Cheerleaders were told not to wear uniforms after boy complains they give him "impure thoughts"

[davidn3600]

Last week, when a male student at Timpview High School in Provo, Utah, complained to a school counselor that the uniforms worn by cheerleaders on game day were causing him to have "impure" thoughts in class, the conversation could have ended there. But it didn't.

After the teen said that he was distracted by the cheerleaders' skirts and his mother emailed an administrator, the school's cheerleading coach was alerted about the concerns, and 44 girls on the Timpview Thunderbirds' cheer squads were told not to wear their uniforms to school last Friday before the football game against the Alta Hawks.

Now school administrators are trying to clear up the kerfuffle, which they insist was simply a misunderstanding gone awry. But cheerleaders say they didn't get that impression.

Speaking anonymously because they are afraid of being ostracized for discussing what happened, several members of Timpview's cheer squad tell PEOPLE exclusively that school administrators held a meeting after the boy's complaint and couldn't come to a decision about what action – if any – should be taken.

"But then after the meeting, one of the assistant principals communicated to the cheer coach that we shouldn't be wearing our uniforms to school," says one cheerleader. "All of us were trying to decide which skirt to wear on Friday and our coach told us that we couldn't wear them anymore. We asked what would happen if we wore them anyway, and she advised us not to. So we didn't. Instead we wore best dress the next day."

Timpview school administrators did not return PEOPLE's request for comment.

Most of the cheerleaders were upset about what happened, with one telling PEOPLE, "it's giving this boy power that when he grows up and does something to a girl, he can blame it on her skirt being too short. It really made me angry. Why should this boy have control over what we wear?"

---

In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, young men and women are taught that their bodies are sacred and that they should dress modestly to show reverence. But this often leads to "body shaming," says Kate Kelly, the founder of Ordain Women who was excommunicated from the LDS Church in 2014 for advocating female entry into the all-male Mormon priesthood.

"In a culture where females are responsible for all sexual 'sin,' it unfortunately makes sense that girls – even talented athletes and performers – would be shamed for what they wear," Kelly tells PEOPLE.

http://www.people.com/article/utah-cheerleaders-body-shamed

[underpants]

1. Kids these days

[awoke_in_2003]

71. No shit

I had impure thoughts multiple times every Friday during football season. I managed to work through it

[Raster]

93. In the Mormon church, you're not supposed to "work through it."

ANY SEX - any shape, form or fashion - outside of the marriage of a man and a woman is FORBIDDEN. That includes masturbation.

I was born and raised in the church. Trust me, if the church could force women into burkas, they would.

[awoke_in_2003]

109. So would just about every

funny xtian group in the country. Congrats on your escape.

[Ilsa]

2. How is this boy's attitude any different from that of

Extremist muslim men who blame women for making them horney or controlling or violent or stupid?

[Dr. Strange]

9. Well, for one...

you can criticize the boy and his church (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) without being called Islamophobic.

[Missn-Hitch]

34. Mormophobic?

[apcalc]

79. Call it what you want, bullshit by any other name is still bullshit.

The boy has to learn that his " impure thoughts " should not control other people, especially women. He is responsible for his behavior.

[paleotn]

46. Ummm, that's a negative, Dr. Strange....

....saying that all Muslims are blood thirsty terrorists and the epitome of evil is Islamophobic. It's the same as saying all Mormons are just like Warren Jeffs, evil heretics bent on a nationwide mountain meadows massacre. The reality is, the vast, vast majority of both are just normal people, interested only in peacefully living their lives. They harbor some nutty ass beliefs, but most people do. Whatever they do to honor their particular religion is perfectly fine as long as it doesn't negatively affect anyone else. Wearing a hijab is fine. It only pisses off those looking for a reason to be pissed off, which is self inflicted in my mind. However, telling a another group they CAN'T wear something because said person cannot control their own hormones is a bit beyond the pale. My advice to the kid is take care of your impure thoughts however you so chose, but mind your own goddamn business.

