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This is American Hysteria's Aftershock, where I share with you a story that didn't make it into the

main episode. I'm your host, Chelsea Weber Smith, and today we're talking about school spirit.

Yeah, man, we're going to beat that spirit. Yeah, man, we're going to beat that team.

Yeah, man, for us. You know that team! Yeah, man, all right, right, right.

You know, you've really got it, you're at Lauren.

We've really got what?

Maybe you'll think I'm kind of corny, but, well, you've really got the right kind of school spirit.

Whether you spent your teenage years holding handmade signs, singing along to your school's fight song,

screaming for the boys bashing into each other on the field, or scoffing at the spectacle from under the smoky, graffiti-laden bleachers,

we all know this phenomenon called school spirit. Just think of

homecoming, the week-long quintessentially American ritual of welcoming students back from the joyous

summer months and straight into the hierarchy of the American high school popularized by every

form of entertainment, a glorification of male sports, of feminine cheerleaders beaming from the sidelines,

of kings and queens lording over those who want more than anything to be christened into the title of

...