She had a dirty face
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar on the NFL versus the witches:
Witches, man. Just when you thought we were safe from their malignant influence on America’s virtue, the NFL has proven we are still in real danger from their dark powers.
In danger how? Witchy witchy seduction.
Bailey Davis, the 22-year-old former New Orleans Saints cheerleader, was recently fired for violating team social media rules by posting an Instagram photo of herself in one-piece lingerie that shows as much skin as a one-piece swimsuit in a Nordstrom’s ad, and a lot less than their cheerleading outfits. She has since filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission for gender discrimination. When she spoke to a representative from the Saints’ human resources department, he complained that in her photo she had a “dirty face” (clear proof she was casting her spell compelling virtuous men to “filthy carnal acts”) and that he’d never allow his granddaughters to post something like that.
Interesting, but I don’t think “what dude X would never let his granddaughters do” is a legit criterion for firing someone.
Grandpa’s pompous Lord Tywin Lannister response encapsulates exactly what’s wrong with NFL management: They insist on being the self-appointed guardians of America’s mythological vision of itself. Malt shops on every corner, Pat Boone crooning on the jukebox, and modestly dressed virgins sitting around with knees clamped together waiting to be asked to prom. This 1950s, Father Knows Best soundstage fantasy doesn’t stop with paternalistic and puritanical gender stereotypes, but also promotes simplistic notions about race and patriotism. The NFL’s anachronistic fancies aren’t just a misguided attempt to pander to what they think their traditionalist fans want, but also projects the hard-core conservative values of the mostly rich, white one-percenters who own the teams. We must live in their Disneyland – or else.
Mind you, in the 50s the NFL wasn’t raking in huge bucks from television, but that’s ok – just let them have the technology and $$$ of now combined with the white male dominance of the 50s and they won’t say another word.
The country would be outraged if a team’s rules stated that if a black player was eating at a restaurant and a white player walked in, the black player would have to leave the restaurant. Yet, those are the rules for Saints’ cheerleaders, who must leave a restaurant they are eating at if a Saints player arrives. We would be equally outraged if a company demanded that office personnel address top executives only with “hello” and “you’re wonderful”. Yet the Saints’ cheerleaders are restricted to saying only “hello” and “great game” to players. Other restrictions about weight, makeup, body hair, tampon use and forbidding sweatpants in public make it seem as if the Saints watched The Handmaid’s Tale and thought, “They just don’t go far enough.” In other words, shut up and jiggle.
These highly trained and skilled women are being told that the NFL just wants to protect them from sexual predators, particularly NFL players. Like the grumpy grandpa in human resources who wouldn’t “allow” his granddaughters to post photos he doesn’t approve of, the NFL wants to be their (creepy? pimpy?) daddy. These are adult women who should be permitted to make their own decisions about who they contact and who they don’t, especially since the players have no such restrictions. A cheerleader poses in modest lingerie and she’s fired; a player knocks out his wife on video and is suspended for two games. Boys will be boys, but girls must be what the NFL tells them to be.
Sod that for a game of soldiers.
Yes, this is the wrong reason to fire a cheerleader.
Instead, fire them all because having cheerleaders is a stupid relic of a bygone era.
Well, not to mention it’s hard to think of a more grotesquely sexist invention – women whose job it is to whip up enthusiasm for a small group of men.
Why not a new, innovative solution? Stop hiring sexual predators to play NFL football. If sexual predators are determined to be playing NFL football, fire them. Put it in their contract – sexual predatory behavior, and you’re gone. Zero tolerance.
Oops. Can’t do that. I imagine they use the lure of the “best girls” to tempt the players they want to their team – that, and oodles of money and promos.
Hi Ophelia!
Just dropped by after a bunch of years not visiting, to compliment the/an author of “Why Truth Matters”, an issue that is even more salient now.
Heroic.
You are still doing great work I see.
Chris
‘Highly trained and skilled’ at WHAT? High school cheer-leading is embarrassing enough, the ‘pro’ versions are really disturbing. They are on the playing field to fill in the dead time used for television advertisements. Tits and ass on the diamond-vision screens to keep the crowds in place, except for the beer-purchasers.
The team-owners paternalism toward their window-dressing harems is beyond hypocrisy.
Hi Chris!
Good to see you, so to speak. I wonder periodically where you got to.
Golly that’s an interesting thread. B&W’s theological argumentation period.
The “so to speak” applies to the see, not to the good. It is good to “see” you!
And thank you about WTM. It’s funny how the phrase “truth matters” keeps coming up these days.
I have had a few ups and downs as has everyone; since last here I have worked in the remote Pilbara, the Highlands of PNG and now in a fading gold mining town. Retrenched four times. Was injured at work and retreated to a technical back office.
You are right; ‘truth matters’ comes up a lot now, as it is honored in the breech. Pretending that what ought to be true, is, is the fashion.
Ophelia, I’ve just followed ChrisPer’s link, then after reading clicked to the previous article http://www.butterfliesandwheels.org/2006/somethings-wrong-i-cant-quite-tell-what-it-is/
I could but marvel at your near-prophesy from 12 years back when I read
Have you ever considered starting a religion?
Sorry about the injury, congrats on the far-flung experiences, Chris.
Ac – oh that was when Bolton was in the Bush White House, nothing prophetic about it. Skeert but not prophetic.
@John the Drunkard #5
Cheerleaders actually are quite skilled, in tumbling, and, in the big leagues, dancing, even though their skills are used as window-dressing and titillation for Really Important Stuff like men playing Sportsball.