speaker 2: to be higher, like I'm all about that reputation. I
19:59
Speaker 2: guess like I still probably have that feeling to look good.
20:04
Speaker 2: And so going to a state college and not a
20:06
Speaker 2: community college was important to me, which is really really
20:08
Speaker 2: odd as like looking back, like an educations and educations
20:12
Speaker 2: and education, like no one cares really unless you're doing
20:16
Speaker 2: something real affluent in jobs. I was a social worker.
20:19
Speaker 2: No one gave it as long as I had a
20:22
Speaker 2: degree like then it didn't even have to be a
20:24
Speaker 2: social work degree close close to you have any humanities great,
20:27
Speaker 2: go for that anyway. But for some reason during that time,
20:30
Speaker 2: I really needed to do this. I needed to be
20:33
Speaker 2: like a part of the workforce. I had that whole
20:36
Speaker 2: doing half the day where I went to work because
20:39
Speaker 2: making money was important. My parents, as much as they
20:43
Speaker 2: could provide for me, they couldn't provide everything for me.
20:45
Speaker 2: I had to pay my own car. I had to
20:47
Speaker 2: pay like all these things was all me going to college.
20:50
Speaker 2: I was gonna pay for everything everything, like they weren't
20:52
Speaker 2: covering anything. So I had to do make sure that
20:55
Speaker 2: it was all that. But still really excited about leaving.
20:58
Speaker 2: But I feel like senior year was all about establishing
21:00
Speaker 2: the groundworks to leave, and so that had like the
21:04
Speaker 2: clubs and going to work and saving up money and
21:06
Speaker 2: doing these things, even though I didn't do a good
21:09
Speaker 2: job of saving money in the end. But senior year
21:13
Speaker 2: is a whole big deal, and so I think that's
21:15
Speaker 2: why a lot of these movies focus on that. Obviously,
21:17
Speaker 2: for Torrens, she was going to be captain, so it
21:19
Speaker 2: was a big, big deal of a national champion. Again,
21:22
Speaker 2: you can get good money in some of these things,
21:25
Speaker 2: and if you go to school where they have chearing squads,
21:28
Speaker 2: that will fund you. Big deal, a big deal. I
21:32
Speaker 2: think it turns out that a lot of the smaller
21:34
Speaker 2: schools do have better cheering squads. From what I gather,
21:38
Speaker 2: I know a lot of like the smaller schools, not
21:40
Speaker 2: the big big schools, but like accredited smaller schools do.
21:43
Speaker 2: But well for band too, for band people who wont
21:45
Speaker 2: due scholarship any you know about that life.
21:47
Speaker 1: That was not the case for us, but I believe
21:51
Speaker 1: it's true. We had thirty members in our band, including
21:54
Speaker 1: the color guard. And I will say once that made
22:00
Speaker 1: me laugh in this is when they're coming up with
22:04
Speaker 1: their routine one year in band. We did that because
22:08
Speaker 1: normally you can like purchase a just it's basically like
22:13
Speaker 1: a spreadsheet kind of thing, mutually complicated, but yeah, there's
22:16
Speaker 1: x's and it shows you how to move and.
22:18
Speaker 3: Anyway you can purchase that. But for some reason.
22:20
Speaker 1: My freshman year, one of the seniors designed it and
22:25
Speaker 1: it was a mess. It was a mess. There was
22:31
Speaker 1: one part where I believe we had to go thirty
22:33
Speaker 1: yards and ten steps, so you're taking like the biggest
22:35
Speaker 1: steps you've ever taken. Yeah, and there were brooms on
22:38
Speaker 1: the field because it was a fantasia based so people
22:43
Speaker 1: were tripping on the broom.
22:45
Speaker 3: Was disastrous.
22:48
Speaker 1: And then he accidentally bought the music rights the band
22:51
Speaker 1: music rights for can you Feel the Love Tonight? Fine song,
22:54
Speaker 1: but when you're at like a football halftime show, all
22:57
Speaker 1: of a sudden, we're playing like this slow.
23:00
Speaker 2: It's amazing. I will say for our school, I think
23:05
Speaker 2: we probably were revolved. We didn't, but we should have
23:08
Speaker 2: around our band because they were good. They did make
23:12
Speaker 2: it to finals, and they did make it to Nationals,
23:14
Speaker 2: and they did make it to like Ireland, like they
23:16
Speaker 2: went there to do perform. They're invited to perform there.
