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O
ne of the classic American discussion points – right
up there with Mexican border walls and buffalo
wings vs. jalapeno poppers - is whether cheerleading
is a sport.
It is highly competitive, calls for strategy and incredible
physical prowess, and comes with a bunch of risks. It even has
uniforms. So, yep, it checks all the boxes. It’s a sport.
Perhaps those armchair experts who are ordering their seventh
Bud Light could settle that particular quandary and turn their
inquiring minds to the real conundrum of cheerleading: should
it exist at all?
Cheerleaders are underpaid, under-valued and overly
sexualized eye candy who have been exploited in professional
sport ever since the first sequined pair of short shorts was
squeezed onto a woman’s behind.
The politics of the sport are pretty obvious to anyone with
even a passing understanding of feminism. Can these women
be considered as role models when their primary function is
to stand at the sidelines in order to glorify the athletic skills of
men? There secondary function, of course, is to be ogled by
tens of thousands of men in the stands.
This argument is not readily accepted by the majority of fans
and is confined to university lectures in liberal arts colleges or
in hipster-dominated cafes where the muffins tend to swing
towards the gluten-free end of the spectrum. Plenty of women
think cheerleading is integral to sport, which is, after all, just
entertainment.
And obviously the cheerleaders themselves don’t seem to mind
twirling a pom-pom. Indeed, cheerleaders are highly trained,
ambitious women who take pride in their careers. There is no
such thing as a phone-it-in cheerleader.
The true misfortune of cheerleading is not to be found in
its latent sexism –that is an argument for the future- but in
how these incredible athletes are exploited and marginalized
within their own work places. Given the nature of the NFL, for
example, they would not exist without a financial imperative.
The franchises are money-making juggernauts, and anything
found within that stadium on game day is usually costing the
fan and making money for the owner.
It is estimated that cheerleading earns teams an additional
US$1 million annually. It helps get men through the gates,
but there is a string of promotional activities tied to the job
as well. Calendars, special event hosting duties, autograph
signings…even auctions are held where you can rent your own
cheerleader. The skin crawls when thinking of a rich retiree
pays a few thousand to have a Raiderette cheer him during
Sunday afternoon golf.
It would surprise no one, though, to discover that this arm of
the merchandising department gets a raw deal.
These same Raiderettes are paid around US$1250 per year,
which breaks down to less than 5 dollars per hour. This is
below minimum wage, and unlike other low paying jobs,
cheerleaders can’t exactly go into the crowd and ask for tips.
Other teams pay by the game, and the total for five hours of
training and glamourising is around or even below US$100.
So naturally, this being America, law-suits have begun popping
up. The Oakland Raiders were the first to get pinged and had to
settle the matter out of court. They sprinkled US$1.25 million
over 90 former cheerleaders, which amounts to one month’s
basic salary for many of the star footballers being cheered on.
Lacy T., the originator of the raiders lawsuit said “you don’t
make any money. You’re better off serving beer and hot dogs
in the concession stand.”
The franchises are slowly moving their bloated hands to open
their cheque-books as the threat of further litigation looms, but
the tussle for fair pay will be long and fraught. Cheerleading is
classified typically as part time work, which means they should
have a main source of income.
CHEERLEADING:
A DANGEROUS AND DUBIOUS SIDESHOW
By Timothy Mottram
10 | Touchline issue 24 | September 2016
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