Jamie Reidy rips a dude trying out for the Denver Broncos cheerleading squad.
Well, at least Phil Dunphy would be proud.
CNN’s Don Lemon reports on the first male cheerleader candidate.
When I saw this headline, I instantly thought of the idiots who sued Hooters for not hiring them because they are men. As Lisa Simpson told Homer, “Good luck with your trumped up lawsuit, Dad!”
But then I saw the first few seconds of the video and thought of the Chris Farley-Patrick Swayze Chippendales skit on Saturday Night Live.
But then, after seeing this guy interviewed, I realized this is the NFL equivalent of the SNL skit where Martin Short is a mentally challenged male synchronized swimming competitor. ”I don’t swim.” He actually looks like Martin Short! (Unfortunately, I couldn’t find the link on youtube.)
I’m sure Peyton Manning is thinking, “This shit didn’t happen in Indy.”
What do you think about this guy?
About Jamie Reidy
Men have been trying for decades to get close to the action in the NFL cheerleading try-outs. This guy has found the golden ticket. If he really is sincerely trying out and is not just there to get close to scantily clad gyrating young women, then good for him, in a sort of “so close and yet so far” kind of way. Martin Short at a cheerleading try-out sounds like “water, water everywhere, but not a drop to drink.”
More power to him. I won’t boo him. I would, however, prefer that he stay in the back row and not obstruct my view….
And dammit, I say no one can force him to wax his body hair. I don’t care how much of his midriff gets shown, he should be allowed to go all natural.
Okay I’m having problems seeing the video…I’m pretty sure my housemates are using all my bandwidth at the moment
So could you please explain to me what in the interview makes you dislike the guy so much?
And, I know that these little posts are meant to be mostly sarcastic…but could you explain to me what the problem with a male cheerleader is? I mean, why hate on the guy for choosing something outside the norm?
Is he suing them for not accepting him? Or just trying out? If it’s the latter, then I don’t see the problem.
From what I’ve read it was a sincere effort to try out for the team and after getting cut from tryouts (and he even cops to messing up a few times) he seems to be now focused on just trying again. I was planning on posting on this when I got home tonight.
http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2012/04/16/denver-man-tries-out-to-be-broncos-first-male-cheerleader/
I am ripping him because this is a ridiculous stunt.
Juro, he’s suing them? I didn’t get that from the video. Seems like it’s an open tryout, so anybody can give it a go.
I simply prefer that the anybody is a woman.
Okay but, again since I can’t see the video…how do you know it’s a stunt and not an honest desire to be an NFL Cheerleader?
It was just this note – ‘When I saw this headline, I instantly thought of the idiots who sued Hooters for not hiring them because they are men. As Lisa Simpson told Homer, “Good luck with your trumped up lawsuit, Dad!”’
I just thought it was an unusual reaction to the video, I wondered if I had missed anything.
I think it’s a stunt, HeatherN, because the guy is a lousy dancer. Plus, he’s smaller than some of the women, so he certainly can’t hoist any of them in the air like male cheerleaders do in college. The latter are very strong.
Ah okay. See like I said, I can’t see the video…and I didn’t get the SNL reference. So I couldn’t tell exactly what you were saying.
Whether it’s a stunt or not, he will no doubt appear on Leno or Letterman at some point, or will be a brief YouTube sensation.
I can imagine if he made the cut that it would be even more disappointing to be a woman who didn’t make the cut. See, I have empathy….
Yeah, I think the distinction here is this: If the guy were a legit cheerleader, like the guys who hoist the women and help them do those incredible acrobatics you see in the major cheerleading competitions, it’d be different. OR If he were a trans-woman and were looking to be a cheerleader, much like Canada’s Miss Universe contestant hopefully will be.
But yeah, right now it seems like a publicity stunt and that’s just frickin’ annoying.
My cousin was a Clipper’s cheerleader until recently and I can tell you that those girls are SERIOUS athletes. The gymnastics any of those women can bust out would blow your minds, and they also have to be among the best dancers in the country.
I think if someone makes a stunt out of something like this it is not only annoying to the typical guy who wants to see babes and not bros (like Jamie) but it sort of makes a mockery of those actually seeking legit equality.
Wait, since when is being “the lifter” the only way for a man to be a legitimate cheerleader? Sure, that’s what men have traditionally done, but surely the message of the new gender-neutral society is “screw tradition,” right?
As long as the man can do the same leaps and chants as the rest, his requirement to carry loads should be no different from any female cheerleader’s.
