Glamazon women?

Reality TV has not had a good summer. Married at First Sight has been in the media for all the wrong reasons. Despite this, Netflix has brought us the third season of its megahit America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.

The show follows the iconic cheerleading squad as potential members navigate auditions, training camp, and then the ups and downs of the (American) football season. Series One was a breakout hit in 2024, Series Two showed us the women fighting to unionise, despite their highly controlled environment, in an attempt to secure better pay (spoiler: they succeeded!) Series Three holds up a mirror to the new-found fame the team have – now they are globally famous Netflix stars, with all the scrutiny and social-media horrors that this brings. It’s a damning portrayal of how social media can provide an ugly forum for the harsh judgement of others, encouraging us to see commodity over humanity.

The media itself can be pretty scathing about this show and these women. “Vacuous” is one adjective used. On Mumsnet it is called a “guilty pleasure”. After all, this is a world where pom-pom placement matters, where a ponytail is a topic of international debate (literally, its owner hails from New Zealand). But actually watching the show itself, not just clicking on clips or criticisms, it is hard not to be impressed by the sheer industriousness of the women depicted. The amount of effort put in to look effortless is staggering. The athleticism is incredible, the fitness required impressive, the attention to detail in the way they have to present themselves… They must look hyper-feminine at all times, a contrast to the football players bulky masculinity. Every single rehearsal in a Dallas summer so hot it makes our heatwaves look nominal still requires them to do full hair and make-up.

All that effort and everything they are gets pulled apart online. They have influence (and many become influencers semi-professionally) but little power, not just in the wider world but even in their own. Their world, their clothes, their hair and makeup, almost every detail seems controlled by those above them at the “DCC”, as they call it. By the third series they receive a few more, much-welcome, words of encouragement.

They get part-time pay, hardly any sleep, work multiple jobs, hardly see their families or spouses, and work until late at night. Every mistake they make is public. Their names are all known. There are horrible comments, even stalkers. (Is this ringing bells for anyone in church leadership?) What makes these women keep proffering themselves for a role that pays poorly, and requires such sacrifices?

Many of them speak of a sense of call. This is Dallas, Texas, and having a Christian faith is not unusual. The second series shows church services; “God loves Dallas!” Prayer is shown throughout all three series. Fan-favourite Reese opens Series Three by explaining “my mission as a dancer is to use my gift and my talent to bring glory to my Creator”. Before important decisions are made we see her pausing to pray out loud with her husband in their car. In her hyper-controlled DCC world, her openness and vulnerability about herself and her faith has made her hugely popular across the world with the show’s audience, perhaps more than any other cheerleader. She is a talented, strong woman, with a huge international fan base, who wants to be a good wife back home in Alabama, when God calls her back there.

All the women in this show are strong. Not all of them talk about their faith. But what they do mostly talk about, and what comes across so strongly on screen, amid the makeup, sweat and tears, is their fellowship, their friendship. Through the competition, the control that can resemble abuse, the struggle to stay slender (but still fuel themselves enough to perform like athletes!), these relationships keep them going. The damage they inflict on their own bodies is mind-blowing – the high kicks and splits they do mean many need operations after they retire from the team. We meet one who needs a hip-replacement at 25 years old. And yet they continue. Maybe some people find this show mind-numbing. I found it mind-blowing.

Philippians tells us we can do all things through Him who gives us strength. Seeing the clarity of call of these glamazon women, revered by others for putting their bodies through a punishing process, did at times give Opus Dei vibes (you may recall the monk from The Da Vinci Code). But it is also a reminder that the author of Ecclesiastes says “pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up”. What a gift God gives us in fellowship, where we walk alongside each other, through big and small – for DCC that’s serious hip tears through to eyelash choices – supporting one another in love, whether that means prayer, food, or sitting together in silence.

This summer, the weekly prayer triplet I have leaned on, laughed with, and cried with, for years, is breaking up as several of us are moving away. Mad as it might sound, watching America’s Sweethearts has reminded me that none of us can do this alone. I need to start praying for the Lord to show me more like-minded women to break bread (or croissants/cake) with. Whatever you think about cheerleaders, the supportive power of the sisterhood is nothing to be sniffed at.