No Cheers In NFL

Who would have thought it .... apparently American Football Cheerleaders are sometimes subject to some 'sexism' when being selected or training .... with such things as 'jiggle tests', as well as tests of athletic dance ability, being required to get or retain a place on the teams.

A 'jiggle test' by the way is where they are judged on their physical appearance in their outfit, and told which parts of their bodies are problem areas they need to work on. Too many warnings for an out-of-shape body could lead to sitting out a game, or even the sack.

Really!! What shocking times we live in, when a teenage nymphet, in a skimpy leotard or costume, and willing to do acrobatic contortions to entertain a largely male crowd, can be asked to demean herself by going a 'jiggle test' before winning a place on a dance team, where she will then happily cavort about. Of course that cavorting about, can mean that they face heckling, and possibly, groping, at sponsors / promotional events. As one ex-cheerleader said "Let's be honest. You're an NFL cheerleader and you're standing in front of 10,000 drunk guys all the time".

Traditionally, its never been a well paid role in the National Football League scheme of things, with many cheerleaders making around $100 (£60) per show or less. They receive no compensation for time spent practising or working at promotional events, and only one club, the Seattle Seahawks, has said that they pay cheerleaders an hourly wage and overtime.

Seahawks Cheerleaders aka 'Sea Gals' On Hourly Rates

But these poor conditions are mainly fuelled by the fact that many, many, teen girls are willing to do the work for peanuts, as its a chance to break into Playboy, or even TV, and of receiving a very thorough dance training. Although to be fair, on the plus side, the girls can pose for calendar shots, which are then sold as fund-raiser's and the most popular ladies are able to pocket the profits from their 'personal sales'.

Of course, given all these Dickensian working conditions (on a par with chimney sweeps if you ask me),  they have been advised to sue .... this is America after all. Especially if they believe that by undergoing and failing said 'jiggle test' they didn't actually get the job, were made to sit on the bench, or feel demeaned in some other way. So now three trial lawsuits have gone in against the NFL, citing that the complainants:

1. Aren't compensated fairly for their work, and
2. Are subject to degrading work conditions, and unwanted sexual contact.
3. That they often have to pay for certain beauty products such as skin tanning sessions and gels for fair skinned dancers.
4. Pay up front for their promotional calendars, and therefore lose money if they don't all sell.
5. Are asked to do 'voluntary' promotional work, which is in effect unpaid labour.

In the end, said a lawyer representing some of the girls, it doesn't matter that there are thousands of women lining up to do the job, or that they get perks by being associated with the NFL, but 'The NFL isn't just about football. It's about pageantry and spectacle, and above all, commerce, bringing in $9bn (£5.3bn) last year. The cheerleaders, she says, should get their share' ..... ah, that's the important bit 'get their share'.

Well suing will no doubt bring a bit of sanity to a world gone mad ....

A Culture Of Denial

This Blog has remarked in the past on the supine acceptance by women commentators in the UK, of what creeping Islamization and the introduction of Sharia, in any form, could mean for the women of the UK, and indeed Europe.

The "Wimmin" of the Left, who don't hold back in their vilification of any perceived form of "Sexism" by "White Males" ... say nothing, while some men who are largely of Pakistani descent, carry out a series of activities (under the guise of "freedom of speech, multiculturalism, and 'Human rights') ... that are contrary to, and  in many instances working actively against, all the value systems that have given Western women, the most freedom, rights and safety, of any women, at any time in human history.

So it was with no great surprise that I read and then followed, the fallout from the story of the mass sexual assault and beating, of US female reporter Lara Logan in Egypt's Tahrir square.

The first thing that struck me, was the silence, the incredible long silence. Instead of a condemnation of the attack on one of their own, by the men of a culture, that has a history of violence to, and subjugation of, women and their rights, and which is on the rise in the UK and elsewhere, there was simply embarrassed silence. There was no radio or TV debate on how or why this could happen in any culture, nor whether the attempts to appease this same culture in the West, needs to be reconsidered.

Now it should be pointed out that sexual harassment of women in public places, is not solely the preserve of Muslim / Arab societies - and indeed it wasn't so very long ago that it was an issue in the West, albeit, it was not usually at the level of anything more than propositioning women, or verbal comments ....

• Public sexual harassment known as "eve teasing" in India.
• In the US, 'Reclaim the Night' campaign started in the 1970s with marches against sexual violence and pornography.
• In Japan, groping on the subway has been a problem for many years.
• In Pakistan, and other Asian countries, Christian and Hindu girls are occasionally kidnapped, raped and then forced to marry their Muslim rapist by Sharia courts.
• Many African conflicts are characterised by mass rape of women as a part of the armed struggles.

However the mass sexual assault on reporter Lara Logan, and other incidents in that part of the world, have highlighted the particularly public, nasty, violent and gang rape element of any such events in the Islamic world.

The other thing that followed this terrible event, and that was a surprise, was the vitriol poured down on the head of Ms Logan by commentators of the Left and Right, who fearful of any Muslim response to criticism of their culture, and of the violence to women that it engenders, turned instead  on the messenger of their discomfort.

At first, there was the attempt to De-Muslimise the event by suggesting that all men everywhere are sexual predators and therefore by inference that mass. two hundred strong gangs of rapists are capable of springing up in every culture ...

Then there was the suggestion that being a woman reporter was somehow "asking for it" in many parts of the world and therefore, the risk of being publicly gang raped and beaten to death was just one of the risks a woman took ..... just like the risk of being shot, or tortured.

But when that didn't run, they simply attacked Ms Logan (in a move which is remarkably similar, in a symbolic way, to an an 'honour killing') for causing the attack by 'being there'. The attack took the form of  a media onslaught, rife with the typical blame-the-victim accusations (ironically like the rape victim as instigator in Muslim honor killings), many from other journalists and commentators.

Perhaps the worst of these attacks was led by left-wing journalist Nir Rosen, who had also worked in the war zones of Iraq and Afghanistan, and who started a series of tweets which began with: "[She] was probably just groped like thousands of other women", continued with: "Lara had to outdo Anderson" [referring to the attack on CNN's reporter Anderson Cooper and his crew the day before], and ended with: "Jesus Christ, at a moment when she is going to become a martyr and glorified we should at least remember her role as a major warmonger."

He tried to back-track, as the exact nature of the attack on her, and the nastiness of his tweet attack, went viral, but denials that he really understood the nature of the attack on her rang as a bit hollow, as he had posted his initial tweet on the CBS statement about her injuries, and the details of the attack. He then reverted to the "some of my best friends are ....." type of defence with the statement that he was a "staunch supporter of women's rights". He was eventually forced him to resign from his position at New York University.

But it wasn't just from the 'Left' that Logan was attacked .... Ultra-conservative columnist, and female commentator Debbie Schlussel stated that: "Lara Logan was among the chief cheerleaders of this 'revolution' by animals. Now she knows what Islamic revolution is really all about." She then said that it was "So sad, too bad, Lara. No-one told her to go there. She knew the risks. And she should have known what Islam is all about. Now she knows ... How fitting that Lara Logan was 'liberated' by Muslims in Liberation Square while she was gushing over the other part of the 'liberation'. Hope you're enjoying the revolution, Lara! Alhamdilllullah [praise Allah]."

I find it strange and sad, that fear of reprisals if making negative comments about one foreign culture, makes us attack those who should be defended by our own one ..... strange days.