[Page 8: Give Me An F: Radical Cheerleading and Feminist Performance]

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Jeanne: I would, but I wouldn't want anyone to think that you're joking. Let's talk about the Radical Cheerleader convergence at the Pro-Choice March for Women's Lives in Washington, D.C.

Mary: I went down with another New York City cheerleader, a woman who works with the Paper Tiger [TV collective], and we brought video cameras and equipment to shoot a documentary. We met up at Bluestockings [feminist bookstore] to talk about what we wanted the video to look like, and whose work we were inspired by. We wanted the video to be interactive, and we wanted to have adventures and be in the camera because we're a part of it too. The march was organized by Planned Parenthood and NOW and NARAL, and it was huge, but within that the D.C. Radical Cheerleaders had organized a smaller march that was called the "Radical Cheer and Noise Block." Through email they invited people to participate in a march that was more anarchist in style, was illegal, and was all about cheering. So when I got there I was surprised by how many of us there were. It was totally separate, a few blocks away from the main march, and well over one thousand people participated. We eventually joined up with the main march and the crowd response was overwhelmingly positive. I've never seen so many Radical Cheerleaders visible and out in the streets. I saw cheerleaders from California, Seattle, Boston, Florida, Texas, Philadelphia, and New York. We ran up and down the crowd shooting video footage, doing interviews and talking to people about their involvement in cheering, what they thought about it. We really tried to get the basics. I was trying to keep track of all the friends that I never see except once a year at some protest. It is so easy for us to make our own media sometimes. I was also simultaneously keeping a diary of the day for a Polish cheer zine that is coming out by the Warsaw squad. We're here, and all we need to do is record it.

Radical Cheerleaders Audio Files

All files are in MP3 format and vary in size/download time (file size is indicated next to each cheer name)

Resist (962 KB)
Dyke March (5.32 MB)
Bike (1.14 MB)
Riot Don't Diet (1.43 MB)
Work (929 KB)
Hooray for Anarchy (1.26 MB)
My Bush for President (1.02 MB)
History Talk (411 KB)

In August 2004 the New York City Radical Cheerleaders completed "Don't Let the System Get You Down—Cheer Up," a video documentary of the Radical Cheerbloc at the March for Women's Lives. The video screened just in time to celebrate and inspire the hundreds of Radical Cheerleaders who converged in New York to protest the Republican National Convention. You can see moves against the RNC in a video public service announcement online at www.nycradicalcheerleaders.org.

Jeanne Vaccaro received her Master's in Performance Studies in May 2004. Her amateur archive projects are on zines and transgender fashion. You can write to Jeanne at vaccaro@graffiti.net.