For the first time in the history of the Super Bowl, men will not only be destroying each other’s bodies on the field in order to make their billionaire owners even more wealthy, but dancing as part of one team’s (poorly compensated) cheerleading squad.
They are Quinton Peron and Napoleon Jinnies, two members of the Los Angeles Rams’ cheerleading squad who both became team dancers this season. Per the Los Angeles Times:
Last March, during open cheerleading tryouts, Peron and Jinnies showed up out of nowhere.
Peron is a professional dancer and choreographer who got the idea while watching a Lakers game.
“I’m looking down at the Laker Girls and I thought, ‘Why can’t I do this?’” he said.
Jinnies is a professional dancer and makeup artist who got the idea from friends dancing alongside him during a Disneyland show.
“We were just casually talking about auditions and I thought, ’Why not just show up?’” he said.
While they have been met with some jeers as the first men to dance as part of an NFL team’s cheer squad, both Jinnies and Peron have clearly loved the experience, and many in the city have embraced them. “It’s been an upwards journey of excitement,’’ said Jinnies to the Times. “It’s been the perfect season.”
“You see this smile on my face?’’ Peron said. “You see this?”
The Rams leadership is equally as thrilled to be able to portray the team as “pioneers of inclusion,” in the words of the Rams chief operating officer Kevin Demoff. Added Keely Fimbres, the Rams director of cheerleaders and mascot, “We wanted to show everyone that we were happy and proud of our diversity.”
But is it truly a step towards gender equality? Peron and Jinnies unfortunately are not allowed to wear the crop tops and booty shorts of their counterparts, or carry pompoms, or even dance to classics like “Single Ladies,” and are instead forced to wear slacks and Nikes while performing:
Fimbres and her staff were equally thrilled and immediately made some changes to accommodate the men.
First, they designed a special uniform that accentuated their athleticism and excluded the pompoms. Second, they changed some of the squad’s dancing moves to feature stronger and bigger arm motions. Finally, they stopped dancing to songs that would seem inappropriate for a mixed-gender team. Among tunes that were cut were, “Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend” and “Single Ladies (Put A Ring On It).”
My message to the Rams: give the men what they want. Let them have some fucking pompoms and dance to Beyoncé!