Some of these ladies get paid as little as $105 a season, while being subjected to jiggle tests and fines for gaining five pounds. Some teams even have bizarre personal (and we're talking very personal) hygiene rules. And the teams and their owners meanwhile make millions, a portion of which may be attributable to the cheerleaders' work.
On the latest edition of the Double X Gabfest Hanna Rosin quipped, off-hand (so I don't hold her responsible for the opinion only for reporting it), that it is harder for feminists to get behind cheerleaders than, for instance, strippers. Strippers sometimes describe themselves as artists, she said. And strippers are edgier.
Feminist -- old line feminists, I suppose -- like an in your face hyper-sexualized traditionally female profession, but only if it's edgy.
But why?!
Look at the patronizing rationale for not paying NFL cheerleaders a decent, minimum wage. Why are old-line feminists not outraged by such belittling treatment of young women?
Often NFL cheerleaders are college students, ill-equipped to fight back, unschooled in the cruel world. Their cheerleader contracts may be the first employment contract they've ever signed. They probably don't have the document reviewed by independent legal counsel. Why doesn't the "sisterhood" stand up for them?
Is it because NFL cheerleading seems fakey? Seems smarmy? Too middle America? Too mainstream? Maybe the cheerleaders deserve it? Maybe they're asking for the unfair treatment? Surely, no right thinking feminist would think that way. Not and also fight for the rights of edgy, arty strippers.
I guess I should pause to say, perhaps superfluously, that I'm not a huge fan of NFL cheerleaders. Or the NFL. Or football in general.
I don't mind what I think of as "real" cheerleaders -- those acrobats of the fields. Those ladies (and gentlemen) are straight up impressive athletes. But booty shaking, booby jiggling, pom-pon waving pin-up girls -- I'm not a fan. I don't care if they are considered "ambassadors of the team." (I'm not all that into the "team," anyway.)
But I'm a feminist and, by damn, if we feminists can line up for fair treatment for strippers, I see no reason why we cannot line up for an equal wage and fair treatment for NFL cheerleaders.
They deserve to be paid for the work that they do. They deserve at least minimum wage. They deserve more. They deserve to be afforded a modicum of human dignity while on the job. And I do not think that being considered a "hot girl" substitutes for monetary compensation or excuses ill-treatment by their employers. Neither should anyone else. Go team.