23:20
Speaker 2: So my niece shout out. She was a drum major
23:24
Speaker 2: or I guess the field conductor, the lead of her
23:27
Speaker 2: senior year, so she was the big deal and they
23:30
Speaker 2: were intense. They came out they started practicing in like
23:33
Speaker 2: July preseason and heat and kept going, so she was
23:39
Speaker 2: vest I will say that. And they were good. Like
23:41
Speaker 2: I said, they traveled. I know a lot of people
23:43
Speaker 2: who Mississippi Jackson College pays a lot of money for
23:47
Speaker 2: band members, so I think they're one of the higher
23:49
Speaker 2: ranking ones. And it's not like a major major player
23:51
Speaker 2: when it comes to like football or basketball, I'm gonna
23:55
Speaker 2: yelled at but any of those things. But that was
23:57
Speaker 2: a big deal. H So even though so much like
24:01
Speaker 2: this movie, football would be what you think of when
24:05
Speaker 2: you think of in high school sports, I think of
24:07
Speaker 2: especially when you were thinking like Friday night lights or
24:10
Speaker 2: in the South or any of these things. It was
24:11
Speaker 2: a big deal. Our basketball team was okay. No one
24:14
Speaker 2: really cared no offense, baseball, no one really cared, and
24:20
Speaker 2: I think we had a pretty good baseball team. Softball team.
24:22
Speaker 2: No one really cared, tennis, no one really cared cross country,
24:25
Speaker 2: no one really cared. Football. They still paid attention to
24:28
Speaker 2: even though we weren't that good, but they wanted to
24:31
Speaker 2: be good, so they started to bring more people on.
24:32
Speaker 2: But our band was always on it. So I feel
24:35
Speaker 2: like that should have been the in there a movie.
24:39
Speaker 3: Yes, yeah, yes, kind of like drumline.
24:42
Speaker 2: Drum line that college that's a college version.
24:45
Speaker 1: I thought, yes, but there's plenty because I've always thought
24:49
Speaker 1: after yeah, band camp is the drama.
24:52
Speaker 3: The drama, there's a lot of drama. Yes, there is.
24:56
Speaker 2: My sister was in color guard, so she would tell
24:58
Speaker 2: me things only all our hoes, I will say.
25:06
Speaker 1: Our marching band in our defense was really we like
25:10
Speaker 1: did go to competitions, and we did win sometimes, but
25:13
Speaker 1: we were so tiny that that first year, the freshman
25:16
Speaker 1: year was it.
25:17
Speaker 3: That was a mess.
25:18
Speaker 1: We never had someone do a student to the choreography again.
25:23
Speaker 2: Never well, I mean we kind of talked about all
25:29
Speaker 2: of these things, and of course, like friendships and frenemies,
25:32
Speaker 2: I found out had frenemies. It's hard. Like the whole
25:36
Speaker 2: uh like social setup of the cheer crew with the
25:40
Speaker 2: two Whitney and Courtney.
25:42
Speaker 3: Yeah who I.
25:43
Speaker 2: Mean girls, but they loved each other and their sister
25:47
Speaker 2: like I'll give them back.
25:49
Speaker 1: Their sister there quite young really for doing this stay
25:54
Speaker 1: basically when they're holding these tryouts, Courtney and Whitney, who
25:57
Speaker 1: were on the other side of Torrents, who are always
26:00
Speaker 1: of like trying to get power over the squad, like
26:04
Speaker 1: it's definitely going.
26:04
Speaker 3: To be Jordan, who is Courtney's one of their younger sisters.
26:07
Speaker 1: Yeah, and then Jordan comes out and she just looks
26:10
Speaker 1: so young and she's just not that into it.
26:13
Speaker 2: Yeah, but they want her to be in it, really
26:16
Speaker 2: really really, yes, they but yeah, that was really funny.
