"Teams will start paying attention to this only when it’s too late."

May 4, 2018 8:22 AM

Five Washington NFL cheerleaders speak out in a lengthy and damning New York Times report that describes the team's treatment of the women in recent years. Among the low points: the women describe having to pose in the nude while being ogled by the team’s male sponsors during what was supposed to be a private photo shoot, only to find out later they had also been selected by these same male sponsors to be their escorts at a night club that evening. “So get back to your room and get ready,” the director told [the chosen cheerleaders]. Several of them began to cry. “They weren’t putting a gun to our heads, but it was mandatory for us to go,” one of the cheerleaders said.

This account of the ... calendar shoot at the Occidental Grand Papagayo is based on interviews with five cheerleaders who were involved, and many details were corroborated with others who heard descriptions of the trip at the time. The cheerleaders spoke on condition of anonymity because they were required to sign confidentiality agreements when they joined the team.

Previously on Metafilter: discrimination case involving Bailey Davis, a cheerleader for the New Orleans' Saints cheerleaders.

posted by hurdy gurdy girl (65 comments total)

Yup, sounds just as fucked up and sleazy as I always assumed it was. Honestly, the entire NFL should just be nuked from orbit.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 8:30 AM on May 4, 2018 [74 favorites]

Or maybe all of humanity. Sorry, I guess I'm having one of those days where everything is terrible and people are assholes and why can't we just admit that we're a failure as a species and somehow just peacefully cease existing.

Give octopus a chance.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 8:33 AM on May 4, 2018 [40 favorites]

“I was not forcing anyone to go at all,” Ms. Jojokian said. “I’m the mama bear, and I really look out for everybody, not just the cheerleaders. It’s a big family. We respect each other and our craft. It’s such a supportive environment for these ladies.”


The "mama bear" self-label always makes me cross my eyes in feminist fury.
posted by Jody Tresidder at 8:34 AM on May 4, 2018 [96 favorites]

"I’m the mama bear"

"My presence is so hostile and dangerous that people accommodate my every need out of a sense of self preservation, but nooo of course I don't coerce people."
posted by jason_steakums at 8:37 AM on May 4, 2018 [103 favorites]

Yeah, later on one of her pieces of self defence is “I’m a mom,” as if that alone makes it impossible to have treated these women badly.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 8:38 AM on May 4, 2018 [25 favorites]

At what point does this become trafficking?
posted by Pope Guilty at 8:39 AM on May 4, 2018 [100 favorites]

As soon as I read "[Washington Football Team] officials collected their passports upon arrival at the resort," I knew this was not going to end well. I'm telling my daughter she goes anywhere where someone "collects her passport" (or other ID, plane ticket, money, etc.), to leave. Come home. Call me. I'll pay. I've never heard of anything good coming of that.

The Washington football team, seems to be super-classy with their cheerleaders. Prior to reading this, Slate told of their "Hot or Not" page.
posted by MrGuilt at 8:40 AM on May 4, 2018 [33 favorites]

I’m the mama bear, and I really look out for everybody, not just the cheerleaders. It’s a big family. We respect each other and our craft. It’s such a supportive environment for these ladies.

I am consistently surprised at how often people make statements about how we're all a big family and no one could possibly be uncomfortable in such a great environment as a response to one of the people they are discussing saying "I do not feel supported and this is not okay".
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 8:46 AM on May 4, 2018 [59 favorites]

I am consistently surprised at how often people make statements about how we're all a big family and no one could possibly be uncomfortable in such a great environment as a response to one of the people they are discussing saying "I do not feel supported and this is not okay".

If you're the kind of person who abuses their power, that is an ideal family dynamic, where everyone working to meet your needs at their own physical, emotional, financial, etc expense makes for one big happy family as long as they don't ever dare to speak up about it.
posted by jason_steakums at 8:50 AM on May 4, 2018 [26 favorites]

Maybe but I also think there are often people who are just incredibly invested in the idea that a space that feels important and safe to them also feel important and safe to everyone else and instead of working to make sure everyone feels safe they just deny that anyone could ever feel unsafe.
posted by Mrs. Pterodactyl at 8:53 AM on May 4, 2018 [17 favorites]

Wow. Yikes. Wow. Just when I thought the NFL couldn't get slimier.

