Americas Sweethearts

[KenAdams]

Has anyone watched this on Netflix?

It's about the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.

There's so much wrong with it I don't even know where to start. They get paid virtually nothing but are required to completely commit (because the role is a privilege), are held to unrealistic beauty and weight standards, ruin their hips and feet by the time they are in their early twenties, the list goes on.

It shows how backwards the USA are as a country in terms of their treatment of women that they think this is OK.

They were never going to take Anisha because she was too independent and wouldn’t have conformed to the ‘cult’ like thing they’ve got going on . I felt so sorry for Victoria , her mother has basically just raised her as a mini me so she can relive her life , I hope she gets away and goes back to New York and stays there , she will be much happier . It’s no wonder the others didn’t talk to her they were probably frightened that she would repeat things to mummy and then mummy would tell her best friend the coach .

Anisha was absolutely stunning with a fantastic career, it looked like she hurt her ankle during rehearsals too so maybe that's also why she was cut, they told her to pull out of the routine and than she did get pulled into the office.

I also thought about those white shorts and periods, I wonder if they do take contraception or tablets that stop them for the season.

Kelsey was stunning, but I could only imagine how freaked out she must have been with the air tag incident

My heart broke for Victoria especially when she said she has a dad and brothers and they have never been interested in her career. And just her and her mum celebrating her birthday.

And considering they need to look like supermodels and perform like athletes plus have jobs on top is outrageous. Also with the injuries and risks they take.

I had to stop after the third episode, it stopped being amusing.

I'm at the episode where they cut the girl who is too short...despite giving her false hope to try again after being cut the year before. She got a job there and went to all the classes to get better...did they think she would grow in a year?! It was so unbelievably harsh.

The way they critic every single thing...arghhhh I really don't know how nobody has snapped on the series so far. They are so mean and above their stations. At least on Cheer they actually seemed to treat them like humans and mother them etc. Here is like cut you're gone, you're nothing to us, you can't keep your uniform. Leave now. Awful!

Two grins short of a Duggar that chap.

All of the old alumni/mums just seem obsessed with their old DCC life and are like stepford wives.

Kelli and Judy are mean girls but they come across as a bit nicer on this show than they do on all the old series' of Making the Team

If you look on YouTube there's a video on there about a cheerleader called 'Maddie', about her story with the DCC. She turned out to be amazing and did I think 5 seasons with them, but in the auditions part some male judge said to Judy and Kelli that they 'couldn't do anything about Maddie's face' and Kelli cackled and said 'I'm glad you said it because I couldn't' or something along those lines. Just utter bitchy behaviour.

Funny how Kelli and Judy feel they can judge these women on their faces when both have daughters and neither of their daughters are pretty

Maddie was my favourite from the old series.

Watched this over the weekend! Loved it although a real eye opener. The dancing looks absolutely exhausting.
I really liked Kelsey and her boyfriend, they seemed a genuine couple with their heads screwed on and decent goals.
Victoria I felt so sorry for. I never really felt we got to see the 'real' Victoria even on camera. You could really see her weight fluctuating, at the beginning of the series she looked emaciated and by the end she'd put a lot of weight on in her face, arms and stomach (by DCC standards). I really hope she's come to her senses and decided not to try out for a 5th year, her sense of self and mental health will be so much better for it. Her mum clearly loves her but just seems very misguided.
Reece is a great dancer, but ugh. As soon as she started with the squeaky voice and rictus grin I knew she was going to be a Jesus person. You can guarantee her and Mr Potato Head won't have sex before marriage, they'll get married, have kids and 10 years down the line he'll be shagging someone else and she'll be wondering if God will be angry if she gets divorced.
I liked Anisha and Charley, but it was obvious from the little digs by the older women that they weren't going to make the final cut.

I think one the nastiest bits is how they publicly cast aside veterans in the audition process.

It would take nearly no extra effort to take them aside before that final audition announcement so they can have a proper debrief.

But isn't that the whole (tragic) point of this kind of cheerleader -- that what they want is fairly specific type of All-American pretty face and body type? Who can dance and do the splits etc? But 'pretty' is non-negotiable?