26:19
Speaker 2: But they have the friends. Obviously, Missy and Torrance became
26:23
Speaker 2: very close friends. They had both I believe Hunter and
26:26
Speaker 2: Nathan who were good friends, and they were like kind
26:30
Speaker 2: of cheered them on. It was lovely to see boyfriend
26:34
Speaker 2: drama as we saw him cheating immediately. I love the
26:38
Speaker 2: fact that she was like giving him the you know,
26:41
Speaker 2: the back, the back withou how he had treated her
26:45
Speaker 2: very very condescendingly. But then the girl dumps them. She's like,
26:50
Speaker 2: you're chere a cheerleader. Such a weird thing. But anyway,
26:56
Speaker 2: but then we have obviously the competition for being the
26:59
Speaker 2: captain and again Whitney and Courtney trying to vibe for
27:01
Speaker 2: that and trying to take that role back, the fact
27:04
Speaker 2: that Big Red came in very unhappy and didn't seem
27:07
Speaker 2: she did anything wrong and her mistake was appointing towards
27:12
Speaker 2: the leadership. She was very unhappy with that. Then we've
27:25
Speaker 2: got the obviously cheerleading in general, the cheerleading is a sport.
27:29
Speaker 2: We already kind of have this conversation. Did you ever
27:32
Speaker 2: watch Cheer on Netflix, which is now marred and ruined
27:36
Speaker 2: because of all of the accusations that came after the fact.
27:39
Speaker 2: One dude was unfortunately he was like the underdog and
27:42
Speaker 2: everybody loved him. And then it turns out that he
27:45
Speaker 2: had been messaging young kids. And not only that, I
27:49
Speaker 2: think he actually met up with a couple I can't remember.
27:51
Speaker 2: He would a trial and it.
27:52
Speaker 3: Was not good. Well, no, I did not see that.
27:56
Speaker 2: Yeah, But anyway, but if you had watched that, I
27:59
Speaker 2: have like a lot of reservations when it comes to
28:01
Speaker 2: like watching things competitions like that. This specifically based in
28:05
Speaker 2: Texas and based in like very rigid ideology, but it
28:10
Speaker 2: was it was inspiring to see like the levels that
28:12
Speaker 2: were trying to go to get to these points to
28:15
Speaker 2: be able to cheer, to be able to be a
28:18
Speaker 2: part of the sport. It is it's pretty rigorous if
28:20
Speaker 2: they take it seriously on what you have to do
28:23
Speaker 2: and how like morality is all of that that. Unfortunately,
28:27
Speaker 2: morality can coincide with Christianity and a lot of these places,
28:30
Speaker 2: so you know, but they didn't seem like because it
28:34
Speaker 2: was obvious, and they did talk about the fact that
28:36
Speaker 2: the LGBTQ community was a big part of this as well,
28:39
Speaker 2: like not only yes, it's for both, but like it
28:43
Speaker 2: has to be welcoming to the entirety of the marginalized
28:47
Speaker 2: community or you're going to be missing a big chunk
28:49
Speaker 2: of good competitors. So all of that it's interesting to watch,
28:53
Speaker 2: and again the still conversation about whether or not it's
28:56
Speaker 2: a sport. I was thinking about this, especially with the
28:59
Speaker 2: Olympics because breaking just happened. There's a lot of controversy
29:05
Speaker 2: within there, and I think we are going to talk
29:06
Speaker 2: about it. We do want to talk about it. But
29:09
Speaker 2: then wh I'm talking about gymnastics, and there's a lot
29:11
Speaker 2: of controversy right now happening with a lot of the
29:14
Speaker 2: things that happened. But I wondered if they could do
29:16
Speaker 2: something like cheerleading, and I know that's not internationals, especially
29:20
Speaker 2: to this competitive level, but making it into like a
29:24
Speaker 2: team gymnastics sport, I think that would be interesting.
29:29
Speaker 3: Yeah.
29:29
Speaker 1: I mean, like you said, Missy when she showed up,
29:34
Speaker 1: that's what she was why she was auditioning for cheerleading
29:37
Speaker 1: was she was a gymnast in this school didn't have gymnastics.
29:42
Speaker 1: And then they're like, do all of these jumps and
29:45
Speaker 1: tucks and whatever, and she just does them. Yeah, which
29:48
Speaker 1: I was always impressed by when I would see people
29:52
Speaker 1: do cheerleading, even in my high school. They would do
29:55
Speaker 1: those like flips and like, wow, you just know how
29:59
Speaker 1: to do okay.
30:00
Speaker 3: And I was in gymnastics.