The centerpiece incident of the story was back in 2013, of course, so surely by now the organization has taken steps t----

Never mind, I can't even get through that sentence sarcastically.
posted by rokusan at 8:54 AM on May 4, 2018 [7 favorites]

This entire article is line after line of grossness.

“I have five sisters,” he said, adding that at his boat parties “no one was allowed to be disrespected.”

--

At the end of the night, at about 2 or 3 a.m., the women returned to the waiting van, only to be stopped by several police officers who asked for their passports. They did not have them because the team had taken possession of them upon arrival. (The Redskins said it was team policy to collect passports for all international travel as a security precaution.)

“I guess they thought you were prostitutes,” a man affiliated with the cheerleading squad told them after they were allowed to leave.

--


She added: “No sponsor is worth these children’s safety and well-being at all.

--

Excuse me while I throw up in my mouth a little.
posted by like_neon at 8:57 AM on May 4, 2018 [9 favorites]

So it turns out the unrepentently racist NFL team is also sexist?

You don't say.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 8:58 AM on May 4, 2018 [43 favorites]

Unfortunately I have a feeling this is not unique to just the Redskins.
posted by like_neon at 9:00 AM on May 4, 2018 [37 favorites]

“They weren’t putting a gun to our heads, but it was mandatory for us to go,” one of the cheerleaders said.

I hate that she felt like she had to say this. I know where that feeling comes from. That sense of "I could have resisted more" when that shouldn't be an issue at all. She was in a foreign country, they'd already been through shit like having their passports taken, they're already being put in a gross and threatening situation, and their management has clearly thrown its basic humanity in the trash. The gun is already there whether it's literal or not.

It kills me to see a statement like that, because she's beating herself up over an entirely rational reaction to being faced with clear threats against non-compliance.

Everyone involved in arranging this mess should go to jail forever.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 9:05 AM on May 4, 2018 [67 favorites]

Waaaaaiiit, you're telling me the NFL, who pays cheerleaders something like $1,000 a year, disrespects them in some fashion and treats them poorly? Huh.
posted by graventy at 9:06 AM on May 4, 2018 [9 favorites]

Yeah, relevant: Cheerleaders are grossly underpaid. It's a physically demanding job, it's hardcore PR work involving tons of travel, and yet the whole thing is treated like it's a privilege for them just to be there.
posted by scaryblackdeath at 9:09 AM on May 4, 2018 [36 favorites]

“I’m the mama bear, and I really look out for everybody, not just the cheerleaders.

Given the story it's clear that if you want to look out for the sleezy men who want to show up and watch women pose topless, you cannot also look after the cheerleaders at the same time. Much like a mother bear will protect her cubs while happily consuming others' young. And guess who you are going to serve? That's right the men with money and power over the disposable young women you are making into escorts.

The whole thing sounds like an escort service, with the occasional insistence that at least these women are expected to have sex. Oh, no! They just get to work a 14 hour day and then go and be an ego boost for some wealthy man, and I am sure at no point is sex expected at all or forced when it is not willingly given. At least an escort who worked those hours would make more.
posted by lesbiassparrow at 9:18 AM on May 4, 2018 [9 favorites]

I like how that NYTimes headline manages to be both salacious click-bait ("topless night out, read allllll about it") and minimizing ("an uneasy night"). Fuck everyone.

Also, will this result in changes to the career of cheerleaders at The Washington Racists, such that they get pay, protection, advancement for their years of training and rigorous athleticism and adherence to rigid goddamn beauty standards? No. They'll just shut the whole thing down if it comes to that. You pay to play, ladies.
posted by amanda at 9:19 AM on May 4, 2018 [13 favorites]

It's definitely not unique to the Redskins. I heard an interview recently on a podcasts (can't find it now) with a cheerleader for the New Orleans Saints who was fired over a photo she posted to instagram. She goes into detail about how the cheerleaders are treated -- basically like both children and sluts at the same time, how little they are paid, and how they are policed in a way that robs them of their dignity. It's really disgusting. These women work incredibly hard and are treated like dirt.
posted by antinomia at 9:23 AM on May 4, 2018 [24 favorites]

I heard an interview recently on a podcasts (can't find it now) with a cheerleader for the New Orleans Saints who was fired over a photo she posted to instagram.

