The University of Washington has removed a poster for its cheerleading squad after the graphic received severe backlash, including may people calling it sexist and misogynistic.
The cheerleading flier featured a white woman with blond hair and was meant to give advice on how to tryout for the team. But the poster ended up being more upsetting than instructional and faced almost immediate reproach.
“I can't believe this is real,” Jazmine Perez, a University of Washington student and a member of the student government, told the Seattle Times. “One of the first things that comes mind is objectification and idealization of Western beauty, which are values I would like to believe the university doesn’t want to perpetuate. As a student of color who looks nothing like the student in the poster, this feels very exclusive.”
But opposition came from more places than just the Seattle campus.
In a statement, University of Washington athletics officials said they created the graphic “in response to a high volume of student questions about cheer and dance team tryouts,” the Seattle Times reported.
It was removed after the department “determined that some of the details and descriptions provided were inconsistent with the values of the UW spirit program and department of athletics.”
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