Happy Friday!  Here are some stories that we wanted to highlight for your weekend reading:

• Cheerleading used to be a men’s-only sport.  Three U.S. Presidents were cheerleaders (Eisenhower, F. Roosevelt, Reagan) and in terms of masculinity, it was considered equivalent to playing football.  Women didn’t start cheering until World War I, when men were deployed and they stepped in.  (Via Sociological Images)
• A thorough history of female-driven sports movies throughout the years.  From Thin Ice in 1937 to Whip It! in 2009, Anna Clark discusses female sports movie tropes (“the guy whose coaching of female athletes signifies how very low he’s fallen”) and how the genre has evolved.  (Via Grantland)
• The IOC has ditched the requirement that women’s beach volleyball players wear bikini uniforms.  A win for everyone who has ever had to rescue a bikini from their butt. (Via Fourth Place Medal)
• Rick Santorum doesn’t want boys using pink bowling balls.  Because you know, touching the color pink when you have a Y chromosome is totally wrong.  You knew that, right? (Via Jezebel)