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GopherGal

(2,008 posts)
6. "Keeps our fanbase excited" ... right.
Wed Mar 3, 2021, 07:28 PM
Mar 2021

Given the history of really beyond skeevy treatment of the cheerleaders by team execs, this sounds like a pretty typical "Boss harasses women, the women get fired" situation.

[link:https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/02/sports/redskins-cheerleaders-nfl.html|]

When the Washington Redskins took their cheerleading squad to Costa Rica in 2013 for a calendar photo shoot, the first cause for concern among the cheerleaders came when Redskins officials collected their passports upon arrival at the resort, depriving them of their official identification.

For the photo shoot, at the adults-only Occidental Grand Papagayo resort on Culebra Bay, some of the cheerleaders said they were required to be topless, though the photographs used for the calendar would not show nudity. Others wore nothing but body paint. Given the resort’s secluded setting, such revealing poses would not have been a concern for the women — except that the Redskins had invited spectators.

A contingent of sponsors and FedExField suite holders — all men — were granted up-close access to the photo shoots.

One evening, at the end of a 14-hour day that included posing and dance practices, the squad’s director told nine of the 36 cheerleaders that their work was not done. They had a special assignment for the night. Some of the male sponsors had picked them to be personal escorts at a nightclub.


[link:https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2020/08/26/redskins-cheerleaders-video-daniel-snyder-washington/?arc404=true|]

In “Beauties on the Beach,” the official video chronicling the making of the Washington NFL team’s 2008 cheerleader swimsuit calendar, the women frolic in the sand, rave about their custom bikinis and praise a photographer for putting them at ease in settings where sometimes only a strategically placed prop or tightly framed shot shielded otherwise bare breasts.

What the cheerleaders didn’t know was that another video, intended strictly for private use, would be produced using footage from that same shoot. Set to classic rock, the 10-minute unofficial video featured moments when nipples were inadvertently exposed as the women shifted positions or adjusted props.

The lewd outtakes were what Larry Michael, then the team’s lead broadcaster and a senior vice president, referred to as “the good bits” or “the good parts,” according to Brad Baker, a former member of Michael’s staff. Baker said in an interview that he was present when Michael told staffers to make the video for team owner Daniel Snyder.
Isn't that great Jilly_in_VA Mar 2021 #1
Female cheerleaders is so sexist . Rustyeye77 Mar 2021 #2
They barely pay them, or the band soothsayer Mar 2021 #3
It's one step in the right direction. Nt spooky3 Mar 2021 #4
Finally... Ruby Zee Mar 2021 #5
"Keeps our fanbase excited" ... right. GopherGal Mar 2021 #6
I'm all for coed squads Sgent Mar 2021 #7
Yep MagickMuffin Mar 2021 #8
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