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Social media posts claiming that the Dallas Cowboys unveiled new uniforms for its cheerleaders feature a photo of women wearing outfits similar to those in the television show “The Handmaid’s Tale.” But the National Football League team in Texas says the claim is false, and the image was edited as an apparent satirical comment on a law that effectively bans most abortions in the state.
“Dallas Cowboys unveil new cheerleader uniforms,” says text presented as the headline of a news article in an Instagram post on September 5, 2021. To see also : The goal of the RVC Academy is to continue creating ‘opportunities’ for young people in competitive cheerleading. A photo below the text shows women dressed in bras and robes matching the Cowboys team colors.
Screenshot of an Instagram post taken on September 7, 2021
The demand spread online after Texas enacted a law banning abortions after six weeks — before many women even know they are pregnant. The US Supreme Court refused to block the measure, which has been strongly criticized by US President Joe Biden.
The alleged Cowboys uniforms in the image are similar to those worn by slave women who are forced to reproduce in “The Handmaid’s Tale”, a television adaptation of Margaret Atwood’s 1995 novel about a misogynistic dystopia set in the near-future northeastern US.
But the Cowboys told AFP that the cheerleaders uniform of the team has not changed.
“The image you found is something someone photoshopped on the internet and it’s completely false. We haven’t changed our DCC uniforms,” said Joe Trahan, director of media relations for the team.
Some posts on Facebook and Instagram included a zoomed-in version of the photo and the Twitter handle @pleightx was mentioned in the bottom left corner.
Paul Leigh, “Meme Maker, Photoshop Expert and Political Satirist,” according to his artist donation page, tweeted the image on September 2.
AFP did a reverse image search and found that the original picture was taken by photographer Joe Flood on February 15, 2019 in Washington, DC during the filming of the third season of “The Handmaid’s Tale.”
A screenshot taken on September 8, 2021 shows an image used in social media posts
A screenshot taken on September 8, 2021 shows the original photo by Joe Flood published on Flickr
As seen in the side-by-side images above, the original photo was edited to make the women look like cheerleaders.
