“We’re here! We CHEER! Get Over It”
There is a guilty pleasure of mine I must confess to, something I think that might be a pleasure for many of us who grew up with cult classic films like Step Up, Honey, Stick it, and Bring It On (to name but a few stars of this deep well of deliciousness).
Generally speaking, I am legit obsessed with all cheer, dance, and gymnastics-related films, TV shows, and culture. This obviously includes the Olympics however, that gorgeous world of gods and goddesses is not what I am here today to discuss. Today I look to the highly competitive, and truly often batshit crazy, phenomenon of cheerleading. Cheer is its own universe here in the States. It’s almost like a national identity in and of itself, and for the people who are in it, they are IN IT. They live, breathe, and alter the course of their lives, sometimes moving across the country, to belong to it. I. AM. HERE. FOR. IT. This sport is often regarded as being sexist, misogynistic, anti-feminist, sexualizing, and yet and yet and yet. It is a form of athleticism that demands an indelible mixture of dedication, pretty much lifelong training in gymnastics and dance, oodles and buckets of unceasing energy, a commitment to dolling yourself up/matching ‘the look’ and also asks the human body to destroy itself in order to succeed. What a fuckin’ rush eh? This…this is not just a sport. Especially because it holds as much makeup, drama, and secrets within its (tightly regulated by the National Cheer Association) walls as any Real Housewives or Love Island-type reality show. There is a global interest in these types of documentary-style stories that hit at the intersection of rags to riches, sports, hot bods, and cult-like tribalism. Netflix got the world looking at this sport in 2020 with Cheer and it has blown da fook up in good and bad ways. Seems like the world of cheer needed a shakeup.
IF you want drama just google Navarro Cheer and controversy oh boy you will drown in it.
Now we have even more of a peek into this tasty space of tight tushies with Netflix’s newest special America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. Here is the spooling madness of my contradicting personal thoughts during my multiple-day binge of this show.
As I type this I am watching the coach of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleading (D.C.C) squad legitimately discuss whether the arch of one of the potential cheerleader’s eyebrows is enough of a consideration to keep her on the team or cut her. They say and I quote “Is that structural or bronzer?” I feel that deep within my core. This show has me careening down a path of internal self-reflection. Are the flaws I see pulsating from myself structural or simply bronzer? I, in my matrescence, feel so disembodied at times it’s almost laughable. My baby was born over a year ago and still, I haven’t found a home in my body. Perhaps it’s because I have rarely felt that way in my 30-plus years of life or perhaps it is the slippering marketing of the world telling me what my postpartum self should be both physically and in my identity. In any case, I feel seen and also confusingly aggravated at this whole process.
Side note, why are the men in the first round of judges not in any way dancers, trained coaches, or anything that would make sense to judge women dancing for team? Are they there to simply decide which women they think are hot? That one boot guy ogling these ladies and saying they don’t look in perfect shape? ehhhh sir?
The critiques from the judges, coaches, and trainers throughout the show focus on the itsy bitsy teeny weeny moments the average person would not even think of. Perhaps that is why they are so good because these coaches can design something absolutely perfect. They see past present and future while. calculating the degree of a cheerleader’s foot as it crosses her face during the kick line (see below)
At first, I liked them and now I am disappointed in them with a visceral ferocity. The coaches of the D.C.C have been discussing amongst themselves, with the woman who I think owns (?) the Cowboys company, about a rookie who is shorter than most of the girls. They consider cutting her because of her height stating that she appears (amongst 38 other women) to be that of a child running too gleefully after adult women. What in the bullshit??? This is brutal, it is petty, and it overlooks everything else she has done up to this point to earn her place on the team. This leads these women, in positions of power, to discuss potentially making an essential change to the application process by introducing a height requirement (I KID YOU NOT) for the D.C.C.
Imagine….if Simone Biles showed up to audition, all 4 ft 8 inches of her powerful self, and they turned the greatest gymnast in the world away because her height was too…childlike. Seems to me to be hypocritical for an organisation that stereotypes feminine sexuality into these narrow definitions of beauty as directed by the male gaze to court the opinion of public appeal. Then of course there is the darker side of organizations like this that profit off these cheerleaders who are underpaid and yet rake in billions for the company with their time and labour. I am so mad but boy do I LIVE for this shit. This stuff must be so incredibly intense on these women’s mental health that I can’t even handle it.
Watching the faces of the cheerleaders fall as they are called to stay back on cut night is heartbreaking. Why am I crying so hard? Perhaps because I have been in that place of shattered peace where you know no way forward and you are very publicly losing hope. There is just this big heart in these young women and also an admirable dedication. To see them crestfallen after getting so close…especially since many of them are not young people of privilege but often from lower-class backgrounds or have had adverse childhoods. Are we the same? Could I too be a cheerleader simply because of my heart and goddess-like physical capabilities?
So looking past the gossip and drama, it’s surprising to me that I am so obsessed with the world of cheerleading. A major valid criticism of the culture is that it is highly problematic. The focus on the body and ‘beauty’ encourages eating disorder behaviour. The obsession with perfection triggers mass mental health issues and generates a culture of injuring oneself to succeed. More than anything the whole industry is propped up on objectifying women to sell its concept.
What do I like about it? I think there is something within that culture that connects to a side of the feminine expression I have never been capable of embodying. A femininity that is strong yet soft and ‘girly’. I am not that lol. These women are athletes capable of far more athletic expression than most people I know and they are beautiful while they kick ass. They are also a team. They lift each other up (literally) and the sense of belonging is palpable. For the women who make it in the D.C.C the community they are stepping into literally makes them glow and shine, and they are so positive towards each other. It is very alluring. Is it all a ruse though?
and yet, and yet, and yet “the most defeating thing as a leader…even if I had a bad day or a horrible week there is no room for letting those emotions show.”-quote by Kelcey Wetterburg one of the group leaders.
It is such a contradiction. On the one hand, there is this incredible backbone of athleticism in cheer. These men and women are dancers, gymnasts, and generally beacons of positive energy that train and train and are examples of the kind of discipline we dream about. But there is a dark side to cheer. It is all-consuming, it perpetuates harm, it drives people to devestation, and it covers up scandals of sexual harassment, ageism, wage theft, and just general brainwashing so that the followers don’t see the cruelty.
I go to the final episode with both excitement for the fun, and performance side and a keen interest to see how they deal with what the Netflix series is rightfully bringing up. That the star-spangled hot pant clad hotties are part of a toxic and traumatic system.