Agreed. I think the reason they think it’s a stunt, though, is because apparently he’s a crap dancer.
agree with copyleft’s post
Dude is straight clown. He can’t dance, he’s too small. As Joanna said dancers are serious athletes, you aren’t going to find too many male cheerleaders or dancers his size. They are normally muscular people, and yes they will ask him to lift the cheerleaders because it’s an added bonus of being a male. He should be stronger than most women at his weight (and capable of getting properly bigger)
This is not a very important issue. However, many of the opinions are very disappointing to me.
If the job is for women only, then it should be advertised as such and this man should not be at try outs.
If the job is for men and women, he has every right to go after his dreams, just like everyone else.
If he has no talent, he will not make the cut.
No matter what, there is NO excuse for ridiculing this young man.
Male cheerleaders are good for throwing the girls in the air AND catching them, not doing the same dances the women do. Hetero males simply have no interest in seeing that.
I do think it was ironic that they chose Don Lemon to do the interview though.
Pretty sure the straight female sports fans out there would love to watch male cheerleaders doing the same dances, though.
I think if the NFL was concerned with female sports fans, we’d already have seen male cheerleaders.
Okay true. How about gay male sports-fans? Oh right…sorry, for a second there I forgot only hetero men watch American football. Silly me.
Seriously, though, the idea that male cheerleaders should be relegated to lifts is ridiculous. If he could dance, he should be able to get the job just like anyone else.
I got no problem with men who can dance. It’s hot.
Yeah, that last bit wasn’t directed at you…it was directed at people who were suggesting male cheerleaders shouldn’t be dancers. In my sarcasm, I failed to explain who I was talking to.
Here’s the real issue:
What is it that we expect from cheerleaders at pro sports events? They’re really dancers, they’re not the athletes that college-level cheerleaders are, like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kYVut3uje08&feature=relmfu
But they are talented dancers. As I said before, my cousin Katie was a Clippers Girl and she is an incredible athlete (she was also, by the way, the first—and maybe only?—woman to ever successfully run the entire first course of Wipeout without falling!), so I’m not diminishing the awesome talent of pro cheerleaders.
However. Let’s be clear about the function of these cheerleaders when we’re talking about whether a young man should be allowed onto the team. Yeah, I’m all about equality, however let’s not pretend that pro cheerleading is like any other sport. What are they there for? They don’t compete with anyone. They don’t have a Super Bowl or a Final Four.
Sure, they entertain the crowd during halftime… Personally I like watching the dance routines, and so do many other women and non-het men, but they land on that team by being hot. Their job is to be hot, to be eye candy, to stimulate the imagination.
When it comes down to it, regardless of the lack of competitive talent possessed by the young man in this story (which is just not up to snuff, so he simply shouldn’t be considered), Jamie says he wants women to be the only cheerleaders for pro sports teams. And we can easily get irritated by that… I know it rubbed me the wrong way at first (my first thought with everything is EQUALITY!). But are we mad that there aren’t men posing nude in Playboy, only women? Are we upset that there aren’t any women dancing with the Chippendales? Do we get upset that the Firefighter Calendars every year only feature shirtless male firefighters and not shirtless female firefighters?
We’re really not.
So why does this even raise an eyebrow?
Because when we’re talking about pro sports, we want to believe we’re talking about wholesome, good-for-the-whole-family fun, right? We don’t want to look at the dancers and think, “I’m looking at these women like objects right now.” We want to look at these cheerleaders and say, “This is a halftime show! This is wholesome! This is America! I’m with my mom!”
And that’s where the problem comes in. Are we creating a halftime show, or are we watching very soft-soft-soft core porn? If it weren’t fantasy fodder, why would you care if a guy were gyrating alongside that cute brunette with the ponytail? Be honest with yourself about what you’re thinking when she’s doing those splits…
And then remember that there’s nothing wrong with watching a woman do the splits and thinking what you’re thinking. I’m thinking it. And I’m also thinking something when I’m lying on the grassy knoll by my local university watching the men’s water polo team practice. Sure the athleticism is excellent, but so is something else… aided much in part by the fantastic swimsuits those guys wear.
Sure, you can call me creepy, but we’re (almost) all that creepy. Let’s just be honest about it. Nothing wrong with porn, nothing wrong with looking at the Victoria’s Secret catalogue, nothing wrong with watching the men’s water polo team, nothing wrong with watching the cheerleaders.
But let’s not pretend these pro cheerleaders are serving any function other than being eye candy.
