Sun City West Jazzy Poms series
The "Sun City West Jazzy Poms" have with great courage defied our stereotypes of aging by redefining an American institution --- the cheerleader or "pommie." Can the cheerleader be, and can only be, a bouncing, sexually emerging teen? An elderly cheerleader challenges our cultural attitudes that revere reproductiveness and youthful good looks and our expectations that older people are, or ought to be, asexual or socially dormant. We do not naturally conjure up images of 60 to 85 year old cheerleaders- short skirted, legs kicking and synchronized. Yet with grace and energy the Jazzy Poms challenge our notions that the elderly are fearful of aging, fearful of appearing sexy, fearful. As one elderly cheerleader put it, "We have beautiful legs for women our age. We get whistles and propositions. People can't believe our energy. I don't know an old person out there. We are not old women. We don't look like old women and in fact we never looked better in our lives. When we are getting whistles we thrive on it. It's nice to have men pay attention to us." For every Sun City West Jazzy Pom there are hundreds, or more likely thousands, of older people who because of society's pressure cannot do what the Sun City West Jazzy Poms do for us, defy aging by putting on the uniform and kicking away our outdated cultural attitudes toward the elderly.
- by Troy Aossey
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