The types of things that high school and college cheerleaders do (pyramids and whatnot) are basically the same stuff that gymnasts do… minus the nice padded floor. However, that’s not what NFL cheerleaders typically do – they’re more like a dance squad. Not to say that they don’t practice hard or suffer injuries, but they’re not being tossed in the air for the most part.
I’ve been friends with a couple ex-NLF cheerleaders (one Redskins and one Raiders), and neither one was “paid” in a traditional sense. Both got some small stipend for showing up at a game (essentially gas money), but that’s about it in terms of “salary”.
They did get a reasonable income from other sources, however. The photo-shoot mentioned in the article was for a calendar, probably one of several. The cheerleaders would all get a fee for the shoot or else a cut of the proceeds from the calendar sales (depending on the team), and there were other products that they were paid for, like videos or photo-books… pretty much like a traditional modeling gig. The trip to exotic locales for photo shoots were viewed as perks/free vacations, and both really liked being a part of their favorite team’s organization (they were big football fans before becoming cheerleaders).
Both of the cheerleaders I was friends with said that all the above still totaled up to far less than a living wage, but noted that it was not a full-time job either. Beyond only being a few months out of the year, the practices and games were mostly after-hours and both of them treated it like a second job or even a hobby.
Both said that they hoped that the cheerleading might lead to them being “discovered” as models, but neither was banking on it. One was in the medical field and the other was in business for their primary gigs.
I am utterly unsurprised that Snyder would be whoring out his volunteer cheerleaders. The man is slime.
One thing about fashion models, though, is that they are not inherently sex symbols, not for high-end fashion or even most ready to wear stuff. They are walking clothes hangers. They need to look good enough to show off the clothes, but not so super-sexy or whatever to overshadow whatever Alexander McQueen’s or Michael Kors’ studio is putting out on the runway. In some ways, they are anti-objects. And the aesthetic requirements are hella different from what they want for NFL cheerleaders, in terms of body types.
That while this scenario sounded crazy bad, the “normal” state of cheerleaders is a sexual objects. Not normally for actually having sex with but as shiny objects for fans to look at and fantasize about.
Certainly to some extent, but fashion models are in some ways necessary in order to show off the clothing.
Cheerleaders sole purpose is essentially as a sexual object.
Again, none of this is said as any sort of justification for the obliviously abhorrent behavior.
There was a popular thread in Reddit about the dangers of cheerleading. I certainly think twice about allowing my girls do it when they grow up, try to steer them to sports that are actually classified as sports.
I definitely think professional models (runway or otherwise) are used as sex objects. And they model clothes that other women buy so they can look like sex objects too.
Male athletes (many of whom spend a lot of time in front of a camera) also occupy this role to some degree, in that they are used by other men to measure their self-worth against. Not to mention I find sports culture to be kind of homoerotic.
It’s not really about the cheerleaders themselves, as much as it’s a statement that i think it’s kind of fucked up how cheerleading is entirely based on objectifying women.
It’s like, what happened at that photoshoot was fucked up, but even if the photoshoot had just gone on as one would expect, it would still be fucked up.
On some level, I think it’s totally fine for women to want to do that, or be strippers, or porn stars, or prostitutes. It’s their body to do whatever they want, and i don’t judge them poorly for it, and i also don’t think what you suggested, that any of those things mean that the woman is preemtively agreeing to other things. But I’ve also always found those things made me uncomfortable, which is why I’ve never really enjoyed strip clubs.
I think we are greatly overselling the sexualization of cheerleaders in this thread, especially in the age of internet porn. They represent an almost Disney-fied sexuality, and when I see NFL cheerleaders on TV, it’s almost striking in how they project an almost corporatist verisimilitude of sexuality, a sexiness that is as much wholesomeness as it is anything else. This whole episode, at any rate, isn’t about sex, or sexy. If you have enough money to afford a luxury suite for Redskins games and an all-expenses trip to a tropical resort, you can afford to go see beautiful women sunbathe topless at a variety of places around the world. If you are looking to have a beautiful woman on your arm as an “escort” for a “date” and whatever may happen ancillary to that, you can find a beautiful escort for at a bargain price of a few thousand per night. And there won’t be any tears.
No, this is about power. You’re not going to be able to brag in the boardroom about seeing beautiful topless women sunbathing in Brazil, because, who cares? And you’re sure not going to talk about the $5k per night “date” you had, because that’s stigmatizing for you. But…if you can tell your buddies, nudge-nudge, wink-wink, that you got to see some naked NFL cheerleader boobs? And then one of them was your date – and you leave out the quotes around the word date …well, then you have something. You have a sort of power, and you have it because you humiliated and violated the consent of women, but you’ll never tell.
So no. Not “No shit.” That’s a near-Douthatian response to this. And let’s just not go comparing NFL cheerleaders to strippers, porn stars, and prostitutes within the same sentence. That’s just…yuck.
I totally agree with this, but it’s still an objectification of them. They are essentially just props, and they are there solely for their sexuality.
Again, i agree with this that there’s some kind of messed up power trip driving the weird island thing.
Why not, exactly?
To be clear here, I’m not suggesting that they are “just as bad”, but rather that there isn’t anything morally wrong with any of them, assuming they aren’t being coerced by anyone into those things.
A cheerleader is kind of doing the same thing as a stripper, but not quite as naked.
I’m sorry though if i gave the impression that i was minimizing the badness of the thing with those guys at the photoshoot though. That was not my intent.
Hmmm. Do you really think all those things are the same? Only one of them is a sex worker. The other two are in the exact same position as the model or the cheerleader, professionally. They are not paid to escort men. Unless you are conflating their jobs, which you seem to be arguing against.
It’s also possible women who use their looks and bodies as sex symbols to get money and fame are all on a similar spectrum. Actresses, models, porn stars, strippers, Vegas dancing girls, adult cheerleaders, ring girls, car show girls, booth babes… only the actual prostitute stands out with distinction. The rest are not sex workers, they are jobs.
I mean, women’s figure skaters wear more revealing outfits these days. Put them in the same category? How about an art student looking to fund his or her education by posing nude for classes? What about synchronized swimmers, modern dancers, ballet performers? All variously wear far more revealing outfits at various times than an NFL cheerleader.
And hey, actresses. I mean, Alexandra Daddario did a nude scene in True Detective. That mean that if I grab a couple of c-notes, it’s cool for me to ask her if I can buy some sex? I mean, same deal, right?