30:02
Speaker 2: Yeah, I did not know how to do those, and
30:05
Speaker 2: I could knock get off the ground. So my little
30:08
Speaker 2: dumpling legs stayed on those dumplings side. My jumps, even
30:15
Speaker 2: though I'm flexible, I could not get off the ground
30:17
Speaker 2: to do the jumps. My toe touches were sad. I
30:20
Speaker 2: ended up in a squat like I would land in
30:22
Speaker 2: a squat, Like why, but I mean I touched my toes.
30:25
Speaker 2: But there's that. There were my favorite. They are the easiest.
30:29
Speaker 3: I have no idea what I'll show you one day.
30:31
Speaker 2: No I won't because but yeah, like that competition conversation,
30:36
Speaker 2: who was involved, Whether it is emasculating, but if you
30:39
Speaker 2: watch the level of skill that you have to do,
30:43
Speaker 2: and it is a lot of dangerous things, a lot
30:45
Speaker 2: of people get so hurt again, Like it hurt my
30:48
Speaker 2: back and neck for a long long time because of
30:50
Speaker 2: the amount of like people which my back, like I
30:54
Speaker 2: would toss around. I tossed a lot of people around.
30:57
Speaker 2: But that is that level of conversation. How how is
31:00
Speaker 2: it a spored like when you see and it can't
31:03
Speaker 2: it can be enjoyable because the whole idea is like
31:05
Speaker 2: cheering people on and cheering the team on all these
31:08
Speaker 2: things and then it being mocked. Uh and then you
31:12
Speaker 2: see you again. I'm gonna have to send you this
31:14
Speaker 2: video any of the Korean cheerleaders again being very baffled.
31:18
Speaker 2: They there's almost like a countdown about how many moves
31:21
Speaker 2: there were. They're like, oh, they have three different moves.
31:23
Speaker 3: Okay, cool, like.
31:26
Speaker 2: But Korea doesn't really I don't know what their version
31:29
Speaker 2: of cheer like this is. If this is their true
31:31
Speaker 2: version of cheerleading. It's an interesting take.
31:36
Speaker 3: Yes I haven't seen it, but that does sound interesting.
31:40
Speaker 2: I'm gonna send you a video. Okay, I'm gonna send
31:43
Speaker 2: you a video. And then, of course we can't go
31:45
Speaker 2: off on this without talking about the racism that's not
31:48
Speaker 2: really addressed, that's implied obviously, like you have the Clovers,
31:53
Speaker 2: who are very diverse, and I saw that, like the
31:56
Speaker 2: it wasn't just like an all black team or all
31:58
Speaker 2: black and Latino team. It was a very diverse team
32:02
Speaker 2: that had white people, Latina people, Asian people, and black
32:05
Speaker 2: people in that mix. While you have the one Asian
32:10
Speaker 2: person with the rest of the white people of the
32:13
Speaker 2: Toros who have the funding, who drive the large jeeps,
32:17
Speaker 2: who live in like the Posh area, and there's not
32:20
Speaker 2: really conversation in that. We know that Clovers have never
32:23
Speaker 2: gone to the Nationals, not because they couldn't make it,
32:25
Speaker 2: but because they couldn't afford it, like they and then
32:28
Speaker 2: their school did not see that as a benefit either.
32:31
Speaker 2: They did not highlight even though they knew they were
32:34
Speaker 2: one of the best in the cruise and when they watched,
32:36
Speaker 2: they watched, But the school itself did not help fund
32:39
Speaker 2: the trips, which is a conversation in itself, and we
32:44
Speaker 2: see that a lot, like I think that's that whole
32:47
Speaker 2: level when it comes to regions, in schools and districts
32:51
Speaker 2: and the way they draw lines and who goes where
32:54
Speaker 2: and who can afford what is very very very apparent. Again,
32:58
Speaker 2: this is a two thousand film. Which does not address that.
33:01
Speaker 2: It kind of implies that and you see it, but
33:04
Speaker 2: then you move on and like the real world, like, yeah,
33:07
Speaker 2: the best team should win in the in this case scenario,
33:10
Speaker 2: the best team did win. However, is that the reality?
33:13
Speaker 2: The fact that they were defaulted in immediately into the
33:16
Speaker 2: Nationals because it had won the year before is odd
33:19
Speaker 2: to me. I don't know if that's an actual rule.
