NYTimes- Like a lot of people in their 20s, Bailey Davis has an Instagram account. And as a cheerleader for the New Orleans Saints, Davis said, she followed team rules and made the page private so only people she approved could see what she posted.
But when she posted a photo of herself in a one-piece outfit in January, Saints officials accused her, despite her protests, of breaking rules that prohibit cheerleaders from appearing nude, seminude or in lingerie. For this indiscretion, and amid an inquiry about her attending a party with Saints players — another regulation that she denies violating — Davis was fired after what she said were three largely trouble-free seasons. Now Davis has filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, the federal agency that enforces civil rights laws. The complaint accuses the Saints of having two sets of rules — one for the team’s cheerleaders, who are all women, and another for its players. The complaint, which asserts that the rules in New Orleans reflect outdated views of women, follows a number of gender-related struggles in the N.F.L. over domestic violence and sexual harassment among players and league employees. According to the Saints’ handbook for cheerleaders, as well as internal emails and text messages reviewed by The New York Times and interviews with Davis, the Saints have an anti-fraternization policy that requires cheerleaders to avoid contact with players, in person or online, even though players are not penalized for pursuing such engagement with cheerleaders. The cheerleaders must block players from following them on social media and cannot post photos of themselves in Saints gear, denying them the chance to market themselves. The players are not required to do any of these things. Cheerleaders are told not to dine in the same restaurant as players, or speak to them in any detail. If a Saints cheerleader enters a restaurant and a player is already there, she must leave. If a cheerleader is in a restaurant and a player arrives afterward, she must leave. There are nearly 2,000 players in the N.F.L., and many of them use pseudonyms on social media. Cheerleaders must find a way to block each one, while players have no limits on who can follow them. The team says its rules are designed to protect cheerleaders from players preying on them. But it puts the onus on the women to fend off the men. “If the cheerleaders can’t contact the players, then the players shouldn’t be able to contact the cheerleaders,” said Sara Blackwell, Davis’s lawyer. “The antiquated stereotype of women needing to hide for their own protection is not permitted in America and certainly not in the workplace.” It is not clear if the cheerleading squads of other N.F.L. teams have similar policies, though Blackwell said she had come across information suggesting the Saints were not alone. -------- At the risk of making it sound like I condone the extensive and lopsided lengths that an NFL franchise apparently goes to in hopes of keeping the hands of their players out of the pants of their cheerleaders, doesn't it feel like this story was inevitable? Not to trivialize the plight of poorly compensated eye candy, but if wasn't a plight they willingly signed up for then this would most certainly not be the first we would be hearing of it. There's been a lot of times in which the increasingly common stories of sexual harassment and/or gender inequality have left me appalled. This, unfortunately, was not one of those times. It's certainly not fair/right/moral that a cheerleader would have to immediately ask for a to-go box if an athlete she tangentially works with wandered into the restaurant where she happened to be dining, but I'm a little light on shock and awe that that's indeed the case. We are talking about a league that was decades late on even pretending that they care that far too many of their employees are domestically abusive. Therefore, I wasn't exactly taken aback when I read that the demands they make of those who are paid minimum wage to maintain a nearly impossible standard of pretty are higher than those they make of the athletes whose efforts make the ludicrously profitable product possible. I would agree that it's insane to fire a cheerleader for wearing a one-piece bathing suit on her personal Instagram account when that's basically a three-piece business suit in comparison to her workplace attire, but it's also pretty insane that the cheerleading profession has survived the first three months of 2018. The idea that the repetitive clashing of skulls in organized warfare that's cheered on by oddly excitable women with long legs and exposed midriffs is thee most wholesome of entertainment isn't some new phenomenon that's exclusive to the Saints' organization. It is, however, one that is maintained by antiquated rules and regulations that promote objectification in a way that's only "bested" by the the business model of titty bars. Being tasked with protecting themselves against the advances of intimidating athletes shouldn't be an occupational hazard and being fired for failing to do so most definitely makes for a solid case of unlawful termination, but let's not like NFL cheerleaders signed up for the peace corp and got sold into the sex trade.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Categories
All
Archives
January 2020
|