Would you rehire yourself?
I love it when I find a series I can’t help but binge-watch.
I got a tip from one of my clients telling me they were loving a documentary series about the Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders. I wasn’t sure it was quite my thing, but she seemed to rate it, so I thought I’d give it a go.
Oh. My. God!
I was hooked!
I could tell I was definitely hooked because when Kev left at 4am one day to catch a flight, I grabbed a coffee and watched two episodes before taking Eddie out for his morning walk at 6am.
(Yeah. ADHD hyperfocus at its finest!)
The DCC selection process is brutal - physically and mentally.
These women make their job look so easy. I mean what’s so hard about jiggling pom-poms in a pair of hot pants, right?
Here’s what’s hard:
EVERYTHING!
I imagine in ten years time the DCC’s selection process and employment regime as it currently stands will be outlawed for reasons of sexism, and physical/mental brutality.
I’m interested to see how this pans out long term, because I must admit I’m equally gobsmacked that this is allowed to happen, and also in awe of the passion and dedication these women have to make the cut.
My definition of feminism is supporting women to do whatever the hell they want, but it’s not something I’d particularly want for my daughter or granddaughter - we saw one ex-squad member talking about the damage she’s sustained to her hip and foot from the repetitive, gruelling drills, specifically from their signature “drop split” move. It’s not uncommon for these women to need surgery to correct the damage.
But, as it stands, hundreds of young women audition every year to become a DCC.
And here’s the real kicker - they go through a selection process every year.
No cheerleader is safe in their job (if you can call it a job - they are paid a pittance and have to fit their gruelling passion around another job).
At the end of every year, each cheerleader has to hand back their uniform - they don’t get to keep anything, which is bizarre as it’s all tailored specifically to their bodies - and they have to audition as veterans alongside rookies.
There are only 36 spots, and they have to go through a series of gruelling, mentally overwhelming stages until they know they’ve made the final cut.
You can get cut for all kinds of reasons - being too thin, being too fat, not having enough energy because you aren’t eating enough (when if you’re focusing on not getting fat can be tricky and many end up with eating disorders), not smiling enough, smiling too weirdly, not putting in enough effort, looking as if you’re putting in too much effort, your hair shade being too dark or too light for your skin tone, not looking “right” in the uniform because your proportions don’t match their ideal (God forbid you have too much space between your belly button and crotch and make their shorts look weird!), being a millisecond off a beat, not having enough personality, having so much personality that it’s distracting…the list goes on.
The Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders selection process is a masterclass in positioning.
They are unapologetically brutal and picky, but they have women queuing up to be chosen to work for a pittance because the status and sense of achievement they gain from being part of that team outweighs the considerable list of negatives.
It makes me wonder how different many organisations would be if every person on the team knew they would be fired at the end of every year and go through the interview process all over again.
I know damn well there would have been times when Kev and I wouldn’t have rehired ourselves!
If you were completely honest, would you rehire yourself if you fired yourself tomorrow?
If so, why?
If not, why not?