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By Ken Belson
Cheerleaders for the Carolina Panthers, known as the TopCats, must arrive at the stadium on game days at least five hours before kickoff. Body piercings and tattoos must be removed or covered. Water breaks can be taken only when the Panthers are on offense. TopCats must leave the stadium to change into their personal attire.
Baltimore Ravens cheerleaders were subject to regular weigh-ins and are expected to “maintain ideal body weight,” according to a handbook from 2009. The Cincinnati Ben-Gals were even more precise in recent years: Cheerleaders had to be within three pounds of their “ideal weight.”
Some cheerleaders must pay hundreds of dollars for their uniforms, yet are paid little more than minimum wage. Cheerleaders must sell raffle tickets and calendars and appear at charity events and golf tournaments, yet they receive none of the proceeds. Cheerleader handbooks, seven of which have been reviewed by The New York Times, include personal hygiene tips, like shaving techniques and the proper use of tampons. In some cases, wearing sweatpants in public is forbidden.
The New Orleans Saints, who fired a cheerleader this year for posting a picture the team deemed inappropriate on her private Instagram account, are one of many National Football League teams with stringent, and seemingly anachronistic, rules for their cheerleaders.
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N.F.L. Cheerleaders and the Gender Gap
Back in 2014, N.F.L. cheerleaders sued for minimum wage compensation. Now cheerleaders are fighting for gender equality in the workplace.
It’s obvious from just looking at these women, how much work goes into that job. Even just to audition for these teams is really costly. I’m Amanda Hess and I’m a critic at large for the culture department of The New York Times. I’ve also been reporting on cheerleaders since 2011. Back in 2011, I wrote what I think is the first story about the underpayment and treatment of N.F.L. cheerleaders. But at the time I wrote that, I actually went on cable news and the person interviewing me said that he found my story interesting, but he thought I was the only person who cared about it. So a lot has changed since then. So the difference between what was happening in 2014 and what’s happening now is that initially some cheerleaders in a variety of teams started suing for minimum wage. They weren’t being paid the minimum wage when you factored in everything from the practices they were obligated to go to, the games, calendar shoots. Now the lawsuit that has been filed is a gender discrimination lawsuit. They are basically controlled by the teams in ways that male players are not. The teams were exerting this huge amount of control over their lives. The Buffalo Jills were told everything from how to fold a napkin to how to wash their genitals. Cheerleaders are, as a rule, highly discouraged from fraternizing with players. That can mean anything from, you know, talking to them at bars to dating them. Part of the problem with the rules against cheerleaders fraternizing not just with players but with other members of the teams’ organizations is that it makes it difficult for them to advocate for themselves, to get a different job with a company, you know, later on to use that position to get something that’s actually paid.
Across the N.F.L., teams even try to place extensive controls on how cheerleaders conduct their lives outside work. This includes limiting their social media activity as well as the people they choose to date and socialize with. Restrictions are placed on their nail polish and jewelry.
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