33:21
Speaker 2: So if those who have are part of this world
33:23
Speaker 2: know this, tell me, or if that was just for
33:25
Speaker 2: the plot line, Like that just seemed odd.
33:28
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, and I did see, like I saw. One
33:33
Speaker 1: thing I noticed is that the touro's there, the letters
33:37
Speaker 1: it's almost spills out rich Oh really yeah on their
33:41
Speaker 1: cheering outfit it's.
33:42
Speaker 2: R oh yeah.
33:44
Speaker 3: Yeah yeah, And I did.
33:46
Speaker 1: I read a lot about it in terms of, you know,
33:49
Speaker 1: the whole thing is kind of kickstarted by this largely
33:54
Speaker 1: white team has been stealing routines largely non white team
33:58
Speaker 1: right to win and get this reputation all of this time,
34:02
Speaker 1: and then having those moments around yes, Torren's trying to
34:09
Speaker 1: pay for them to go because she feels guilty and
34:11
Speaker 1: wants to make it right, and then being like no,
34:13
Speaker 1: we're good we don't need to just a lot of
34:18
Speaker 1: like you said, it's not ever directly addressed, but it
34:21
Speaker 1: is nice. It's there, right, it's definitely there underlying.
34:27
Speaker 2: Well, I mean, we can talk about that because we've
34:28
Speaker 2: seen this in content creation. We've talked about when it
34:31
Speaker 2: comes to like the dance routines. We've talked about this,
34:34
Speaker 2: especially with music, like when we talk about K pop
34:36
Speaker 2: specifically because I'm in that world, but we talk about
34:39
Speaker 2: like who they are stealing from, and then the definition
34:42
Speaker 2: of cultural appropriation versus appreciation, and that's rare, and then
34:46
Speaker 2: outright stealing Kim Kardashian, Kendall Jenner, like they're at the
34:51
Speaker 2: forefront of making so much money from stealing from other
34:55
Speaker 2: other creators, and oftentimes it is marginalized people that they're
34:58
Speaker 2: stealing from. And then they and I know that both
35:03
Speaker 2: of them are people of color technically, but they're white
35:06
Speaker 2: passing and have been able to kind of just bypass
35:12
Speaker 2: all of that conversation until it's good for them, which
35:15
Speaker 2: is that other conversation that we often talk about and
35:20
Speaker 2: it's not addressed enough. But yeah, in this one specifically,
35:22
Speaker 2: we're talking about I don't feel like there was any
35:27
Speaker 2: there wasn't. There was no like justice serve, there was
35:31
Speaker 2: no like retribution, There was no payback for the stealing,
35:35
Speaker 2: the years and years and years of stealing. We kind
35:38
Speaker 2: of see Red as a villain and she is, don't
35:41
Speaker 2: get me wrong, and Aaron, but the rest of the
35:43
Speaker 2: crew being okay with it for so long and still
35:45
Speaker 2: don't care until they get called out. It's kind of like,
35:47
Speaker 2: oh and then no one ever actually acknowledges it again,
35:53
Speaker 2: I'll fix yeah.
35:58
Speaker 3: Yeah.
36:00
Speaker 1: But at first, like I was confused at first because
36:03
Speaker 1: I thought like, oh, this Pulaski Polastri guy has been
36:10
Speaker 1: doing this for years, and so I thought it was
36:14
Speaker 1: like him and that he finally just got caught, like
36:18
Speaker 1: he was stealing or whatever and teaching all these other people,
36:22
Speaker 1: and then it was read. But yeah, I mean, yeah,
36:25
Speaker 1: that's that is a huge conversation and continues to be
36:30
Speaker 1: one of who's getting the credit for these ideas, who's
36:37
Speaker 1: getting the awards, who's getting the money all those things?
36:40
Speaker 2: Well, and also so in the world of competitive cheerleading,
36:44
Speaker 2: from what I remember, it's just like gymnastics trying to
36:47
Speaker 2: create new moves in order to show like new advancement
36:53
Speaker 2: or new tricks. And being able to show like these
36:56
Speaker 2: skills that are different. Things like the liberty, which is
36:58
Speaker 2: when you stand up with one knee up with someone
37:00
Speaker 2: holding your one foot, like was really new. But they
37:05
Speaker 2: have those rules where if you're underneath and pushing someone
37:08
Speaker 2: up from below they're directly above you, that's actually illegal
37:11
Speaker 2: because if they fall, they will break your neck. So
37:13
Speaker 2: you have to have fee them in front of you.
