The perfectly coiffed hair. The skimpy uniforms. The pom-poms. The Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders make it look easy. But the Netflix docuseries America’s Sweethearts: Dallas CowboysCheerleaders proves that the women putting everything on the line so they can be part of the squad are much more than pretty faces and hot bodies. In fact, they’re athletes whose blood, sweat, and tears all go into making their cheerleading team the best in all of sports.
That’s what America’s Sweethearts is all about. The show talks about the joys of being part of the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders (or DCC), including the sisterhood that comes with it. But it also touches on the lows of being part of the squad, including hard work for low pay, eating disorders, and sexual assault. In this article, each of these will be touched on so it can be seen how the show is about much more than cheerleaders being hot.
What Is America’s Sweethearts About?
America’s Sweethearts is a seven-part series directed by Greg Whiteley, and if you’re familiar with his other series, such as Last Chance U, Cheer, and Wrestlers, you know he isn’t interested in just filming the pretty parts of whatever he’s depicting — and the same is true of these cheerleaders. His warts-and-all picture of DCC includes the entirety of the 2023 season, from the auditions, which have a number of painful eliminations, to the final games, which include the Thanksgiving game where the cheerleaders dance with Dolly Parton.
Along the way, he gets into the personal lives of some of the cheerleaders as they give a huge piece of their lives to the Dallas Cowboys organization. They cheer, sure, but it amounts to so much more than that. As Charlotte Jones, the owner and chief brand officer of the Cowboys says, “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 life. They have a chance to feel like they’re valued, that they’re special, and that they are making a difference.”
America’s Sweethearts Are Part of an Elite Sisterhood
The women of DCC are considered America’s sweethearts because they were the first team of professional cheerleaders in the U.S., but they’re more concerned with forming a sisterhood of fellow women. Throughout the show, their openness to one another shows that women are more concerned with making friends than backbiting or tearing one another down. They help one another when they need it and support each other; when one is down they all feel it.
As Charlotte Jones says, this is a big part of being a member of the squad. Though everyone on the team may get on because they are a fantastic dancer, they stay because of the sisterhood they find there. That sisterhood gets them through, no matter how many demands on their time there seem to be. For example, Kelcey, who is a fifth-year veteran, goes to her job as a nurse during the day and then goes to practice with DCC at night. It’s grueling, but it’s worth it to be one of the 36 women on the squad. This is particularly important when the women encounter the negatives that inevitably go with the job.
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Big Fame But Not Big Pay
The DCC may be world-famous, but their pay is nothing to shout about. In the words of Kat, a former cheerleader, they make the equivalent of “a Chick-fil-A worker that works full-time.” That’s not a lot for people who have the talent that these women do. In contrast, the members of the Dallas Cowboys football team make millions. But apparently, that’s what the market will bear when it comes to cheerleaders.
There aren’t many opportunities in elite dance and at least they have the chance to do this for up to five years early in their lives when they’re at their peaks physically and mentally. But you see the toll this takes on them, including in aches, pains, injuries, and surgeries on their hips and other parts of their bodies that leave them hobbling around on crutches.
Victoria’s Troubles
While Whiteley didn’t get all the women to open up for America’s Sweethearts, Victoria speaks in spades. It’s clear that while Victoria wants to be a part of the team, her mother is a big part of the reason why. Her mother was a member of DCC in her day and Victoria wants to follow in her footsteps. She has, but it hasn’t been without its problems, one of which has been an eating disorder.
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While everyone on the squad has to restrict their eating to some degree, Victoria took it to another level. Although she isn’t specific about what the eating disorder was, she took a year off from DCC to deal with it. This is her first year back, her fourth year on the squad in total, and though she is driven to be there, she doesn’t seem that happy about it. She enjoys the charity work and helping rookies on the squad, but she seems to have trouble making friends there, and as a result, doesn’t get a leadership role, which she claims to want. At the end of the season, she decides that 2023 was her last year on the squad, and it seems she may be better for it.
Sexual Assault and Other Crimes
Though every little girl is meant to want to be a DCC and every little boy is meant to want a DCC, when the men get older, there are rules in place so they keep their hands to themselves. At official functions, when people pose with the cheerleaders, they hold a football so they won’t try to touch them because touching isn’t allowed. But in the seventh episode, there is an incident where a rookie cheerleader, Sophy, gets groped during a game and decides to press charges.
This and an incident with Kelcey, who had an AirTag put on her car to track her, speak to just how much a Dallas Cowboys Cheerleader can go through. For all the glitz and glamour, they also have to smile through some terrible things, and sexual assault is at the top of the list. But there are a number of other things that may impact them, and they have to smile through that too. For example, in her second year, Madeline’s father killed himself, and she still went to cheer at the next game.
There are a myriad of things that can impact these cheerleaders, but they continue to smile and make the games fun for people. As a result, they make their job look simple, when it’s anything but. That’s the true message of America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.
