Auntie Em!

It's Not Just About Kansas Anymore

Remember when Texas State Representative Al Edwards proposed legislation that would fine high schools whose cheerleaders performed sexually suggestive moves? According to Edwards, cheerleaders — young women who were once considered (in the era of knee-length cheer skirts) to be the ideal of moral character and womanhood — were degrading themselves, serving as veritable Rossetti’s damsels. Though the legislation never passed, he served as one man in a long line of leaders who have decided it is their moral duty to protect young women from sexuality and having to make their own decisions.

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This article is reprinted from Campus Progress.org, the youth-oriented magazine of the Center for American Progress.