It was the New York Times' The Daily podcast on April 18, 2018.
posted by telegraph at 9:28 AM on May 4, 2018 [4 favorites]

I'd like to add another tire to this trashfire by pointing out that several of the uniforms these women wear are styled to resemble buckskin or other materials people stereotypically associate with Native American clothing.

So not only are they abused, they're outfitted to cater to racist sexual fantasies about Indian princesses.
posted by xthlc at 9:29 AM on May 4, 2018 [31 favorites]

Don't read the comments. It's too late for me, save yourselves.

....I only looked to see if anyone asked the question I had - namely, whether there was a reason that the Times report failed to name the squad director that apparently wanted to do double-duty as a pimp.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 9:40 AM on May 4, 2018 [6 favorites]

Worth noting: Cheerleading used to be men's sport; it was "too masculine" for women (Physical exertion! Yelling! Constant exposure to profanity!).

And of course, as women entered the field (after WWI, when able-bodied men were less available), the status and pay both dropped.
posted by ErisLordFreedom at 9:42 AM on May 4, 2018 [25 favorites]

It's just like a family, except without any obligation of support or protection, any expectation of love or kindness, and the ability to throw any member out for any or no reason at any moment.
posted by Sangermaine at 9:46 AM on May 4, 2018 [12 favorites]

At what point does this become trafficking?

More like at what point did this become trafficking...
posted by Dysk at 10:00 AM on May 4, 2018 [16 favorites]

Another part of the continuum - Science Cheerleaders (website, previously). Hard to understand how they coexist with the NFL's treatment of cheerleaders in general.
posted by ZeusHumms at 10:11 AM on May 4, 2018

The behind-the-scenes for pro sports cheerleading squads reminds me a lot of the behind-the-scenes stories for modeling. The work is something the young women (or girls) want to do, and just being allowed in the door is a big stamp of approval from our culture. But then...the "work" ends up being dangerous, exhausting, and sexually exploitative. A lot of women end up worse off financially than if they'd never started. Women who protest poor treatment get sidelined, and people have no sympathy for them. There's a lot of "you CHOSE this, plenty of people would love to be in your place." And that's when they realize -- if they hadn't already -- that the stamp of approval was never worth much. The people who like the idea of models and cheerleaders the most are the people who think the worst of them. It sucks.

I think cheerleading bothers me more, actually, because there's this awful Puritanical overlay of making sure the women never "tempt" any of the athletes. I hate it. If you want to know 90% of what's wrong with America, set up something where young women have to interact with men and see how quickly it all goes to hell.
posted by grandiloquiet at 10:13 AM on May 4, 2018 [40 favorites]

Can we just call the team Washington and leave the slur out maybe?
posted by elsietheeel at 10:24 AM on May 4, 2018 [13 favorites]

Okay - so pet peeve time. I completely understand the desire to say sarcastic things like:

Waaaaaiiit, you're telling me the NFL, who pays cheerleaders something like $1,000 a year, disrespects them in some fashion and treats them poorly? Huh.

and

So it turns out the unrepentently racist NFL team is also sexist?

You don't say.

however the unintended consequence of statements like this is erasing the individual nature to which people are harmed. We should not follow up a story about women who bravely come out to tell their story of how an NFL team basically trafficked them for money with a summary that the behavior is expected and unremarkable. Every person and every story matters.
posted by notorious medium at 10:47 AM on May 4, 2018 [56 favorites]

“But unfortunately, I feel like it won’t change until something terrible happens, like a girl is assaulted in some way, or raped. I think teams will start paying attention to this only when it’s too late.”

Sadly, I can't imagine that this has not already happened, and been covered up. It's heartbreaking.
posted by blurker at 10:50 AM on May 4, 2018 [14 favorites]

Expected, unremarkable, and still incredibly fucked up and should result in firings, prison time, sponsors stampeding for the exits, teams being disbanded, and the whole league being put under extensive criminal investigation for as long as it takes to decide whether there is in fact anything worth saving here at all.