37:15
Speaker 2: So all these different rules and because of some of
37:18
Speaker 2: these dangerous moves, they have to be really really creative
37:21
Speaker 2: and what they do a lot of the basket tosses,
37:24
Speaker 2: turns and flips up in the air that was in
37:26
Speaker 2: the last twenty years, Like honestly, like the flips and
37:30
Speaker 2: turns were newer, and it showed a lot of like
37:32
Speaker 2: athleticism and strength that was new from just doing a cartwheel,
37:36
Speaker 2: you know, so that they were trying a lot of
37:38
Speaker 2: new stuff and with that being able to be that
37:40
Speaker 2: creative and create your own routine on like the taking
37:45
Speaker 2: a pyramid where people were just on their knees to
37:48
Speaker 2: an actual like standing like bactuck up into a pyramid
37:52
Speaker 2: was brand new for the longest time, and so creating
37:55
Speaker 2: these things, you know, kind of like the fact that
37:57
Speaker 2: Simone Biles has a move named after her now, but
38:00
Speaker 2: she created this is a big deal. So having the
38:03
Speaker 2: being the first ones to do this is such a
38:05
Speaker 2: big thing and a maker within like cheerleading more. I
38:10
Speaker 2: guess uh that it is. It is upsetting to see,
38:15
Speaker 2: like on a serious note, upsetting to see this and like,
38:20
Speaker 2: I'm sure it happens often. I'm sure it happens often.
38:23
Speaker 2: You know. There's a lot of times when I remember
38:25
Speaker 2: we would see something that a competitor did or the
38:28
Speaker 2: other team dated. We're like, ooh, we like that. We're
38:30
Speaker 2: going to take that, you know what I'm saying. Sharing
38:33
Speaker 2: is one thing and learning is one thing, but to
38:35
Speaker 2: steal and take credit for it again. This is that
38:37
Speaker 2: conversation and the fact that they never really acknowledged it,
38:41
Speaker 2: even Torrance never publicly really acknowledged it. They're just like, oh,
38:44
Speaker 2: how bad didn't know m And literally was like, oh
38:52
Speaker 2: I didn't know. And I says like, well, now you
38:53
Speaker 2: do fix it. I kind of don't, but there you go.
39:00
Speaker 2: And that is bring it on all of this political spectrum.
39:04
Speaker 2: I'm not really sure what the rest of them films
39:06
Speaker 2: were like. So Hayden Pantier Solange Noles Bring It All
39:12
Speaker 2: or Nothing two thousand and six, it did not rate well.
39:18
Speaker 1: Now I went on this rabbit hole yesterday and I
39:20
Speaker 1: feel like none of them, none of the other ones
39:24
Speaker 1: did well.
39:26
Speaker 2: Hey, but that's interesting.
39:28
Speaker 1: Uh.
39:29
Speaker 2: There was a new one in two thousand and nine,
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Speaker 2: Fight to the Finish, and this one had Christina Milion,
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Speaker 2: So that's a whole different conversation. I love that they
39:39
Speaker 2: bring in some R and B accent to this. Anyway,
39:43
Speaker 2: there you go. So if y'all have seen these other movies,
39:45
Speaker 2: let us know, does it go down this theme route
39:47
Speaker 2: Arthur Routines.
39:48
Speaker 3: Has good Yeah, let us know.
39:51
Speaker 1: And if you've been involved in cheerleading, if you have
39:53
Speaker 1: any thoughts about any of this, please let us know.
39:57
Speaker 1: You can email us a step nee mom stuff atiheartmedia
39:59
Speaker 1: dot com. You can find us on Twitter at Mom's
40:01
Speaker 1: of Podcasts or in instacrament TikTok at stuff w never
40:03
Speaker 1: told you We're on YouTube. We have a teat public store,
40:06
Speaker 1: and we have a book you can get wherever you
40:07
Speaker 1: get your book. Thanks is always to our super producer Christina,
40:11
Speaker 1: executive producer My and your contributor Joey. Thank you and
40:14
Speaker 1: thanks to you for listening stuff on Never Told You
40:16
Speaker 1: Is Prediction by heart Idio. For more podcasts from my
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