DAILY DOSE OF HOPE – BLOG – NAIMA LETT
Super Bowl, Cheerleaders & 1.6 Pounds
© NaimaLett.com/blog
San Francisco 49ers vs. Baltimore Ravens, Then & Now.
Fun Friday!
A couple of months ago, I posted Upgrades: NFL Cheerleaders inspired by NY Daily News’ NFL Gallery – Then & Now. Many of you let us know how much you enjoyed that blog, and some may have missed it altogether.
So, on this Fun Friday before the Super Bowl, we’re updating “NFL Cheerleaders” in light of the drama over the Ravens’ cheerleader who says she was benched for less than 2 lbs of weight gain. Yikes! Either way, enjoy. And go 49ers and Ravens!
NFL CHEERLEADERS:
Talk about upgrades.
What a transformation over the last couple of decades!
More glitz.
More glam.
More enhancements.
More exposure.
Is it me, or does every outfit look like a bikini now? Bikini with stars, bikini with fringe, bikini with fur… for Christmas, of course. By January, the shiny leggings might make an entrance. Or maybe the 49er Girls will break out their FlashDance leg warmers for the Big Game Sunday!
I’m making fun.
But seriously, I understand that these are real dancers with real talent in real careers. The competition is tight, and there’s unbelievable pressure now to look a certain way. There are no more big sweatshirts and long skirts to hide extra belly jelly.
Everybody can see everything when you’re in a bikini… with cowboy boots.
Benched Before the Super Bowl
There are serious consequences for gaining extra pounds, according to Baltimore Ravens’ 5-year veteran cheerleader Courtney Lenz (pictured above in the updated Ravens uniform). For gaining an extra 1.6 pounds – to be exact!
Courtney, the only 3+ year veteran who wasn’t chosen to cheer in the Sunday’s Super Bowl, told Access Hollywood this week, “I’d been benched earlier in the season for a little bit of a weight gain. We do get weighed every week during the season, and you can’t fluctuate at all. They don’t allow fluctuation. I gained, I think it was 1.8 pounds… During the season, I was 124. That was consistently, they wanted me to get back down to 121, 120, which is what I was at when I was 18, 19, when I started on the team. When I got benched, I think I was 125.4 or 125.6.”
Courtney, 23 years old, says that she received disciplinary action and was required to hire a nutritionist and seek counseling at her own expense. She also finished her college degree and decided to retire at the end of this season, still assuming she would go to the Super Bowl. But that invitation was not extended, and she believes it’s because of her weight.
Yal see the picture above. Does Courtney’s 125.6 pounds look like she needs to be benched?
Pure Absurdity
I get it. Most people want to see dancers who are fit. We’ve all seen some spandex situations that have caused pause. But if this story is true, it seems so absurd to me. Are we really going to require all dancers, regardless of body type, to maintain a 120 pound body weight? Who has to go to counseling for going up to 125 lbs? C’mon, confess. Would you be in counseling right now?
In my original post, I reminded us, dancers, cheerleaders, athletes or not, that we are called to be light i.e. Matthew 5:14-16 says “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”
I asked us, whether in a bikini with sequins or in a business suit or work uniform, wherever we are, let our light shine so that others glorify God.
Pray, Fam
In addition to that, today, let’s send up prayers for Courtney and all our fellow dancers who are shaking and baking for our entertainment in bikinis with stars & stripes.
I still wish our culture had a different standard and appetite, and that the NFL had some women in high places who could sit in on some meetings and make arguments for less exploitation of our ladies. I still pray that the Lord will empower His daughters, who are already on the cheer squads, to shine brightly as His light in their relationships and witness, in the same way that His sons, who are on the field are holding it down in the locker rooms.
I still ask that, instead of judging the dancers, that we pray for the team owners and decision makers, since the artists have no control over most of the major choices.
But I also want to ask us to pray for this absurdity and obsession with tenths of a pound to come to an end. How many dancers have to become NFL road kill for gaining 1.6 pounds before we say enough is enough? The dancers do have a choice to go after these jobs, but I also think the way our whole culture thinks needs an upgrade.
Upgrade This!
Let’s upgrade and renew our minds and ask if our entertainment is worth our fellow artists enduring months of therapy for weighing more than 120 pounds. Would we be fired today, if our jobs required us to weigh 120 pounds? Super Bowl Sunday is the 2nd largest food consumption day of the year, after Thanksgiving! How many of us will gain 1.6 pounds just from guacamole and chips? OK, I digress!
To end on a lighter note (Absurd! I tell you, Absurd!!!), I suppose the Super Bowl cheer-leading uniforms may don some sort of faux fur this weekend in New Orleans. I admit, I halfway expect somebody to run down the field in leather and/or feathers. But maybe that’ll just be Beyonce and Destiny’s Child.
We’ll see,
Naima
What do you think?
RESPOND ON BLOG
Comment below, or
Facebook or
Twitter – @naimalett
© 2013 Naima Lett. All Rights Reserved