RAH - BOOTY!

This kind of conditioning is intensifying as more and more of the Bushie lies begin to stink so much that even the most rychus find it hard to breath. They know that if the electorate hears their lies often enough and long enough, people will stay home instead of making a futile trip to the polls.

So it's really refreshing to come upon some women who turn political lies and other shenanigans inside out while giving us insight as well as a good belly laugh.

They call themselves Rah-Booty! and they do a performance art that lets us experience the anatomy of a put-on. Like, they are cheerleaders at the same time they are not cheerleaders. Sound familiar? "There's WMD but there's no WMD." (Did you know Dubya was a cheerleader in college?)

Nine students at the Kansas City Art Institute are the Rah-Booty!: Julie Beckert, Becky Buznedo, Heather Gutierrez, Joh Keffe, Lauren McEntire, Leone Anne Reeves, Amber Schneider, Lia Trinka-Browner and Anna Watson present a performance art that makes one discover one's own self-deception.

The Rah-Booty! has appeared at everything from art galleries to extemporaneous guerrilla cheers in the street. They are cheerleaders who are not, but yet they are.

Because, talk about nontraditional image, they spoof the whole cheerleader genre with wild dances and raunchy cheers and jeers. Their garb features piercings, tattoos and armpit hair.

The message, offers Beckert, is "about thinking of cheerleading in a different way. It's a weird bridge between sports and art and music."

"Sometimes when people want to change something they have to be in the same system to change it," explained Buznedo. "And we're using cheerleading to change the stereotype of fake pep and blond-haired girls and big boobs and skirts. That's what America thinks of when they think of cheerleaders."

Trinka-Browner elaborated. "Traditional cheerleaders are cheering for a male team. We cheer for whatever the hell we want to."

Maria Elena Buszak teaches art history at KCAI. She was thrilled at their performance. "Especially since it's so fashionable to say feminism is so dead. Young women don't care. I think this group proves them wrong."

They will tackle any subject matter from urinary tract infection to anti-war sentiments. "Ka-boom! Ka-bang! Look at the bombs do their thang." Buszak added that the members of Rah-Booty! are looking at the tradition of cheer leading. "And they're asking themselves 'if this is a performance in which young women are conventionally allowed to be loud, why aren't they saying anything?' "

It appears that these women have put pompom power to good use. Tough that the media won't give them some exposure but understandable. For one thing, young girls might just get the picture and sign up for another activity instead of cheerleading. Journalism, perhaps since that has become cheerleading with pen/computer instead of pompoms.

Then what would the NFL do without its halftime of tits, ass and pompoms? But maybe just maybe the Rah-Booty! message would persist and we'd have ENLIGHTENED journalists giving us unfettered truth instead of the usual media political porn.

We cannot all be performance artists but we can combine our individual voices to fill the void left by a Bush-suckup media. Call it an Internet grassroots groundswell but we must not succumb to Republican propaganda by default.

"Expecting the unexpected" is not enough. It is too relaxed. Concerned Americans must energize their passion to "Take our Country Back." Here's a way to become involved that links with other groups with the same purpose. http://www.JoinTheBushwhackers.com

twanda@sover.net

2003-024

Copyright 2003 Renee T. Louise and Ruth M. Sprague, Ph.D. These articles may be republished for noncommercial use only, provided that they are copied intact, and that this copyright notice is attached. Address all queries to: twanda@sover.net.