[Ron Obvious]

60. Seems you have trouble reading.

He said:

For one thing, you can criticize the boy and his church (the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints) without being called Islamophobic.

Which you somehow read as:

saying that all Muslims are blood thirsty terrorists and the epitome of evil is Islamophobic. It's the same as saying all Mormons are just like Warren Jeffs, evil heretics bent on a nationwide mountain meadows massacre.


Hint: why do you think a word like Islamophobia even exists, when we don't have equivalent words for Mormonophobia, Hinduphobia, Catholophobia, Christophobia, Budhistophobia? It's because it's used to immediately play the race card whenever the doctrines of Islam (hint: an ideology, not a race) are criticised or questioned. It's a cheap trick to attempt to put the religion beyond criticism.

We liberals (in all senses of the word) shouldn't be playing their game.

[True Earthling]

74. Not sure it's a "cheap trick to attempt to put the religion beyond criticism"

IMO there are two cognitive reasoning errors I see by people who tend to call out others as Islamaphobic...

1. People who use the Islamaphobia card are more likely to confuse religion with race. Religion is well defined by ideology and dogma...race is more fuzzy and nuanced. Since religion and race and tend to overlap in many parts of the world it's easy to assume that race heavily influences the choice of religion...it doesn't. The lines of distinction between religion and race doesn't exist to a person who shouts Islamaphobia and that same view is presumed to exist in others..which in most cases it doesn't.

2. Another error is to suspect or assume a comment made about a single individual is a broad statement about that person's race. My intuition is that people who use the Islamaphobic argument are always on high alert for racism and tend to have a hair trigger response for the smallest sign that racism is lurking behind any negative comment towards a minority individual. In many cases these signs don't exist except in the mind of the accuser through assumptions and leaps of logic. Somewhere I read this statement and I agree with it..."The individual who is always on the lookout for racism will tend to find it...whether it exists or not"

[leftynyc]

75. Wow - I wish I had seen that

poster earlier today - I could have used it while being called an Islamophobe for my assumption the bombers in NY/NJ were Islamic before it was confirmed.

[Dr. Strange]

76. Right...

but here on DU, you'll find posters that will call this event "Just another day in Mormon-Land," but will also suggest that the idea that Muslim men should, as you say, mind their own goddamn business (which I completely agree with) is inherently Islamophobic.

It's a stunningly blatant double standard. Not just treating Islam different from other religions, but being more judgmental at, for example, Mormons who think gays shouldn't be allowed to marry, than at Muslims who throw gay people off of buildings. Or supporting the right to stick a crucifix in urine, but questioning whether we should allow people to draw Muhammad.

[Act_of_Reparation]

103. Here, let me paraphrase that for you:

"It's different because arbitrary reasons."

[TexasMommaWithAHat]

110. haha Good one!

nt

[davidn3600]

23. I guess in that case we are supposed to show tolerance and make exceptions

When it's Islam, we are supposed to show tolerance and make exceptions. When it's Christianity, it's fair game to attack it all you want.

You even had a DUer in here a few days ago saying how the hijab is a fashion statement and that more women should wear them to "embrace tolerance."

[whathehell]

72. Correct There is an obvious double standard on DU

Muslim Extremists = Tolerate

Christian Extremists = Condemn

[mythology]

51. Well see being an extremist Christian is correct according to them, ergo being

an extremist Muslim is incorrect. I mean sure that's a distinction without a difference in how it plays out, but they seem very sure that extremist Muslims are worshiping the wrong deity.

[GummyBearz]

90. The kid needed help and went to a councilor

I'd rather the kid talk to a councilor (that is why they are there right?) than take some violent action "in the name of god" and stab like 8 people, or plant a couple bombs around the school. Good thing mormons seek some type of help before just blowing people up.

[jtuck004]

58. any "...men who blame women for making them horney or controlling or violent or stupid?"

It's not.

[CaliforniaPeggy]

3. It seems that in many cultures, boys are allowed to get away with this crap.

And the girls get all the blame.

This is wrong.

[cwydro]

16. Bingo Peggy.

Amazing.

