Madeline and Charlotte are back with a deep dive of Season 3 of “America’s Sweethearts: Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders.” The gals talked about Season 2 last year when it came out, which was a very different series that followed the cheerleaders as they fought for better pay.
This year, the antagonist is the outside world, and the show became a show about the show itself.
The gals analyze all of the themes the show presents: Supporting hegemonic masculinity, the Cowboys’ thin, white standard of beauty, the mirage of empowerment, what it means to be famous today, and this season as contextualized by the rise of the tradwife.
Plus: the origins of cheerleading, Reece’s decision to retire, Kelli and Judy leading from a place of fear, the hip surgeries that multiple performers need by the age of 25, the power imbalance that occurs when the show anoints certain women as stars, and much more.
Selected sources from this episode:
Sekani Robinson, Black Ballerinas: The Management of Emotional and Aesthetic Labor (2021)
La’Tonya Rease Miles, American Beauty: The Cheerleader in American Literature and Popular Culture (2005)
Sophie Gilbert, Girl on Girl (2025)
Laura Grindstaff, Emily West, Cheerleading and the Gendered Politics of Sport (2006)
Alex Kuczynski, Beauty Junkies (2006)
Michaele L. Ferguson, Choice Feminism and the Fear of Politics (2010)
0:00 The gals welcome us in
4:05 Fashion mailbag
7:48 America’s Sweethearts deep dive
19:04 Beauty standards on the DCC
28:37 DCC makeover day
38:21 The mirage of empowerment
52:21 Reece’s retirement and impact
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Thumbnail Credit: Sam Hodde/Jason Mendez/Getty Images and @flexi_faith/Instagram
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