While most female sports are pushing through the 21st century with the goal of gender equality, cheerleading seems to be regressing. 
 
 Cheerleading tryouts are approaching at the University of Washington, and due to the amount of questions about the event, the school decided to create this infographic: 
 
 PHOTOS: College football cheerleaders of the 2015 season 
 
 Do wear false eyelashes but don't wear too much makeup. UW cheerleader tips spark backlash. https://t.co/L3stdTfcHz pic.twitter.com/4RGUMq1MDb — The Seattle Times (@seattletimes) April 27, 2016 
 
 Apparently the ideal Pacific Northwest cheerleader is blonde, tan, skinny and scantily clad. A "beachy glow" and natural tan are easy to achieve in Seattle, right? She wears her hair down — but with volume, of course! No shirts that cover the midriff, so make sure you get those abs toned. And if you didn't know, "Girl About Town" is a lipstick made by MAC Cosmetics and is sold at department stores for $17. 
 
 The image was removed after the UW athletics department “determined that some of the details and descriptions provided were inconsistent with the values of the UW spirit program and department of athletics,” according to The Seattle Times. 
 
 The Times also pointed out that at least two other schools, Washington State and LSU, have produced similar graphics. We wonder why links to the "Hottest College Cheerleaders" show up online. 
 
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 I was a varsity cheerleader my entire high school career. It was great. We competed hard, painted signs and supported our teams — all with an amount of glitter that would make RuPaul jealous. I can't tell you how many times I've engaged in the exhausting "cheerleading is not a sport" argument. 
 
 Cheerleading involves physical prowess, mental focus and a high risk of injury just like any sport does. Girls of all ages put in hours on the mats, they get banged up doing all kinds of stunts, and they have to memorize hours of choreography. UW's 40-person squad has competed at the UCA (Universal Cheerleaders Association) Nationals. 
 
 Sports are about equality. They're about bringing people from all walks of life together to share in a common purpose. Until mistakes like Washington's are stamped out, cheerleading will never be a sport. 

 A University of Washington infographic advising women how to do their makeup and hair for cheer-team trials sparked a social-media backlash Tuesday. 
 
 If you’re a woman and want to be on the Husky cheer and dance team, by all means come to tryouts with a “bronze, beachy glow, false lashes, girl about town lipstick, flattering eye shadow.” 
 
 Natural and spray tans are encouraged, but don’t flash “dark, smokey eyes” or wear “too much makeup.” Then again, “nude lips,” or hair in a ponytail, is a no-no. 
 
 That advice, along with a photo of a white woman with blond hair posing in shorts and a sports bra, was posted on Facebook by the University of Washington cheerleading team Monday night, four days before Husky cheerleader tryouts. 
 
 A Facebook backlash began building online immediately, and the infographic — modeled after similar ones posted by Washington State University and Louisiana State University — was removed before 9 a.m. Tuesday. 
 
 “I can’t believe this is real,” said UW student Jazmine Perez, director of programming for student government, via email. 
 
 “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,” she said. “As a student of color who looks nothing like the student in the poster, this feels very exclusive.” 
 
 Said Signe Burchim, a UW senior: “I think it’s really upsetting and kind of disheartening the way it’s basically asking these women who want to try out to perform their femininity — but not too much.” Such a message would never go out to men trying out for a sport, she said. 
 
 In a statement, Husky athletics officials said they created the graphic “in response to a high volume of student questions about cheer and dance team tryouts.” 
 
 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.” 
 
 Seattle resident Clay Thompson posted it on his Facebook page “to ensure that the University of Washington addresses the overt racism (I know there’s more, but let’s start there) in the ad.” 
 
 He called it “offensive, exclusionary and ignorant. Those are not values of Seattle or the Puget Sound community.” 
 
 “False lashes and not nude lips, but don’t wear too much makeup …? So conflicting,” wrote one commenter on Facebook. “And why so much focus on the ‘right’ makeup, hair, clothes and nails for a tryout?” 
 
 Another wrote: “When I was a cheerleader we worked so hard to be considered a sport. This infographic goes against what we fought for. We don’t ask the same of any other athletes. And really no ponytails??”
– Newsflash: Cheerleaders should not sport ponytails. This according to a now-pulled infographic posted to Facebook by the University of Washington cheerleading team on Monday. It was ostensibly a guide for would-be Huskies, as cheerleader tryouts begin Friday. Instead, the list of Dos and Don'ts—which specified that "nude lips" are out, as are "tops that cover the midriff," while "natural tan/spray tan" and Girl About Town Lipstick (a $17 option from MAC) are in—sparked a backlash, and was wiped from Facebook early Tuesday. The Seattle Times reports that Husky athletics officials said they came up with the graphic after fielding "a high volume of student questions about cheer and dance team tryouts." Now they're fielding something else: complaints about racism and objectification. "As a student of color who looks nothing like the student in the poster, this feels very exclusive," student Jazmine Perez, director of programming for student government, tells the Times. Louisiana State University and Washington State University have produced similar graphics, with NBC News pointing out the other two schools did so "apparently to little controversy," even though all three "are remarkably similar, boasting women with relatively straight, shoulder-length blonde hair." At Sporting News, Haley Sawyer makes the "exhausting argument" she's made ad nauseam: Cheerleading is a sport. Girls "put in hours on the mats, they get banged up doing all kinds of stunts, and they have to memorize hours of choreography." But that reality will continue to be supplanted by a layer of superficiality "until mistakes like Washington's are stamped out."