[paleotn]

49. You are 100% correct....

....just one more way gross misogyny raises it's ugly head.

[FreeState]

52. Many parts of the US too

Utah isn't the only state where the majority have extreme sexist beliefs.

Edit to add:

https://bycommonconsent.com/2016/09/16/not-even-close-faculty-gender-balance-at-the-byus/

[GummyBearz]

91. According to what I read the boy was distraught and saw a councilor

I hope many cultures do allow boys to do such a thing. Whether or not he was distraught over something superficial a secondary question. My dad got distraught over loud noises due to his PTSD from the war, I am glad he was able see a councilor about it.

[msanthrope]

95. It's called concern trolling. nt

[get the red out]

105. Agree

I despise misogyny, I don't care what culture is the culprit.

[LuvNewcastle]

4. I would have told him to go fucking pray about it.

After all it's his problem, not theirs.

[bmstee01]

5. As a Former Cheerleader

As a cheerleader we were routinely told we were athletes, but then treated like ornaments on the sidelines. Most cheerleaders today do it for the competitions. Schools and even the top cheer organizations always reminded us that our first commitment was to cheer games and our competitions were secondary. Many of us loved the acrobatic aspects and learned to play along in order to get to compete. I always respectfully spoke up. It's come a long way, but not long enough.
As far as the uniforms... It's important that cheerleaders have uniforms that are flexible and form fitted to safely execute the acrobatics. I will be honest, the make up and the mini mouse bows... I hated. But again it takes time, but cheer is slowly moving away from objectifying girls.
As far as the boy.... A woman shouldn't have to change how she dresses at the request or comfort of any man.

[paleotn]

48. Exactly! n/t

[Warpy]

6. Tell that little putz that it's time for him to get his own head under control

before he tries to control the world around him so he's never reminded that slightly over half the people in it are women.

That the little asshole isn't being told to control himself is symptomatic of much that is wrong with this world.

One more whine out of him and he should be handed a blindfold. Problem solved without inconveniencing anyone else.

[davidn3600]

27. I dont know if I blame the kid totally

It's a certainty that his parents and his church are the reason he thinks this way.

[EL34x4]

43. I blame school administrators

for acquiescing to a single outraged mother.

[Warpy]

55. Yeah, but he needs to be told where the line is

and that he can't blame the female half of the population for things within himself he doesn't like.

[duncang]

7. Maybe they could start wearing hijibs

[Amimnoch]

32. Sarcasm, but might not be that bad of an idea.

Just think if all the cheerleaders showed up to school in those. That would make such a statement.

[MasonDreams]

8. Those thoughts are not "impure" young man.

sex is natural , sex is good. Miraculous invention of our Creators, don't listen to the wrong people. You can think for yourself!!

[Stallion]

10. Congrats Kid-You're Perfectly Normal

hopefully the people around you won't screw you up

[DFW]

22. From the sound of it

It's too late

[In_The_Wind]

11. Don't blame the Cheerleaders.

[Thinkingabout]

12. Maybe attention should be placed to changing these thoughts.

Sounds like this young man needs help.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

13. This is exactly the crap that allows males

to say it's the woman's fault she was raped.

No. It's never her fault.

That juvenile jerk needs to learn to live in the real world.

The sponsors of the cheerleaders needs to tell the school that it's a long-standing tradition that the cheerleaders wear their uniforms on game day, and he can just get used to it. Or stay home.

[Hekate]

14. I just love theocracies, don't you?

[aidbo]

37. More like theo-crazies

[athena]

15. Why don't men dress more conservatively?

Does this young man really think that men in tight-fitting shirts or tank tops, or men who are into body-building, don't give us women "impure thoughts"?

Perhaps body-building and cheerleading should both be outlawed. And men and women should all dress in burkas. That will solve all of the world's problems.

[Bok_Tukalo]

17. No. The only answer is nudity.

<OPE>

[tonedevil]

33. I will not live in a world...

that wants to see me naked or that wants to be naked en masse in front of me. Clothing was invented for a reason and I won't stand for this roll back of civilization.