None of that will happen though, because football. Perhaps no other organization so perfectly embodies the confluence of money, patriarchy, violence, and jingoism. People love that shit for some reason. Football can do no wrong.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 11:00 AM on May 4, 2018 [10 favorites]

Every person and every story matters.

Noting intersectionality, even pointedly/warily, is not an attempt to erase the individual.

I could have made a more detailed remark there with more clarification, but I kinda figured MeFi would grok, and anyway, jokes work better without footnotes.
posted by DirtyOldTown at 11:08 AM on May 4, 2018 [1 favorite]

I’m the mama bear, and I really look out for everybody, not just the cheerleaders. It’s a big family. We respect each other and our craft. It’s such a supportive environment for these ladies.

Is her name Lydia, by any chance?

(I haven't read TFA yet, though I'd seen parts of it online the other day.)
posted by dnash at 11:15 AM on May 4, 2018 [6 favorites]

guess who you are going to serve? That's right the men with money and power

there's this awful Puritanical overlay of making sure the women never "tempt" any of the athletes

This repugnant dichotomy makes perfect sense when you consider team sports are a "soother" to supplant tribal conflict.

Each team is a fiefdom. The owner is a fief, the sponsers are vassals, the cheerleaders are a captive ḥarīm, and the players are the disposable warrior caste.

The ruling elites get first choice of the spoils of conquest, and relinquish what's left, if any, to the legions.
posted by CynicalKnight at 5:51 PM on May 4, 2018 [7 favorites]

I am consistently surprised at how often people make statements about how we're all a big family and no one could possibly be uncomfortable in such a great environment as a response to one of the people they are discussing saying "I do not feel supported and this is not okay".

So, this is such a thing in labor relations that it gets taught in intro organizing workshops: nothing good will come after the boss says, "I just think of us as one big family." It's basically always a crass attempt to use people's baseline decency and pro-social attitudes to garner sympathy for the boss so as to enable further exploitation of said workers.
posted by eviemath at 5:54 PM on May 4, 2018 [50 favorites]

I’m the mama bear, and I really look out for everybody, not just the cheerleaders. It’s a big family. We respect each other and our craft. It’s such a supportive environment for these ladies.

Pratchett said something about how coppers could never fall for the "One Big Family" bit, because they've seen too families trying to kill each other.
posted by mikelieman at 6:42 PM on May 4, 2018 [13 favorites]

"I am consistently surprised at how often people make statements about how we're all a big family and no one could possibly be uncomfortable in such a great environment as a response to one of the people they are discussing saying "I do not feel supported and this is not okay"."

I went to a college that was super-big on the whole "we're one big family" thing, and in my sophomore great books course, my prof got on a rant about how, sure, we're all one big family, but it's a super-dysfunctional family that abuses some of its members and expects them to keep quiet about it, and I have always been grateful to him for that.
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 7:06 PM on May 4, 2018 [30 favorites]

Baffled that Cheerleaders were ever and are still a thing.

Listened to a podcast recently about the Saints case and the cheerleader talking about how she's always wanted to be someone for little girls to look up to and thought, "Are you nuts?! No one LOOKS UP to cheerleaders." (And yeah, I know, some people do--but...)

Truly baffling that anyone would enter that world. And, in the case of the Saints woman, her mother already worked for the organization for a decade and didn't warn her own daughter. Mind boggling.
posted by dobbs at 7:19 PM on May 4, 2018 [2 favorites]

With these conditions and the low pay, is there any advantage to being a cheerleader? (I know we have some in Australia but it's way not the same culture).
posted by b33j at 7:20 PM on May 4, 2018

Not particularly. It is the ultimate in “What if you work in exchange for EXPOSURE?” jobs.
posted by Autumnheart at 7:26 PM on May 4, 2018 [3 favorites]

This "family" thing reminds me of this story on MetaFilter. Why is it never that the more senior members of the corporate "family" sacrifice to provide for the health and education of the junior members?
posted by salvia at 7:43 PM on May 4, 2018 [3 favorites]