I had to stop watching this as it was too depressing. One of the judges commenting in the auditions that someone’s face had ‘too much weight’ and the girls giving over complete control of their bodies and looks.

Making the Team was a major guilty pleasure of mine. I’ve watched this too. It’s much slicker than MTT. Also we’re NFL fans in this house and DH played American Football in uni. (On a side note he loves telling American colleagues that he was a starter on the football team and played all four years - means something way grander to them than it was)

Just on the salaries though, it’s a myth that the football players all earn mega bucks. Yes some do (just like some of the DCC have very lucrative social media or reality careers) but a lot do not make that much.

The rosters are huge and many won’t get a lot of play in their first season. Lots of players work part time alongside it or take pretty low wage jobs in the off season to survive. Nearly all of them will have university degrees and the teams tend to work with them on ‘life after the NFl’. Most have incredibly short careers on the team.

The audition process seems to mirror the team selection. They also have training camp were rookies and vets can be cut really easily.

Im not saying it’s good or bad or anything, just filling in some of the context around the sport.

I have to hand it to Kelli though for what she’s done with the brand. Many NFL teams have cut their cheerleaders, but the DCC have become very famous.

Reece's voice is what is sometimes referred to as the 'fundy baby voice' - ie, it's what a lot of fundamentalist Christian women do with their voice, to make themselves seem sweet, innocent and childlike.

Did anyone else notice her Republican elephant earrings in episode 5 or 6?

That's interesting to know that cheer teams are being cut, the show does make it look like the cheerleaders are a massive deal in American football.

Off topic I know, but curious about which nfl teams you support. I've recently gotten into the sport and am still learning about all the (million or so) rules it entails!

The Baltimore Ravens are our team (no idea why)

In the US coverage of the games, the cheerleaders (if the home team has them) get very little airtime. Mostly when they perform it’s an advert break for the TV broadcast.

Did anyone else notice her Republican elephant earrings in episode 5 or 6?

I did notice those monstrous earrings, I didn’t make the connection, but of course she’d be a republican. That was the same scene where her friend said grace, which I found nauseating. But not as nauseating as Reece’s boyfriend 😂 I kept thinking, she’s a virgin, planing to marry her first boyfriend and likely only ever have sex with this lump. Poor thing.

It’s really fascinating as a social and political documentary. Watching Reece especially I found myself thinking ‘so that’s how someone like Trump was elected, and will get elected again…’. I could just imagine virtually all of them voting Republican.

And the - to me - really jarring contrast between the prayers and constant ‘it’s all in God’s hands’ Christianity with the overt sexualisation and tiny white shorts was weird to see.

I've just binge watched the entire series I felt like I was watching parody.
It reminded me of the movie drop dead gorgeous.

Agree with so many of the comments here.

I don't usually watch stuff like this but had just finished something quite depressing about honour killing so thought this would be light!

I couldn't stop watching it, it is another world, isn't it!

And Reece and her boyfriend, the oddest couple.

It's great to see that Ari is doing brilliantly:

Well Texas is not the whole of America. Also, have you got a clue of how the modelling world works in Europe?

I also know of a lot of jobs that do not pay fair as so many people want to do them? Is that too different in terms of not being paid for the privilege?

America is a big and great place with the best universities and most of the relevant history post world happened and is happening there. Dismissing the country as backwards for a something like this just said more about you than your ignorance than the US tbh.

The coaches were so awful at feedback, fine being bitchy between themselves but just so evasive and wet with giving actually comments. All sweet and smiley calling the girls in then not direct and clear. You would think after X years they'd have it perfected.

That was a really interesting article, thanks for posting & I'm so glad Ari is doing well, they were bitches to her when she was cut

Ive just copied my comments to this thread as posted on another - didnt realise this one was already up! Looking forward to reading other people's comments...I've just watched this and found it interesting (like many things that are so far removed from my own life !) Terribly tough on the girls that don't make it and felt very concerned for Victoria as pp have said, she seemed to be on the outside trying to fit in and felt the two trainers (?) were less warm to her than others - at least it came across like that on TV. Winced every time they did the splits - dread to think what that does to their bodies over time!!