“I once had 723 girls on the set looking for work. I hired just three, but they matched like pearls.”
Busby Berkeley in 1966, speaking at a tribute to his work in London, as cited in Buzz: The Life and Art of Busby Berkeley, by Jeffrey Spivak, 2011.
I thought about this quote a film studies professor of mine read about Busby Berkeley as I watched the docuseries America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders. I had seen and enjoyed Cheer, but I thought this new series was at another level. I have seen some of the other reviews about how the show is making people angry, and I suppose it made me angry, too. On the other hand, I think a lot of the unfair treatment of the cheerleaders is not an isolated incident, but a reflection of how a lot of women, and not only women, but all people are treated today.
Something that really stood out to me was on the one hand the extreme competitiveness and high standards about performance and appearance, while on the other hand there was always a strong influence of nepotism and cronyism, especially as you moved up the levels of the organization to the coaching and leadership. To me, it seemed crazy on the one hand that there are so many hoops to jump through and so much scrutiny about appearance, but when you’re someone’s daughter, like a former cheerleader, a lot of those standards seem to go out the window. Of course, at the very head of the cheerleaders is the daughter of the Dallas Cowboys team owner!
The nepotism gives people in the docuseries advantages but also amps up the pressure for others. The series focuses on the experience of one woman named Victoria, whose mother was a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader, or DCC. The mother admits in one interview that now, in hindsight, she thinks she may have put too much pressure on her daughter to follow in her footsteps. In what I found to be one of the sadder scenes in the series, Victoria and her mom share cake to celebrate her birthday. Victoria only has a bit of cake with a lot of cake icing, because, as she talks about in another part of the series, she is very vigilant about her weight, and is trying to avoid disordered eating with binging and purging. It is her 24th birthday, but her birthday makes her feel like she is behind in life and sad.
To me, the women are all beautiful and talented, but there is also a sense in which they all have very similar looks, almost like living Barbie dolls. We see that those who make it through the auditions to the training camp get DCC Barbie dolls to keep! But despite being beautiful and talented, they are nonetheless judged harshly about their appearance. If they gain any weight, they are not allowed to get a new uniform and must be vigilant about maintaining the same weight and appearance as during their auditions. Some are also instructed to get makeovers if their hairstyle or hair colour is judged as unsuitable by the coaches and coordinators.
Finally, there is a sense in which for many of the cheerleaders, their tenure in DCC is considered as their “glory days.” The last episode includes a reunion where former DCC can wear t shirts and jeans and do a large routine together on the field during a game. One of the oldest participants was 78 years old (I believe). But for the younger cheerleaders who have only just aged out, you can feel the sense of sadness and loss, almost as though their lives are now over and it will be downhill from there. Coaches and peers reassure one another that those who have just left are still young and have time and things to look forward to ahead of them, but some cheerleaders seem sad and to be focused on the past. I think some of this focus and nostalgia is what feeds into the push for younger sisters or daughters to try out and join DCC for themselves.
It does seem unfair that the positions are so low paid, and most cheerleaders have to work at least one other job to make ends meet. But I feel like low paid work and competitive academic systems and job markets are not unique to DCC. The “backdoors” of nepotism and cronyism are also concerning for those who are talented and qualified and who are denied access. The series also shows the double-edge of the privilege and pressure of nepotism with the sense of pressure on younger sisters and daughters of former cheerleaders. In some ways, the pressure makes it so that some of these younger sisters and daughters don’t always have a chance to be themselves, because they are always trying to be like their big sister, or “just like mom.”
I thought there was a lot about this docuseries that was valuable and is not only relevant to the members, past and present, of DCC.
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