I don’t know maybe let’s not shit on cheerleaders for their career choice. For all the reasons. Let’s concentrate on the owners for whom a decent salary and safe and healthy working conditions for their cheerleaders is not even a rounding error on their yearly profit.
posted by asavage at 8:03 PM on May 4, 2018 [44 favorites]

I'm sorry that my comment came across as shitting on cheerleaders for their career choice. It wasn't my intention. I know very little about American culture (in comparison to Australian cheerleader work). I am appalled at the working conditions of these women and I know that a lot of people don't have an income safety net, nor industrial support, when they are mistreated in the workplace. These women are obviously athletes, attractive and socially capable. I was wondering what drew them to these roles as I am an outsider and the things I read on metafilter make cheerleading as a career seem untenable.
posted by b33j at 8:11 PM on May 4, 2018 [4 favorites]

> I was wondering what drew them to these roles as I am an outsider and the things I read on metafilter make cheerleading as a career seem untenable.

The fact is, arts and entertainment (sports, music, acting, writing, painting, etc.) as a career in general is untenable. College football players who don't make it to the NFL don't do much better financially than cheerleaders. Minor league baseball players get treated terribly in terms of pay and hours(https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/06/baseball-broshuis-minor-league-wage-income/). Struggling actors and musicians wait tables and work odd jobs to make ends meet while working for exposure.

Women are more likely to be sexually exploited than their male equivalents, and I imagine that's particularly noxious in NFL cheerleading where they're supposed to be sexy but nobody's allowed to openly discuss that. And there's a long history in the US of mocking women who do any kind of job that involves being attractive, whether it's overt sex work or business-to-business sales.

But cheerleaders and women in general definitely aren't unique in working shitty jobs in the hopes of advancing and getting to support themselves doing what they love.
posted by smelendez at 8:21 PM on May 4, 2018 [32 favorites]

Thank you Smelendez. I appreciate your explanation.
posted by b33j at 8:25 PM on May 4, 2018

Indeed. Well said.
posted by asavage at 8:53 PM on May 4, 2018

Listened to a podcast recently about the Saints case and the cheerleader talking about how she's always wanted to be someone for little girls to look up to and thought, "Are you nuts?! No one LOOKS UP to cheerleaders." (And yeah, I know, some people do--but...)

Truly baffling that anyone would enter that world. And, in the case of the Saints woman, her mother already worked for the organization for a decade and didn't warn her own daughter. Mind boggling.

Women who join cheer squads do so because they want more chances to dance professionally, or to model. A person who finds that baffling must be utterly mystified by the existence of all female models, dancers, actresses, singers...
posted by palomar at 9:53 PM on May 4, 2018 [6 favorites]

These women are obviously athletes, attractive and socially capable. I was wondering what drew them to these roles as I am an outsider and the things I read on metafilter make cheerleading as a career seem untenable.

I don't think most of them really would consider cheering a career so much as a combination of part-time job and hobby and, yes, promotional work "for the exposure." I've known a couple of guys who've dated not NFL cheerleaders but cheer/dance team members for the NBA, and (speaking from second-hand info) what seems to draw them to this is some combination of:

1) "competitive cheer" has developed into, if not an actual "sport" by legal/public funding definition, a pretty major athletic endeavor for kids from (maybe?) about 8 all the way through high school and maybe college. If you've got a background in that, spent years of your life training and practicing to develop those skills, cheering for a major sports team is often about the only opportunity you have to keep using those skills after you've graduated. (I would swear we've had a previously or two on competitive cheer here on MF, but I can't find them. So here's a video link to the 2017 NAIA Competitive Cheer Finals, where you can see that "cheerleading" is more like "synchronized dance gymnastics" and clearly requires a bonkers level of skill and training.)

2) Same pretty much applies if your background is dance or gymnastics, although major cities will usually have a lively enough arts scene to support a few small professional/semi-pro dance companies. But these companies are more "art dance", less "pop dance", if you see what I mean, so a slightly different style, and they will only have so many openings. Meaning if you want to dance, sports cheer is about it unless you're living in one of the major media centers.

