Recasting masculinity: the cheerleaders subverting Austria’s gender stereotypes

Far right’s election victory has breathed new life into the male and non-binary squad Fearleaders

Dressed in short shorts and tight T-shirts, they bounded on to the gymnasium floor. After the female roller derby teams had pushed, pounded and smashed into each other, the men and their pompoms were now on the same court in Vienna, ready to offer up the exact opposite: a hip-shaking, acrobatic half-time show.

“We wanted to play with the stereotypes,” said Andreas Fleck, one of the founders of Austria’s Fearleaders, believed to be Europe’s first squad of male and non-binary cheerleaders. “We have this idea of heroic, strong male players on the field and on the sidelines these very sexualised female cheerleaders. We wanted to turn this around.”

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