If you’re an Indian woman in skimpy clothes, you just have to endure sexism, but if you’re a white woman in skimpy clothes you also have to deal with Indian stereotypes — this is what an American cheerleader with the IPL has discovered to her dismay.
Objectified on Foreign Turf
A woman who described herself as an anthropology graduate, and is into her third week as a cheerleader for an IPL franchise, recently conducted an Ask Me Anything (AMA) session on Reddit. She answered scores of questions ranging from interesting to weird and even funny. It seems that despite the troubles – especially sexism – she has faced, the young cheerleader has not bracketed all Indians with the same brush, and says there is much that she likes about the country and its people.
“The sexism is worse here by far.”
- IPL Cheerleader
When asked what she hated most about her job, she writes:
“I hate the racism. Why is my team made up of 99% white girls? Why do Indians feel it’s ok to dress white girls up in skimpy outfits, but they wont let their fellow Indian women do it? It’s messed up.”
- IPL Cheerleader
Stating that she got “ogled” at all the time by men, and that she hated it, she talks about having to deal with lewd remarks directed at them by male spectators, and how there’s not much they can do but “ignore” them. Her personal rule, as she puts it, is “not to take pictures with fans unless they’re women or children. I’m not keen on becoming someone’s fap bate for the night.”
“There’s just so many nasty men making kissy faces and taking my picture that I tend to just block it all out.”
- IPL Cheerleader
Battling All Odds
In response to a question on inside gossip, the woman said: “Oh my goodness, the costumes are the biggest drama. I liked our old ones but apparently the big boss’s 13 year old daughter decided she wants to be a designer and designed our new outfits. The sponsor took one look at the first “draft”, that itchy one with the yellow frills, and didn’t let us go out wearing it. We’ve been through 3 different cheer outfits now and I still hate the final outcome.”
“Do players hit on you?
No, they ignore us for the most part. We’re not allowed to talk to each other.”
- IPL Cheerleader
In spite of the “melting heat”, the “shocking” state of “toilets, changing rooms, and on occasions our hotel rooms”, and some “vulgar” men, she likes India and its people, its food and pretty much “all masalas.” The pay is less in her profession, but she says she sticks to it for the experience.
When one Redditor said that it was the very men she was accusing of being vulgar that paid her salary, she retorted:
“I’m grateful for my job, I’m doing something I enjoy and getting paid for it, which many people can’t say. However, that doesn’t mean I don’t like when people treat me poorly. Who would like that? No one. The world isn’t black and white, if everyone quit their jobs because of one thing they didn’t like about it, we’d all be jobless. I’d hope my speaking out would help inspire more Indian men to be more civil. Their bad behavior is on them, not me.”
- IPL Cheerleader
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