Voice, Exit, and Cheerleaders
The newest season of the Netflix documentary America’s Sweethearts, which traces the 2024 audition, training, and performance season of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders, is a lot more than just a pretty face.
The philosopher Loren Lomasky has argued persuasively in Persons, Rights, and the Moral Community that one of the things that makes humans human is our devotion to projects. As a pursuer of a wide variety of projects myself, I’m a big fan of media that give me a chance to watch people pursue projects I don’t know much about, like competitive cooking, scientific explorations, glass-blowing, and dance and cheerleading.
When I started watching America’s Sweethearts last year it was out of this appreciation for people as pursuers of projects. I tuned in expecting that the series would, as it had in its first season, take me inside a highly competitive world where I could watch people work very hard at a project that I can admire from a distance, even though I have no personal stake in it. It certainly did that.
But as I’m sure many economists have noted, this season of America’s Sweethearts isn’t just about the passionate pursuit of a good high kick and perfect jump splits. It’s about the importance of what Albert O. Hirschman called voice and exit.
During the show’s first season, I was mildly taken aback to realize that members of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders (DCC) usually hold down second or third jobs while training, cheering, and making personal appearances for the team. Squad members could make as little as $15 an hour (which is what my teenager makes taking orders out to cars at Target), with $500 bonuses for personal appearances.
NewsNation reported this exchange in their coverage of the first season:
Charlotte Jones, the Dallas Cowboys’ chief brand officer and daughter of owner Jerry Jones, said in the docuseries:
“The facts are that they actually don’t come here for the money. They come here for something that’s actually bigger than that to them. They have a passion for dance. There are not a lot of opportunities in the field of dance, and to get to perform at an elite level … It is about being a part of something bigger than themselves. It is about a sisterhood that they were able to form, about relationships that they have for the rest of their lives,” said Jones.
“Yes, it is about sisterhood and passion. Absolutely. I met my best friends,” Puryear told NewsNation in response. “However, we can still have best friends [and] I’m still paid fairly for my job in commercial leasing. Both are doable.”
Anyone who has been offered payment in “exposure” or told they should be prepared to take less money because they love their job can sympathize. Passion and sisterhood should not be an excuse for lower pay.
By the second, most recent season, this financial issue had become a major theme for the documentary, rather than just a passing moment that emphasised the professionalism and commitment of the DCC squad. The documentary shows us that many of the cheerleaders refused to sign their contracts for the year, and a core crew provided a perfect example of voice when they met with management to express their grievances. Some even painfully acknowledged that they were prepared to exit the squad if they were not heard.
Hirschman also emphasizes the concept of loyalty, and it’s important to note that even while negotiations were at their height, the DCC team continued to fulfill their responsibilities and spoke often of their goal of leaving the organization better than they found it. Using voice and being prepared to exit do not imply disloyalty. Sometimes they are loyalty.
The season came to an end without an improved contract for the DCC. Some members of the squad indicated that they would not be auditioning to rejoin the squad because they felt that management had been unresponsive to their requests, and unwilling to listen when they exercised the voice option. (Perhaps management felt that the supply of potential future DCC members is so high that they could risk losing veterans?)
However, the first season of the documentary had become incredibly popular. The DCC had a growing social media presence. Reddit threads and think pieces began pointing out the shockingly low pay for the visibly hard work. All of this increased the power of the DCC members’ voices and raised the costs of allowing them to exit. And by the end of season banquet, a new contract was produced that responded to the DCC requests with an approximately 400% pay raise.
The strength of the America’s Sweethearts documentary is that it allows viewers to see the importance of voice and exit and to see a good result from using them, while also unflinchingly showing that these options are not risk-free.
Much of America’s Sweethearts is devoted to showing that the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders are serious and hard-working professionals—who just happen to go to work in sequins, false lashes, and booty shorts. Their determined self-advocacy and demonstration of a solid understanding of voice and exit support that. When’s the last time you negotiated a 400% raise with such grace you didn’t even smear your eyeliner?
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Want more like this? Claudia Goldin: A Personal Appreciation
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