Sports Illustrated Stands up for Professional Cheerleading - Fighting to be Heard
Sports Illustrated - NFL Cheerleaders’ Fight to Be Heard
Written by Paige Skinner
This article, along with others advocating for our profession, is a big deal for the professional dance and cheerleading community. For so long, the top articles you see commonly revolve around an everlasting stereotype towards NBA dancers and NFL cheerleaders. Articles providing voice and truth into the reality of what we do, gives advocacy to the dancers and cheerleaders that put their life and dreams into this profession. A dream for so many, that deserves to continue its legacy and have a respected place throughout the professional sports industry.
Sports Illustrated published an article by Paige Skinner on June 28th, 2021 highlighting the NFL and NBA organization’s decisions on re-branding and “re-imagining” their pro dance and cheer teams, along with other ongoing concerns from the teams (our highlight, in this article, is on the dis-banning of pro dance teams.)
Paige interviewed countless professional cheerleaders starting in January, to truly understand their perspectives and realities.
“I interviewed probably more than a dozen former cheerleaders about a variety of topics, including pay, treatment, NFL cheerleading’s diversity issue, and unionization efforts. I spoke with each woman for probably 30 minutes to an hour to understand their experience in the NFL and what they wanted to see change.”
Although this is the feature that made the Sports Illustrated daily cover, it is one of multiple articles that Paige has published advocating for the professional dance and cheerleading industry - the others being featured in both Time and Allure.
“I’ve written about pro cheerleading and pro dance before for publications like TIME and Allure and it’s a subject that interests me because professional cheerleaders are at the top of their game, yet I don’t think they get the respect they deserve. Mhkeeba Pate reached out to me in 2018 about the NBA slowly getting rid of their all-female squads, so I wrote about that for TIME and I’ve just tried to follow the pro dance world as closely as possible and share the women’s stories in a way that feels similar to how sports reporters report on male athletes.”
“My main takeaway was just the need for these women to unionize. If NFL cheerleaders had a union, they would have a say in their pay, work hours, what uniforms they wore, how they wanted to be represented, and a lot more. The players are unionized and the cheerleaders should be too.”
Although there were other topics discussed in this article - the recent trends of “cutting” or completely “re-branding” dance team legacies is what dancers/cheerleaders deserve to have a voice towards most of all. Well-respected professional level dance/cheer teams that those before us have worked so hard to create a legacy and respected platform for. These teams that hold so many hopes and dreams by both current, former, and aspiring dancers.
As we know, many of these organizational changes stem from the #MeToo movement, but what people aren’t understanding is that these drastic moves are actually counterintuitive.
These teams are empowering, give women a strong platform in a male-dominant industry, and provide multi-faceted women (and men) for the younger generations to look up to. The question stems from: why is it “trend” to remove a platform that gives the younger generation, especially females, something to aspire to that is - diverse, hard working, accountable, prestige, and made up of dreamers. People have such a high view of these dance teams, something that took time and hard work to build up to, so why cut it and start from scratch - setting an example that these teams/women are replaceable or not good enough as we are?
“The issues lies in people looking in and deciding to place judgement and stereotype on what we do, when in reality they are taking away opportunity for those diverse, hard-working, and talented women.”
“Women can’t complain about workplace culture if they are not in the workplace.”
As dancers and cheerleaders voice their opinions on the re-branding and dismantling of their pro dance and cheer teams - we begin to see major publishing companies, blogs, and other platforms acknowledging the issues and having our backs.
These types of articles written in our advocacy, especially from large publishers, are everything for our dance community. Even if this issue is not effecting your team directly - it effects our industry as a whole. We have to keep supporting each other as what happens to one team, ultimately will effect us all.
For those dancers losing their dream teams - keep speaking up and know your community supports you!
We caught up with journalist, Paige Skinner, to hear more on her advocacy for the pro dance community and her SI article:
Tell us about yourself
I’m a freelance journalist, meaning I write and report on a variety of topics for lots of different publications.
Have you been a part of the dance community previously?
No. I danced in high school, but that’s it.
What inspired you to write this article?
I’ve written about pro cheerleading and pro dance before for publications like TIME and Allure and it’s a subject that interests me because professional cheerleaders are at the top of their game, yet I don’t think they get the respect they deserve. Mhkeeba Pate reached out to me in 2018 about the NBA slowly getting rid of their all-female squads, so I wrote about that for TIME and I’ve just tried to follow the pro dance world as closely as possible and share the women’s stories in a way that feels similar to how sports reporters report on male athletes.
From an outside perspective how do these decisions towards pro dancers and cheerleaders come off?
I obviously have my opinions and I think from the article, you can pretty easily figure them out. I think the league would benefit from the teams including the women in more of their decision-making.
How did you research for this article? Did you talk with directors, dancers, etc?
I interviewed probably more than a dozen former cheerleaders about a variety of topics, including pay, treatment, NFL cheerleading’s diversity issue, and unionization efforts. I spoke with each woman for probably 30 minutes to an hour to understand their experience in the NFL and what they wanted to see change.
What was your experience talking with former WFT cheerleaders and the recent cutting of their cheerleading team?
Candess was great, along with all the other women. How WFT ended the First Ladies of Football didn’t surprise unfortunately because we saw the same thing happen to NBA dance squads a few years ago.
What was your takeaways after talking to these professional dancers and how they are feeling with these kind of decisions in the professional dance team industry?
My main takeaway was just the need for these women to unionize. If NFL cheerleaders had a union, they would have a say in their pay, work hours, what uniforms they wore, how they wanted to be represented, and a lot more. The players are unionized and the cheerleaders should be too.
Did you work directly with Sports Illustrated on this? How did that go?
Yes, I pitched this story to SI back in the beginning of 2021. Reporting and writing the story took several months, but my editor at SI was great and extremely helpful.
How did Sports Illustrated view this piece? Do they agree it is a poor decision to cut or rebrand professional dance and cheerleading teams?
I’m not sure SI has an opinion on it. I think with any publication, they are just trying to tell a fair and balanced story and this one is what’s happening with NFL cheerleading right now.
Do you foresee more articles like this coming out on professional dance and cheer teams through big publishing companies?
I really don’t know. I would love to write more pieces about pro dance or even a book. If you know of a book agent, let me know!
Do you find it fair how professional NBA dance teams and NFL cheerleading teams are being completely re-imagined or re-branded due to “sexualization”?
I think Sierra Martinez says it perfectly in the story: “It blows my mind ... It makes no sense why we’re the ones having to change everything about ourselves to conform to what they think is the issue—which is them, really.”
It is articles from large platforms like this and journalists that take the time to understand our profession, that will finally give the professional dance and cheerleading industry/community a voice to make waves in our profession.
Let us know your thoughts on the “re-imagining/re-branding/cutting” of professional dance and cheerleading within the NFL and NBA.