In the final episode of the second season of America’s Sweethearts, it was revealed that the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders (DCC) will receive a pay raise of roughly 400 percent for the upcoming 2025 season.
While that sounds like a lot, the increase comes from a ridiculously low base where these elite athletes earned about the same as a fast-food worker. Even the most senior squad members made just US$15 an hour, with US$500 for each game day appearance in 2024, while the Dallas Cowboys’ quarterback, Dak Prescott, made US$60 million in what was a bad losing season.
The Director of the DCC, Kelli Finglass, who was an ambivalent figure throughout the series, finally admitted in the last episode that the pay rise was about “60 years overdue.”
The pay increase means that veteran cheerleaders could now be making more than US$75 an hour, just about a liveable wage, but as Jada McLean, the fifth-year veteran who led the cheerleaders’ demands for better pay, told The New York Times, compensation depends on seniority and still does not include health insurance for women who literally put their bodies on the line during every performance that concludes with a series of choreographed high-kicks and drop-splits.
The cheerleaders have long campaigned for decent pay but it took the spotlight of the hugely popular Netflix docuseries to essentially shame the Dallas Cowboys organization, that considered cheerleading to be an honour or a calling rather than an actual job, into paying up.
The Dallas Cowboys is an American institution that inspires fanatical devotion (and derision) from football fans across the country. Known as “America’s Team,” it is historically one of the most successful franchises in the National Football League, and an even more successful corporate venture, valued at more than US$10 billion.
Since 1989, the team has been owned and managed by Jerry Jones, who has turned it into a family dynasty. His daughter, Charlotte, is the executive vice president and chief brand officer of the Cowboys. She directly oversees the cheerleaders’ operation and has been largely responsible for turning it into a highly profitable business, as well creating the mythology that sustains it.
For decades now, girls across the United States have grown up enamoured with the glamour, charm and athleticism of the DCC, and every year hundreds apply for one of the 36 slots available on the team. There is no automatic place for veterans. Everyone has to go through the same rigorous selection process each season. This again is designed to drive home the idea that it is an honour to be chosen. Once selected, the cheerleaders have to maintain absolute loyalty to the organization and the brand image, constantly smiling, focusing not on themselves but on bringing joy to others.
Some of the younger squad members have clearly bought into the idea that cheerleading is just a hobby that you pursue out of passion and not monetary gain. However, when pressed by the documentary makers, they conceded that they had clocked 40 hours a week on average during the regular season. Unless they were independently wealthy, the cheerleaders all needed a second job, sometimes two additional jobs, just to get by. Many struggled to pay their rent or focus on their college courses, and nearly all suffered from physical and mental fatigue.
America’s Sweethearts says a lot about gender and pay inequality in America but also provides telling insights into corporate branding, family values and fundamentalist religion, personal ambition and identity, body image, the sexualisation and commodification of young women, and the very real threat of sexual assault. As an anthropological study of modern America, it is compelling viewing.
The DCC is in many ways a cult, a tightly-knit group with a shared ideology whose members only have one response to their leader, Ms Finglass, “Yes Ma’am.” Many group members have deeply-held Christian values that stress acceptance of hard work, suffering and submission to a higher power that will guide and protect them. Episode Four of Season One is entitled God Loves Dallas, and follows the cheerleaders in prayer meetings that reinforce the sacredness of the DDC mission and the idea that they are now all part of one united family.
Many former cheerleaders maintain their loyalty to the organization for decades after they retire, and come back every year to greet the new intake. Some former cheerleaders’ daughters even follow in the family tradition and appear to know nothing of the world outside the DCC universe. Other team members seem equality cosseted, supported and indulged by their parents from a very young age to achieve their goal of becoming an American Sweetheart.
Image is everything for the DCC, both in terms of personal appearance and social interaction. The cheerleaders have to have perfect hair and makeup because the television cameras will pick up any defect. The iconic blue and white uniform is so tightly fitted that they have to maintain exactly the same weight throughout the season. In every dance routine, every public appearance and photo shoot with fans, the cheerleaders have to keep smiling no matter what.
And this perfect image is ruthlessly marketed by the Dallas Cowboys in the pursuit of profit. The DCC are moulded into sexualised yet sanitised Barbie-like commodities that combine the qualities of the girl next-door with a beauty queen. This, of course, places the cheerleaders at risk from the unwanted attentions of over-zealous fans who feel they have a personal connection with them.
Many cheerleaders have been victims of stalking, harassment and even assault. Chandi, one of the group leaders, eventually had to quit after continual stalking and harassment from a violent ex. Sophy, a third-year veteran, was assaulted by a photographer during the annual Thanksgiving Day game, and demanded that the police press charges. The Arlington police investigated but said there was no video evidence to back up her claim, so the case was dropped.
The Cowboy’s organization does take some steps to protect the cheerleaders, such as a no touching policy when taking photos, but clearly not everyone has got the message. There is an extraordinary scene in Season One where a male tour guide takes a group of lecherous male Cowboy fans into the cheerleaders’ locker room. The tour guide brags that the non-fraternisation policy for cheerleaders and players did not apply to tour guides like himself. For me, it was disturbingly reminiscent of the scene in the Tarantino movie Kill Bill Part One where hospital attendant Buck (from Huntsville Texas) shows a man into the morgue so that he can have sex with the comatose Bride. The women in both scenes were merely objects for the male visitors’ sexual gratification in what should have been a completely safe place.
By the beginning of Season Two, there is a sense that change is coming. Under the leadership of Jada McLean and other veterans, the cheerleaders become more organised and more vocal. The success of the first season highlighted for everyone just how hard the cheerleaders work and how poorly compensated they are. It also meant that their workload increased dramatically with far more public appearances and performances crammed into the 2024 schedule. The cheerleaders faced pushback from the Cowboys at first but won through in the end.
Ms Mclean has decided to retire but is pleased her colleagues will be getting a better deal. She comes from a relatively poor family, her father was in and out of jail most of her life, and she understands both what it means to struggle and what is just. The cheerleaders’ uniform is often described as a superhero costume. And in her last season with the organization, Ms Mclean showed that she is undoubtedly a superhero, determined to fight for her co-workers, yet still give up her spot on the team and “cheer from the side-lines.”
Netflix has not yet announced if there will be a third season of America’s Sweethearts. The show was a big hit but the Cowboys organization may yet decide it does not want any more behind-the-scenes revelations that could damage its all-important image.