Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders put in the hard yards to enact meaningful and lasting change

To celebrate the 20th anniversary of their most famous album, My Chemical Romance turned Black Parade into a theatrical show at the Hollywood Bowl last week. In this lavish production, the emo icons cosplayed as a marching band trying and failing to overthrow the evil dictator of a totalitarian state. On one of the nights, their efforts culminated in the band being mowed down by a squadron of demented cheerleaders brandishing machine guns, clad in skin-tight blue and white uniforms.

That attention-getting plot twist immediately yielded a cease-and-desist letter from the Dallas Cowboys because women in those colours are synonymous with only one NFL club. And you do not mess with Texas. They might not have been the first to introduce a troupe of ladies waving pom-poms on the sideline to add some presumed cabaret to the proceedings, but they are the most famous of the genre. A brand in a league of its own with three seasons of a hit Netflix reality show, a signature Barbie doll, and, as of last week, a freshly minted trade union, the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Association.