Kyle never got that football star body he’d always dreamed of. Nope. Instead, he was stuck with his petite figure, what his classmates liked to call, “a chick’s body.” Nothing ever went his way, that is, until he embraced what he had and decided to try something crazy at his new school: showing up as a girl, in makeup, girl’s clothes, sporting a fancy new name: Kyla. He has the whole school fooled, and for once, he feels good. So good that he decides to take his new identity to a whole other level—going under the knife, beginning a full transition towards becoming a real girl. Now, with his new body, he even makes the cheer squad. But the big first game is coming up, and no one told Kyla about her big initiation in the locker room, with the whole football team.

I spent my whole life dreaming of being an athlete. I’d always been good at sports, but there was one problem: that growth spurt I was waiting for never came. I was short, the same height I was when I was twelve years old. I thought that I was just going to be a late-bloomer, but my doctor told me one day, “You aren’t a late-bloomer, Kory. You were an early-bloomer. You just didn’t bloom to be so big.” It seems like my dreams of being a Wildcat will never come true. I’ll never get to lead a team to victory. But Eva, the cheerleading captain, has a proposal for me. She insists that there is a way that I can still help the team, by motivating the players and building up their confidence. I thought that I was willing to do anything, but am I willing to put on a wig, some makeup, and a dress—for a dozen men?

A Harvard professor and former Dean of Harvard College offers his provocative analysis of how America's great universities are failing students and the nation

Entertainers or athletes? Leaders or losers? Cheerleaders, numbering 3.8 million in the United States alone, are part of everyone's school memories. Looking beyond the poms and megaphones, Cheerleader! An American Icon explores how the sport reflects our shifting beliefs about athletics, entertainment, gender, and national identity. Natalie Guice Adams and Pamela J. Bettis trace cheerleading's history, from its inception 135 years ago as a male leadership activity, through the sassy era epitomized by the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, to its current incarnation as a physically demanding sport. Integrating history, pop culture, and interviews with participants of all ages and even those in the business, Adams and Bettis simultaneously celebrate cheering and provide critical analysis as well. Cheerleader!: An American Icon is a poignant, hilarious, powerful, and revealing look at a perennially popular activity.

Drawing on qualitative studies of teamsport athletes and fraternity members, this book describes the rapidly changing world of masculinities among men in both the United States and Great Britain. As cultural homophobia decreases, university-aged men are influenced to construct a softer version of masculinity – one that is not predicated in homophobia. Inclusive Masculinity shows that today's youth express decreased sexism, racism and masculine bullying. As Eric Anderson demonstrates, men who value inclusive masculinities are also shown to be more likely to bond in emotional relationships with other men and to embrace a variety of behaviors once coded as feminine, including certain same-sex sexual behaviors. Now available in paperback, this groundbreaking analysis of masculinity and young men will be of interest to students and faculty members within Sociology, Gender Studies, and Sport Studies.

The Journal of School Leadership is broadening the conversation about schools and leadership and is currently accepting manuscripts. We welcome manuscripts based on cutting-edge research from a wide variety of theoretical perspectives and methodological orientations. The editorial team is particularly interested in working with international authors, authors from traditionally marginalized populations, and in work that is relevant to practitioners around the world. Growing numbers of educators and professors look to the six bimonthly issues to: deal with problems directly related to contemporary school leadership practice teach courses on school leadership and policy use as a quality reference in writing articles about school leadership and improvement.

Hanson (American studies, U. of New Mexico) offers an broad overview of cheerleading and its place in American culture, looking at the cheerleader as a symbol invested with both negative and positive values. She touches on issues such as the social context of the institutionalization and adult control of cheerleading; the changing patterns of age, class, and gender of participants; and the development of cheerleading in professional sports in the 1960s. Paper edition (unseen), $14.95. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR