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Culture Study Podcast

The Beautiful Cult of Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders

Culture Study Podcast

Culture Study Podcast

Arts, Society & Culture

4.5789 Ratings

🗓️ 24 July 2024

⏱️ 57 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

A seven-part Netflix docuseries on the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders called America’s Sweethearts? Oh my god, WHAT a rich text. The uniform, the dances, the body norms, the coded language, the particular feminine ideals, the intersections with Texas culture and evangelical culture — there’s just so much there. And I was thrilled when Sam Sanders and Zach Stafford, two of the co-hosts of the indispensable Vibe Check, agreed to help answer all of your (excellent) questions. (We couldn’t get the rights to Thunderstruck, but you can just imagine it playing over the intro and on repeat forever.)Show Notes:LISTEN TO VIBE CHECK, IT’S SO GOOD!!! Plus: Sam’s IG and Zach’s IGCaitlin Dickerson’s fantastic piece in The Atlantic that includes the “Who Am I….?” page from the DCC handbook that Sam reads in the episodeThe jump split that tears up the hips!How much money to NFL cheerleaders get paid? It’s complicated.Alex Sujong Laughlin makes the case for cheerleader unions in DefectorWe’re currently looking for your questions for future episodes about:Why is Paul Mescal so hotSydney Sweeney (and Gen-Z Stardom)Learning to craft / make things / hobby-around-the-houseFor our continuing series on romance novels: QUEER ROMANCEArtificial Intelligence (we’re gonna see if we can figure out an actually interesting theme here, so send us your weirdest or most mind-boggling questions)The economy, a.k.a. why is everything so damn expensive right now (my dream here is like an Odd Lots guest who doesn’t have private equity brain, please let us know if you have suggestions!)Contemporary ideas of self-careBuy Nothing groups and/or the current state of the secondhand marketAnything you need advice or want musings on for the AAA segmentYou can submit them (and ideas for future eps) here (this is the subscriber-only form!)For today’s discussion: What feels most cult-like about DCC? Or truly anything else you’d like to discuss re: DCC, performance of Southern evangelical femininity, the thin ideal, etc. etc. Also, can someone convince Melody to actually watch the show?

Transcript

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0:00.0

Hey, it's Melody. So my husband, Bobby, is a huge fan of the show. He listens to every episode,

0:08.2

even the ones that he thinks he's not going to have any interest in. He's also just a huge

0:13.1

podcast listener in general. So I was very surprised when he recently told me that he didn't

0:20.2

know you can get the paid version of

0:23.4

the episode in the podcast app in which you listen to all of your other podcasts. And I know

0:28.6

I'm not going to go anywhere else, try a new system when I have something I like. So if he

0:34.7

didn't know this, I want to make sure that all of you know this, that if you become a paid subscriber to the Culture Study podcast, you don't have to listen on Substack, although you can.

0:46.2

You can get a special link that you plug into the podcast app that you already use.

0:52.0

So it fits right in with all of your other podcast listening. Everything

0:55.4

is there in one place. So if that is understandably something that has been keeping you from

1:01.2

subscribing, that excuse is now gone. So head to culturestuddypod.substack.com, sign up to be a paid

1:09.4

subscriber. And then you can follow the instructions

1:11.9

to get that special, exclusive paid feed in your favorite podcast app. All right. Thank you.

1:18.9

On with the show. Okay, I want you to take a second. Close your eyes. And when you think of the

1:25.4

cheerleaders, who's the one cheerleader whose face comes into your mind?

1:32.0

And can you describe?

1:32.6

Reese.

1:33.8

That was going to be my T.F.

1:36.0

And can you describe their face?

1:38.5

Sorry, I jumped right in.

1:40.4

Dark brunette hair, I believe blue eyes, really welcoming face, the only the only type of face

1:47.0

that like a Southern Christian family could raise.

...

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