[malthaussen]

107. Oh, now really, Athena...

... girls don't have impure thoughts, doncha know? Or if they do, you know what they are.

There's a technical term for this. I believe it's "double standard."
There's another, more pithy term for it. "Bullshit."

-- Mal

[athena]

115. LOL. I love that.

There's a technical term for this. I believe it's "double standard."
There's another, more pithy term for it. "Bullshit."

[edbermac]

18. How about these uniforms?

No impure thoughts now, huh kid?

[Warren DeMontague]

19. Believing that there's a giant invisble wizard in the sky obsessed with your sex life

Is the very definition of an "impure thought", to my mind.

[mrmpa]

20. Here's the Principal's email..........

[e-mail]

FYI: All administrators are male. Women are in support positions, e.g. secretary.

[Major Nikon]

62. ...

http://timpview.provo.edu/news/timpview-welcomes-new-vice-principal-lyndsay-huntsman/

[mrmpa]

70. She wasn't on the page when I pulled it up.........

earlier. There were the faces of 4 men.

[bhikkhu]

21. Mark 7, 9-14

“You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God in order to establish your tradition! For Moses said, ‘Honor your father and your mother’; and, ‘Whoever reviles father or mother must surely die.’ But you say, ‘If a man tells his father or his mother, “Whatever you would have gained from me is Corban” ’ (that is, given to God) then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, thus making void the word of God by your tradition that you have handed down. And many such things you do.”

And he called the people to him again and said to them, “Hear me, all of you, and understand: There is nothing outside a person that by going into him can defile him, but the things that come out of a person are what defile him.”

Not that I'm into the bible, but any christian should know this one immediately.

[Wednesdays]

67. Matthew 5:29

"... if your right eye causes you to sin, make the girls all cover up, for it's all their fault..."

Oh, wait...

[malthaussen]

108. They're Mormons.

You'll have to pull up a relevant text from the Book of Mormon.

-- Mal

[LeftyMom]

113. Or some offhand comment from some doddering man quoted in Ensign.

A thing Spencer W. Kimball said once > a particularly relevant bible verse

[Lokilooney]

24. That title...

I imagine cheerleaders not wearing any uniforms might give more than him impure thoughts *ashes cigar*

[progressoid]

53. Exactly!

And welcome to DU Lokilooney.

[DFW]

25. The boy in question needs to answer a thing or two

Including: Just what thoughts he was having exactly, and which ones he considered impure?

Was he thinking of sex, or mass murder? (What kind of parents raised this tortured soul, anyway?)

[LeftyMom]

26. Even the rest of the Morridor thinks Provo is weird and repressed.

[Raster]

94. ...Morridor...

[barbtries]

28. boys that age

are consumed with "impure" thoughts! they're just bags of hormones. apparently he doesn't have anyone to tell him he's normal.

[Eleanors38]

100. When I was a teen my thoughts were pure impure.

[barbtries]

101. mine were pretty much the same

and i was a girl!
hippie days, what can i say

[HockeyMom]

29. My NYC Catholic Girls School Gym Uniform in 1960's

http://search.aol.com/aol/image?q=a%20league%20of%20their%20own%20costume&s_it=searchtabs&v_t=wscreen50-bb-ac

Yes, just like from the 1940's time period movie A League of Their Own. These uniforms had matching attached bloomers underneath.

If we were unfortunate to have a fire drill during Gym and had to go out on 34th St? Yeah, we still got catcalls wearing this. Sexy is in the mind of the beholder.

[ToxMarz]

30. What next, honor killings?

[redstatebluegirl]

31. Makes me think of the episode of the West Wing with the Bible Thumpers.

Toby Ziegler answered one of them who said condoms made boys minds turn to lust. Toby said "show a teenage boy a lug wrench and his mind turns to lust".

[Aristus]

35. That was the pilot episode.

I knew well before the end of the first episode that TWW was going to be a TV show for the ages...

