25 must-see films playing at this year’s AFI Fest

A&E Indie Film "Sidelined" Special Theatrical Engagement

Lifetime Films and A&E IndieFilms present the original cheerleader controversy — SIDELINED opens at the IFC Center Today, August 10th. Get tickets here for the special theatrical engagement http://www.ifccenter.com/films/sidelined/

Posted by A&E on Friday, August 10, 2018

Sidelined

What’s the story?: In 1978 a group of NFL cheerleaders received permission to pose nude for Playboy magazine. But when the magazine hit newsstands, the backlash saw the women fired, leading to national media coverage.

The ‘70s was a threshold for feminism, with Gloria Steinem and second-wave feminism taking the forefront of the burgeoning era known as “Women’s Lib.” But as women were asserting themselves, they faced a terrible fall in the 1980s. Many say second-wave feminism only made the backlash worse, with events still going on to make women feel they were still denied the rights they deserved.

Sidelined seeks to tell the story of how women, particularly those wanting to assert their sexual autonomy, are often maligned for giving audiences what they want. The history of consumption of women’s bodies is diverse and controversial, with Playboy at the head of the table when it comes to pros and cons. This isn’t a story I was familiar with beforehand, but it goes along with several tales of women chastised for showing their bodies (remember the Vanessa Williams beauty pageant controversy?). I’m intrigued to see a documentary examine this whole event in the light of second-wave feminism. Did the two dovetail, or were women turning on each other?