She's On The Money - Red Flags and Realities of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders

Episode Date: August 10, 2024

Today V uncovers the truth behind the iconic Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, and all the red flags that could turn a dream job into a dangerous trap. From shockingly low wages to relentless body image pressures, this iconic job is a cautionary tale for women everywhere. Listen in and find out why the glamour might not be worth the grind. Acknowledgement of Country By Natarsha Bamblett aka Queen Acknowledgements. The advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's On The Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards your needs.  Victoria Devine and She's On The Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN - 321649 27708,  AFSL - 451289.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hello, my name is Natasha Nabanunga-Bamblett. I'm a proud Yorta Yorta, Kernai, Wolperi and Awadjeri woman. And before we get started on She's on the Money podcast, I would like to acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land of which this podcast is recorded on Awadjeri country, acknowledging the elders, the ancestors and the next generation coming through. As this podcast is about connecting, empowering, knowledge sharing and the storytelling of you to make a difference for today and lasting impact for tomorrow. Let's get into it. She's on the money. She's on the money.

Hello and welcome to She's On The Money, the podcast of millennials who want financial freedom. Even if you don't have a Netflix account, you have probably already heard of America's sweetheart, Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. It's the number one series in Australia right now and has been for a while. The show follows the lives and the progress of new cheerleading recruits for the American football team, the Dallas Cowboys, and it's got a lot of people talking. Despite having their fair share of controversy from sexual assault to wage theft, they've had some of the biggest scandals in the cheerleading industry, and despite being exposed to the

sexist, misogynistic, outdated, and highly problematic world of the elite cheerleading organization that Dallas Cowboys is, it honestly does set out to do exactly what it sets out to do, sharing the emotions, the challenges, and successes of the industry. But for me, it brought up so many infuriating thoughts, and I'm here to have a chat about why. So let's have a little bit of a conversation about my main points of concern about the show, and I don't think anyone is going to be surprised that they're financial. They are incredibly talented, and these women are at the very top of their industry.

They have trained arguably their entire lives to earn minimum wage. Firstly, these women are not paid what they are deserving of by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, Kat on the show, if you know, you know, said in 2022 that her salary was similar to a Chick-fil-A worker who maybe works full time. This is generally around 25 grand a year in America, which is about $35,000 Australian, which is absolutely disgraceful. The Dallas Cowboys are the most valuable football team in American football with a net worth of, wait for it, $9 billion this year, and they are the world's wealthiest sports team. Let that sink in. Their cheerleaders are paid less than a Chick-fil-A worker. The majority of the players

that play for the football team and people behind the scenes are millionaires, and the highest NFL players in the industry, they make more than $50 million a year. Yet, they're not valuing their women. In fact, their team's mascot salary is reported to be $65,000, more than double what the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders are making. These women dedicate their entire lives to dance education, including spending thousands on ballet and jazz and gymnastics training. And when asked about the DCC's low salaries, all the chief brand officer, Charlotte Jones, could offer was some speech about it being in a sisterhood and how it's been that way since 1972. Are you guys for real? it wasn't until 1974 that women could get a credit card in their own name.

We learned from the first episode that these women are incredible, having to undergo both physically and mentally challenging training and recruitment processes while sustaining full-time work as nurses, doctors, orthodontists, and accountants. The second thing I want to talk about is their lack of diversity. Now, throughout the tryouts, We see so many aspiring D.C. cheerleaders who are black and brown being cut, and then they celebrate that a red-headed white dancer gets through, and they call that a sign of diversity. I mean, Charlie is lovely, but a red-headed white dancer who got through all of the auditions is not a sign of diversity. Dallas is a very ethnically diverse state in a country that has some of the largest ethnic diversity in the entire world. Jackie Scott, who is a former Dallas Cowboy cheerleader, has said before that the standard

of beauty in professional cheerleading is a white European one. And in the years since she was on the squad from 2012 to 2016, she mentioned that she'd never felt comfortable to wear her natural hair. She said, it never occurred to me that maybe I could start over and rock my natural hair as a cheerleader because I'd never seen it done. Instead, she wore her hair relaxed and when the heat did so much damage that she experienced extensive breakage. The squad recommended she get extensions. Cynthia L. Robertson, PhD, an associate professor and chair of the Department of Black Studies at the University of Nebraska Omaha, has mentioned that black women get rid of their curls because of white supremacy. People view straight hair, light skin and smaller noses as, quote, more

beautiful. She's been quoted saying, black women since the plantation have had to alter their hair in order to be accepted. And Robertson then said, I would imagine that these cheerleaders know without even being asked that they need to straighten their hair. When women are auditioning for these professional cheerleading teams, former cheerleaders and dance teachers usually advise them to model their look on what they have already seen present in the team. And this is especially true for black cheerleaders. In fact, Scott said, you feel like there's only a certain number of spots for the minority cheerleaders. On a squad of roughly 36, Scott was one of six black cheerleaders for two years and one of three black cheerleaders during her own two years. She's been quoted saying,

no one has ever said this. It's just how we feel. It's almost like we're competing against each other to get that spot rather than embracing one another. You often look at the who's who of the team and what they're like. Clearly, they like them and how they look. So I'm going to try and just look like that so I can show them that I can be part of their team, which to me is not embracing diversity. And given the DCC leader has been quoted in saying it's been the same since 1972, it's just part of the tradition. I think it's time that tradition changes. All right, let's move on from that because I want to talk about the conversations that they're having about women's bodies. Now, I feel like I've had this conversation a number of times on the podcast

