Love Your Body Through Street Theatre

Coinciding with national Love Your Body Day on Wednesday, October 20, Yinz Cheer, Pittsburgh’s radical cheerleading group, took action against negative body image promotion and the diet industry’s attack on women’s self esteem through street theatre performances downtown.

“We want to say that we love our bodies just the way they are, suggesting that others could do the same,” says radical cheerleader Amy Benson. “We want people to confront the fact head-on that it might be okay to love your body right now, the way it is today, rather than for its potential to lose 15 pounds and then actually be okay.” 

Yinz Cheer took over public spaces such as Market Square and the Wood Street T as well as various street corners during the busy downtown lunch hour to reach as many people as possible. “We support healthy eating and fitness,” adds Benson. “We do not support obsession, self-hatred, or any of the other psychological games that usually go along with dieting. Our purpose is to point out that it is a choice, and its not the only way to be healthy.”  Supporters of Yinz Cheer also handed out flyers to passersby that suggested ways of defining physical fitness that don't have to do with an arbitrary number on a scale.

Annual Love Your Body Day was launched by the National Organization of Women (NOW) in 1997 as part of the Women’s Health Project. The campaign promotes self-esteem and a healthy lifestyle and sponsors an annual day of action to speak out against advertisements and images of women that are offensive, harmful, dangerous and disrespectful. For more information on this national day of action visit: loveyourbody.nowfoundation.org.

Yinz Cheer is not officially connected to NOW in any way. Members are a local squad of women that protest social inequality though performance. Radical cheerleading is activism with pom-poms and combat boots. It’s non-violent direct action in the form of street theatre. Members believe in the equality of women and want to do something locally around the issues surrounding this national day of action. To contact Yinz Cheer, email radcheerleaderspgh@yahoo.com.

- Marie Skoczylas

Yinz Cheer performs "Riot, Don't Diet" and "Atkins Diet,
We Don't Buy It" at the Wood Street T Station. (Photo
by Minda Quickel)