[KamaAina]

36. So will they be wearing burqas instead?

[weissmam]

38. another instance of stupid religion

[Missn-Hitch]

42. Hear, hear!!

[tammywammy]

39. When I was in school the cheerleaders wore pants with their cheer tops during the school day

I graduated high school in 1999. But throughout junior high and high school the cheerleaders wore pants that matched the rest of their cheer uniform during the school day. They would also wear them if it was cold outside at a game, but wore their skirts during pep rallies or other games.

[Missn-Hitch]

40. I hope he doesn't resort to, ahem, you know....

MASTURBATION.

[lpbk2713]

41. This kid is in danger.

Mom went the wrong way with this. Junior needs counselling ASAP.

[MineralMan]

44. High school boys? Impure thoughts?

The very idea! I am shocked. Socked, I tell you.

[msanthrope]

97. "Socked" No Freudian slip there. No. nt

[MineralMan]

98. LOL!

Typos can be fun!

[Initech]

45. I'd like to tell that guy where he can shove his "impure thoughts"...

But the decorum prohibits me from listing that here.

[Purveyor]

47. I'm an advocate for "school uniforms" and have been for years. Problem solved... nt

[ProfessorGAC]

87. We Had School Uniforms

And, cheerleaders still wore their cheerleader uniforms on game day. Grade school is was for basketball games. High School is was for Football and Basketball games.

So, in this case, not sure school uniforms would solve this silly issue for this silly boy.

[LiberalFighter]

50. He likely had impure thoughts before this. Also...

why doesn't he have impure thoughts when they wear dresses or skirts?

[Spitfire of ATJ]

54. Proof that religion doesn't promote thought.

[Leith]

56. Two Thoughts

1. A boy in high school has "impure thoughts" 24/7.
2. If the cheerleader uniforms are too sexy school, wouldn't they be too sexy for them to be wearing in front of the football fans? Why is one place bad and the other place okay?

[Nevernose]

57. Forget about the sexism. What's wrong w/ impure thoughts?

Sexual attraction and impure thoughts are perfectly normal for a fourteen year old (of any sex).

There's nothing wrong with sex, or thinking about sex.

[Major Nikon]

66. Organized religion would have a hard time surviving without guilt and sexual repression

Provo, UT is almost exclusively LDS which is about as close to a cult as most mainstream religion gets, so you can expect even more guilt and sexual repression.

[LanternWaste]

85. It seems the point of article is that

"There's nothing wrong with... thinking about sex."

It seems the point of article is that a poor, oppressed young man lacks the mental discipline to focus on what's on his studies and blames his female students for that weakness, regardless of the irrelevancy of whether there is anything wrong with the act or thinking about the act.

[Act_of_Reparation]

104. There's nothing wrong with thinking about sex...

...until you pop a boner in the middle of math class and the teacher calls you up to the blackboard.

[Nac Mac Feegle]

59. How ......Utah

[HughBeaumont]

61. If girls who like girls can control themselves around cheerleaders . . .

. . . maybe it's not the clothes that are the problem.

[Wednesdays]

63. Next up: the arrest of women wearing swimwear

that *gasp* reveals their legs above their ankles!

[Divine Discontent]

64. well, heaven forbid he join the swim team!

[LuckyLib]

65. Ha! "Impure thoughts" is so 50's-60's Catholic school that boomers

smile when they hear it. Yes! Those impure thoughts that needed to be "confessed" to the priest. LOL!

[GulfCoast66]

68. I do not necessarily blame the boy

but the parents and his type of religious upbringing.

The normal high school boy reacts the following ways to the cheerleaders in their uniform

-think about it all the time
-look as much as you can
-go home and masturbate about it daily
-figure a way to get into those skirts

That is the normal and mostly health reaction. But this poor boy has been told all four of these will put his soul at risk and he must not do so. And since he cannot help doing the first, probably cannot resist the second and third, then the poor boy really feels he is at risk of hell. And his dumbass mother, having had relations with men knows they cannot resist so she expects the girls to take the burden. Total Bullshit.