“But are we mad that there aren’t men posing nude in Playboy, only women? Are we upset that there aren’t any women dancing with the Chippendales? Do we get upset that the Firefighter Calendars every year only feature shirtless male firefighters and not shirtless female firefighters?”
Well for your examples…there are skin mags with nude men. There are female strippers. There are female Firefighter calendars. So, there are both male and female versions of all of the examples you gave…and straight and lgbt men and women are able to consume those media equally.
The problem with football cheerleaders is that it not only ignores straight women, but frankly it ignores gay men as well. It’s assuming that the audience is all straight men…it’s heteronormativity. I’m actually not suggesting they aren’t eye candy…trust me…I am very much aware that they are also eye candy. The problem is that they are only eye candy for a select group of people.
So a guy (who let’s say can dance) comes in and wants to be a cheerleader…and society tells him – well okay but only if you lift the hot ladies. And what if he doesn’t want to do that? What if he wants to dance? Hot guys dancing are apparently major eye candy for straight women and gay men. Why should they miss out on the sweetness?
And the argument that straight guys don’t want to see other men dancing suggestively just doesn’t cut it. (Not that you’re going to make that argument, Joanna, but I bet someone will). That is straight privilege, right there. If gay men can sit through a half-time show watching women cheerleaders in tiny uniforms shake and groove, then straight men can watch male cheerleaders doing the same thing.
Apparently, the NFL doesn’t control who teams hire as their cheerleaders.
However, if the NFL could retain existing viewers and expand their base by having male cheerleaders dance suggestively, they would do it. They’re in business; they’re not trying to make a political statement.
“And the argument that straight guys don’t want to see other men dancing suggestively just doesn’t cut it. (Not that you’re going to make that argument, Joanna, but I bet someone will).”
I already did. It’s simply a fact. And that’s the NFL’s core, most loyal, biggest spending fan base. And they know it. It’s not “straight privilege” anymore than male dancers at a gay club is gay privilege. It’s just a business knowing its customer base and catering to it.
Actually, having both genders dancing in skimpy outfits is a great idea. Everyone can watch what they want to watch. I wouldn’t give a male cheerleader a second glance, but the woman two steps to his left…? Sure!
Something for everybody in the eye-candy department sounds like a very fair solution to me.
The problem with football cheerleaders is that it not only ignores straight women, but frankly it ignores gay men as well. It’s assuming that the audience is all straight men…it’s heteronormativity. I’m actually not suggesting they aren’t eye candy…trust me…I am very much aware that they are also eye candy. The problem is that they are only eye candy for a select group of people.
Hell it ignores anyone that is not a guy that likes the narrow band of women that are deemed to be conventionally attractive. I don’t even pay much attention to the cheerleaders on the rare occasion that I watch a ball game.
I do not think this is the real issue at all. If this were the real issue, the article would be titled “Denver Broncos should only allow females to try out for female cheerleader roles.”
For whatever reason, this sports club decided to allow men to try out for this job. Maybe they made a mistake. Maybe not. That is a different discussion. The discussion we are having here, today, is: is this man a ridiculous fool because he applied for a job opening?
In my opinion, this disucssion is not OK. We should not ridicule and humiliate a job applicant because he applies for a job. It is not OK to ridicule him either because (i) he is not very talented, nor because (ii) the job should not have been available to men in the first place.
I can understand the desire to ridicule the person who made the decision to allow men to apply for this job. I cannot understand making fun of a job applicant who, for whatever reasons of misadventure or misfortune, winds up applying for a job that some people think should be female only.
When it comes to something like this, you should know where you stand in regards to talent. If you have NEVER done this type of cheerleading before, then don’t go into a tryout expecting to make waves. This is not like applying for a job at McDonalds or to be a secretary to someone, as both require minimal to no experience to land the job. Dancing requires TONS of experience, and to waltz into a tryout with no experience ridicules it. You can’t tell me this man was completely blind to his lack of talent. I seriously doubt it.
I kinda put this guy in the same boat as all those people who try out for things like American Idol. Sure some of those folks have talent and a lot of them should get a decent shot at showcasing but in reality a lot of those folks should recognize full well they won’t cut it.
But I don’t think that in and of itself is enough to call it a publicity stunt. I think that just shows this guy really didn’t realize how bad he is (or he seriously over estimated his skill).
As in dancing with the stars, maybe. But, dancing like on that video? Uh, no.
He’s not the only one!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h9eXsmOFEpU&feature=relmfu
I support the guy. I was a cheerleader and I think it would be awesome to have male cheerleaders in the NFL! The people who has a problem with it is the ones who are scary.