3) From the "exposure" angle, many of them consider sports cheer as a way to promote and gain credibility for their real careers as dance instructors or personal fitness instructors, and/or to get some modeling work.
posted by soundguy99 at 10:10 PM on May 4, 2018 [14 favorites]

None of that will happen though, because football. Perhaps no other organization so perfectly embodies the confluence of money, patriarchy, violence, and jingoism. People love that shit for some reason. Football can do no wrong.
posted by Anticipation Of A New Lover's Arrival, The at 3:00 AM on May 5 [6 favorites +] [!]

This is why, when people seem aghast that I don't like sports, I turn into the most fun person at the party.

They don't fucking realize I go on a celebration bender every time a Cosby gets convicted or a dictator falls or a Trump crony gets indicted or, hell, every time someone comes out and says it like it is. May this result in the destruction of the Redskins.

Who the fuck wants to watch grown men chase balls when eating the rich and debasing established power could be our national sport? WTF is wrong with people?
posted by saysthis at 10:48 PM on May 4, 2018 [10 favorites]

I'm autistic so I'm mystified by many things people do. I get dancing and singing but not modelling. I've worked hard to understand why people play sports but I've never really understood cheerleading (I don't even understand why sports needs cheerleaders). I never mean to offend people with my questions but they (the questions) so often do, that I rarely ask anymore. Again, I apologise that I was rude. I know this isn't about me - I'm not the only poster who wonder why people choose this role, but I wanted to explain that, on my part at least, my question comes from ignorance rather than dismissiveness or disrespect.
posted by b33j at 12:34 AM on May 5, 2018 [12 favorites]

Nobody in any chosen profession deserves to be treated like these cheerleaders. In no way am I saying they signed up for this and what did they expect. I am NOT saying that.

Here's a story. I was in a new high school with new kids and no friends but there were well-established cliques. It seemed one of the easier ways to immediately get into a social circle was to become a cheerleader. So I went to workouts, developed a few gymnastic tricks of which I was really proud and got on the squad where I did, indeed, immediately have 10 new girlfriends and became buddies with the football team. I had a thing to do, an identity within the new school and it was all pretty great until maybe the 4th game of the season.

As the boys played on the field, we stood in the rain on the sidelines in our little skirts, jumping up and down, trying to engage the crowd and I was essentially hit with a massive, "WTF am I doing here?" thought.

"Why the fuck am I freezing my ass off, faking a big stupid smile and shaking pom poms to cheer on a bunch of boys? WHO THE FUCK IS CHEERING FOR ME?" which ended my cheer career.

Since then I've always felt that cheerleading can be a fairly insidious form of emotional labor. Women diet and exercise to get fit, wear revealing clothes and stand on the sidelines supporting their hearty men who are doing the work that's going to get them scholarships and awards and acclaim.

Excellent athletes are recognized for their ability to excel in their sport; cheerleaders are praised for how well they support the athletes. Athletes have the opportunity to play in college, to play in the pros. Athletes have a tiny but genuine opportunity to become very wealthy; cheerleaders do not. Cheerleaders are, by definition, the support team.

Choosing to become a professional cheerleader is NOT the same as pursuing a career as a singer or dancer. Those are careers where your ultimate goal is to express your art and your talent and to tell stories. With talent and a lot of luck, you may be rewarded for what you can do. The role of the cheerleader is to support the men playing the game--there is no opportunity for a career within cheer's parameters.

And again, if that's what you want to do, the feminist in me salutes and supports your choice. Go in peace, my sisters. But my personal perception is that cheerleading is known for having no genuine career track and, at its most basic nature, is a lot of incredibly hard-working women choosing to make really terrible money in a role that is defined as being supportive of men who get far more recognition than they ever will.
posted by yes I said yes I will Yes at 4:47 AM on May 5, 2018 [21 favorites]

3) From the "exposure" angle, many of them consider sports cheer as a way to promote and gain credibility for their real careers as dance instructors or personal fitness instructors, and/or to get some modeling work.

Historically, a fairly large number of female professional wrestlers had previously been professional cheerleaders, for just this reason. It's less prevalent now that there are more opportunities for women to work wrestling's "minor leagues" and less emphasis in the "major leagues" on cheerleader-type bodies, but there are still a few around who turned cheerleading exposure into wrestling tryouts.
posted by Etrigan at 6:25 AM on May 5, 2018 [3 favorites]

Around here, being a former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader makes you sort of a minor celebrity; you can look for work in PR, possibly media like TV or radio, and many of them run cheerleading camps or dance programs. It is much like being a former beauty queen.

