Do you struggle to accept rejection? We could all learn a lot from American cheerleaders | Emma Beddington

America's Sweethearts is a disturbing show on many levels, but the resilience of its women is impressive

I expected to watch America's Sweethearts, the Netflix documentary on the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders (DCC" to initiates) with horrified fascination, but not admiration.

There's plenty to horrify. For starters, the damage wreaked by routines, including jumping in the air then landing on the ground in the splits", as a recent veteran recovering from hip and foot operations explains. Some girls' backs and necks are messed up - a lot of girls get surgery," says another. And abysmal pay - even the multimillionaire team-owner, Charlotte Jones, accepts they're not paid a lot" - reportedly as little as $400 a game. Many cheerleaders work tough care and service jobs on top of a punishing schedule of kicks and smiles, while the average NFL player's annual salary is about $2.8m.