because it is really important to me and our community. But also, it's really topical this week because researchers just come out to say that Taylor Swift has had a very positive impact on her fans' body image and diet culture. So 10 out of 10 for the Swifty culture, but 1 out of 10 for the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders. There's honestly so much harm being done throughout this entire series when it comes to the normalization of not just nasty or unrealistic but dangerous expectations they have on women's bodies. I don't know if you guys have watched it but the way Victoria is treated, the way Victoria treats her body, not me the cheerleader, is honestly disgusting. I feel so bad and I want to scoop her up and give her a hug because she is

crucified for having the body she has when in actual fact to me she looks like a supermodel. Throughout the entire show, we see skinny women being called curvy, the commonality of women experiencing body dysmorphia, they normalise not eating, and it's expected that they fit in the same uniform they get at the start of the year for the entirety of the year. They will not be reissued another uniform should their body change for any reason. In an audition round, one male judge was quoted as saying she has more weight on her face compared to the year before. At this point, we really have to ask ourselves how much damage is being done by elevating these standards for women by putting them on the telly. Let's go to a really quick break, because if you thought that my rant was over, my friend, you were wrong. Don't go anywhere. All right, guys, we are back.

and I don't know if you're as impressed as I am with their high kick that goes straight down into the splits but there is evidence all the way through the show that this is an unsafe working environment for women in every single way. In fact one of the veterans is talking about having a hip replacement but just wants to see out one more season before having to go through such a traumatic surgery. In addition to all of this there are experiences of assault and stalking by these women due to their job alongside daily objectification they experienced due to it. One of the things that absolutely sent me was that they have a no touch policy for the cheerleaders when getting photos with fans, right? So that makes sense. Like obviously they are not there

to be touched by men. They are not there to be touched by anybody. But throughout the entire series, when we see the cheerleaders taking photos with fans, the DCC team hand the men a football And there's a reason for it, right? And it's absolutely messed up. It's to prevent the fans or the men taking photos with them from touching the women inappropriately. And we know that this has come from experience, right? The football didn't just happen because they questioned men. The football came because men were taking advantage of the situation. In fact, in one episode, a man says while getting a photo at a meet and greet event with the girls, can I put an arm around you? And a security guard promptly replies, hands on the football.

A security guard later adds that it's a no touch policy and that they always bring footballs with them because if a man doesn't get this, if a man doesn't feel comfortable standing with his hands to the front or the side, they give him the option of holding the football as though he wouldn't know what to do with his hands apart from touch these women. It gives me the biggest ick in the entire world. And it takes some of the shine away from being a cheerleader in this space. And we're remembering here that they also get paid minimum wage. I don't know if we need to go back to that, but not only are they being put through these trials and tribulations, they're literally being abused. They're in an unsafe work environment and they're expected to just be happy with minimum

wage because it's essentially all for the glory. On top of this, these women are athletes and their work is physically dangerous and damaging. If you watch the series, you know that most cheerleaders after their seasons, after they retire, end up having to get some type of reconstructive surgery. The team doesn't provide them with any health insurance. The injuries that the cheerleaders are left with are intense. We're talking things like reconstructed hips, not just like a little torn ACL. One of the retired veterans featured, so Caroline, for those of you who follow the show, who is the older sister of Anna Kate, who gets through the audition process, don't worry, she not only had to undergo one giant surgery, she had to undergo two after she retired.

During her last year on the team, she found out she needed a whole hip reconstruction surgery, but she chose to put it off so that she could continue cheer for the team. She later had to go into surgery for her left foot, which left her wearing a moon boot to recover. None of it was covered by the team. None of it was covered by insurance and she couldn't work the entire time. Then there are the dreaded split jumps that every single DCC member has to perform during the thunderstruck routine, which causes permanent hip damage for most of them. Look, the last thing I wanted to talk about is the expectation that these women have to do their jobs and be saints at the same time. These women are expected to reach absolutely impossible body standards, be the

absolute best dancers in the entire world, have perfect hair, perfect makeup, and they are also expected to be nice to everybody at all times. They're meeting fans constantly, they're holding dance sessions at nursing homes, they're visiting children in hospitals, and then they're held to the unreachable moral standards and scolded when they fall short. Excuse me, but this is her literal job. She is working. She is learning more than 50 routines for minimum wage. She doesn't owe thanks to anybody, especially the director of the DCC. All right, I feel like I've ranted far too much, but the fact that the Dallas Cowboys cheerleader team has not changed since 1972, and all of this is just part of the tradition, and it's a privilege to be part of the team, has driven me insane,

which is why we're having this cute little Saturday rant. But I will wrap it up there, because enough is enough. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed watching that show. I love a bit of drama you all know that my favorite show in the entire world is the Real Housewives of Salt Lake City so if that says anything about the type of content I like to consume please don't judge me but at the end of the day I think we need to be watching these shows with a really critical eye and a really critical lens to make sure that we are not normalizing these behaviors they are absolutely disgusting and I think that while the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders show has been fantastic to watch and clearly has been really engaging it's cracked open a conversation on just

how problematic they are and on how a lot of the expectations that are sexist, misogynistic, outdated and highly problematic are put on not just the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders, but women as a whole. So guys, have a good Saturday. I hope I haven't brought down the mood, but instead found a heap of friends who are on the same page as me. The advice shared on She's On The Money is general in nature and does not consider your individual circumstances. She's on the Money exists purely for educational purposes and should not be relied upon to make an investment or financial decision. If you do choose to buy a financial product, read the PDS, TMD and obtain appropriate financial advice tailored towards

your needs. Victoria Devine and She's on the Money are authorised representatives of Money Sherpa PTY LTD ABN 321 649 27708 AFSL 451 289.