Male cheerleaders get made fun of, because well, “male” and “cheerleader” is viewed as an oxymoron. Society sees cheerleading as a female-dominated, feminine activity, so dudes will make fun of dudes if they do it. They will say it’s an effeminate thing. This is just how it works.

But, that’s sort of wrong, because cheerleading is hard. And if you’ve ever seen a male cheerleader, they are straight up jacked. You need to be strong and limber to participate in cheerleading. It takes some pretty good physical skill to do a lot of things involved with it. That goes for both sexes. So when I read that a Wisconsin court has ruled that cheerleading is a contact sport, I can get down with that:

High school cheerleading is a contact sport and therefore its participants cannot be sued for accidentally causing injuries, the Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled Tuesday in a case being closely watched in the cheerleading world.

The court ruled that a former high school cheerleader cannot sue a teammate who failed to stop her fall while she was practicing a stunt.

The court also said the injured cheerleader cannot sue her school district.

The National Cheer Safety Foundation said the decision is the first of its kind in the nation.

At issue in the case was whether cheerleaders qualify for immunity under a Wisconsin law that prevents participants in contact sports from suing each other for unintentional injuries.

It does not spell out which sports are contact sports. The District 4 Court of Appeals ruled last year cheerleading doesn’t qualify because there’s no contact between opposing teams.

“Contact” is used a bit loosely here. Basically, the court needed to use this terminology to rule that because there is physical contact between cheer members on the same squad, accidents and error can happen that result in injury, and thus, you can’t go suing everyone under the sun for your injuries because of that fact.

Now, cheerleading is certainly not football. And it’s not rugby. I’m not arguing it’s a tough, rough and tumble sport. But, it’s clear from the types of moves that occur while one is cheerleading that similar injuries can occur to ones you see in football or rugby. When you’re thrown 15 feet in the air, things can go awry. From a legal standpoint, calling cheerleading a contact sport makes a whole lot of sense.

A lot more sense then say, calling golf, tennis or even baseball a contact sport.

Link via Dr. Saturday.