And yeah, many of them marry wealthy men and do well for themselves that way.

If you're lucky, it can be a form of social mobility, in other words.
posted by emjaybee at 9:45 AM on May 5, 2018 [12 favorites]

Pratchett said something about how coppers could never fall for the "One Big Family" bit, because they've seen too many families trying to kill each other.

Except that, uh, it looks an awful lot like the whole "thin blue line" concept, doesn't it? With a slightly different spin, but still: the emphasis on unity and togetherness and how great things really are, all the while enabling bad actors and rotten apples to avoid changing a damn thing. I think Pratchett's line is pretty clever and all, but I don't actually think it's true.

These poor women. What a fucking mess. Hey, EmpressCallipygos, think anything might come out of tweeting at the paper or the journalist or something to ask why that shitbag wasn't named? Because really: so many people say they want accountability, that's why they ask why those women didn't flee into the night without guns to their heads... but the moment you actually bring accountability for men who abuse women, well, suddenly we're going too far and forgetting our compassion.
posted by sciatrix at 10:07 AM on May 5, 2018 [5 favorites]

As if the Redskins weren't gross enough.
posted by aspersioncast at 1:15 PM on May 5, 2018

Empress Callipygos and sciatrix, I thought the squad director was Ol' Mama Bear herself--the article describes her a few paragraphs down as "Stephanie Jojokian, the longtime director and choreographer for the Redskins’ cheerleaders."
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 3:15 PM on May 5, 2018

But *seriously* can we not use the R-word here? It's an abhorrent, brutal, demoralizing slur.

The story is hard enough. Even NPR says "the Washington football team."

We can do better.
posted by allthinky at 6:49 PM on May 5, 2018 [7 favorites]

I've asked the mods to please edit my post to take out the name in a way similar to what you suggested, allthinky. I agree with you and elsietheeel (and others) the name is racist and we don't need to refer to it in the thread.
posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 7:57 PM on May 5, 2018 [5 favorites]

Thanks, hurdy gurdy girl.
posted by allthinky at 8:01 PM on May 5, 2018 [1 favorite]

Mod note: At OP's request, removed team name from the post.
posted by Eyebrows McGee (staff) at 8:03 PM on May 5, 2018 [5 favorites]

Thank you very much for editing.
posted by elsietheeel at 8:05 AM on May 6, 2018 [1 favorite]

I'm late to the comment game, but i just want to explain why someone would want to be a cheerleader. When i was a little girl i wanted to be a cheerleader. I was in dance class since i was about 2, i liked music and dancing and the cheerleaders were pretty and wore sparkly outfits. AND they got to dance at sports games!

Sports in my middle class Philadelphia suburbs house was like...a cultural identity. Especially i feel for Philadelphia and families like mine that had been there since stepping off the boat some generations ago.

Being a cheerleader for my team seemed akin to being the best Irish step dancer in Ireland.

I'm still a little sad that I'm too old to be a Flyers Ice Girl.
posted by WeekendJen at 1:53 PM on May 7, 2018 [10 favorites]

I've worked hard to understand why people play sports but I've never really understood cheerleading (I don't even understand why sports needs cheerleaders).

Historically, to get the crowd excited so they cheer harder and have more fun. It's a lot like how musical bands or TV performers have warm-up acts, to get everyone in the crowd in the right mood for the main performance.

In modern times, it's often just so there's something to look at or be distracted by during the hundreds of dead times during a sporting event. In baseball, which has no cheerleaders unless you're in Japan, there are between-inning spectacles like "watch the drunken fan try to catch a beach ball" or "watch three drunken fans try to run in a straight line" for the same reason.

So, maybe it's just about alcohol sales.
posted by rokusan at 7:31 AM on May 14, 2018

I don't even understand why sports needs cheerleaders

I wouldn't use the word "need," but the reasons are literally in the name of the activity.
posted by rhizome at 4:47 PM on May 14, 2018 [3 favorites]