When I was in high school, a few of our cheerleaders who I was friends with(sadly not romantically) would make certain to give this boy an 'extra' show whenever they could get away with it if this happened to them. Just to cause him further 'grief'. They were not ashamed of their bodies and did not mind showing them off.

I grew up and remain a Christian, but a very different one than this young man. My dad, and presumably mother, knew what I was going thru and never did anything to shame me.

[Frank Cannon]

83. No "problem" that Rosie Palmer and her Five Sisters can't handle.

Yes, this kid needs to join the club of tens of millions of teenage boys across America.

[GulfCoast66]

111. His repressive

Parents have put him into an impossible place.

[Lady Freedom Returns]

69. I tried that excuse in Collage Algebra II ....

Tried to say that the football player was so cute I had a hard time concentrating.
Ya know what see said?
" Wright down your notes, listen to what I have to say, do your homework and ask him out in the Lion's Den when you two are there. And don't try that lame excuse again."
Same applies to you kid.

[Odin2005]

73. Just another day in Mormon-Land.

[liberal N proud]

77. If we were educating kids on how to deal with sexuality and not preaching abstinence

The boy would have know how to handle his natural attraction to women and wouldn't have had "impure thoughts"

[anoNY42]

78. That's what you get for showing you ankle, I guess... nt

[AngryAmish]

80. Was a teenage boy, can confirm.

Girls in cheerleader outfits create impure thoughts.

Those unis have killed trillions of my descendants.

[get the red out]

81. Theocracy

Same as mysoginy.

[hatrack]

82. Well, then you can avert your eyes, you precious little holy snowflake . . .

. . . or find a monastery. I'm sure you'll fit right in.

[bluestateguy]

84. Most teenage high school boys will not agree with him

nt

[ProudToBeBlueInRhody]

86. They'll agree it gives them inpure thoughts....

....they'll disagree that it's a "problem that needs to be solved".

[Calculating]

88. Utah problems

Utardia is truly a bizarre state at times.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

92. I seem to remember having "impure thoughts" in my high school classrooms.

The rest of high school was pretty much a waste of time.

[Eleanors38]

96. Misspelling: "Bodies are sacred" should be "bodies are scared." Fixed.

[0rganism]

99. "impure thoughts during class" = story of my adolescence

so many impure thoughts, had to think overtime to get them all thunk, like my mind was a hive of impure thoughts.
if a girl wore something that fueled further impure thoughts, i was goddam grateful for it even if i didn't say so.

of course, i wasn't in Utah at the time...

[saltpoint]

102. Next step for this young man is to

undergo the same treatment given to Alex in A Clockwork Orange.

Either that or Bobby Jindal will have to be flown in for an emergency exorcism. I'm sure all the Mormon elders of Utah will welcome Bobby with open arms.

[malthaussen]

106. I thought that was the point!

Personally, I never had an impure thought I didn't like.

-- Mal

[jmowreader]

112. Uhh...guys...

These are the uniforms that gave our young friend "impure thoughts." They're kinda sedate if you ask me.

[malthaussen]

114. If those girls don't give you impure thoughts...

... there's no hope for you.

-- Mal

[Glassunion]

116. "Your stature is like that of a palm, and your breasts like clusters of fruit.

I will climb the palm and take hold of its fruit" - Song of Solomon 7, 7-8

[Dr. Strange]

117. Verilly he grabbed upon my clusters of fruit.

And didst bind them tightly. Then didst he tease me. Down there.
And his love did cover me like a fine wine, or a melon's dew, or something.

Fifty Shades of Solomon 20:12-13

[Glassunion]

118. Actually it was the "juice" of the pomegranate.

[dembotoz]

119. wearing a suit and tie makes me horny so can i just go casual.... think it will work?

[tavernier]

120. Teen boys have impure thoughts

when looking at a can opener.
Or a sky scraper or a shoelace. That's just the nature of things, no pun intended. I volunteer at the high school and on taco day, we give the boys a choice between soft or crunchy taco shells, because asking "soft or hard?" always sets off snickers or loud guffawing.

Long skirts won't make any difference. The clue is teaching your child respect for others and themselves.