Jan 7, 2018; New Orleans, LA, USA; The New Orleans Saints cheerleaders perform during the fourth quarter of the game against the Carolina Panthers in the NFC Wild Card playoff football game at Mercedes-Benz Superdome. Mandatory Credit: Chuck Cook-USA TODAY Sports

A former New Orleans Saints cheerleader has filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission claiming the team’s rules reflect retrograde views of women, the New York Times reports.

Bailey Davis claims she was fired after three seasons as a Saints cheerleader for the apparently unpardonable sin of posting a photo of herself in a one-piece bathing suit to Instagram. That offense reportedly broke the Saints’ strict ban on cheerleaders appearing nude or seminude.

As puritanical and paternalistic as it seems to fire someone over a bathing-suit photo on Instagram, the Saints’ reported rules for cheerleaders actually get worse than that. The Times reports that cheerleaders are not allowed to dine in the same restaurant as players and must get up and leave if one walks in.

According to the Saints’ handbook for cheerleaders, as well as internal emails and text messages reviewed by The New York Times and interviews with Davis, the Saints have an anti-fraternization policy that requires cheerleaders to avoid contact with players, in person or online, even though players are not penalized for pursuing such engagement with cheerleaders. The cheerleaders must block players from following them on social media and cannot post photos of themselves in Saints gear, denying them the chance to market themselves. The players are not required to do any of these things.

Cheerleaders are told not to dine in the same restaurant as players, or speak to them in any detail. If a Saints cheerleader enters a restaurant and a player is already there, she must leave. If a cheerleader is in a restaurant and a player arrives afterward, she must leave. There are nearly 2,000 players in the N.F.L., and many of them use pseudonyms on social media. Cheerleaders must find a way to block each one, while players have no limits on who can follow them.

It seems as if once every few years that a lawsuit peels back the curtain on life as an NFL cheerleader and reveals just how much these women deal with. They’re judged on how much fat hangs off their legs, forced into demeaning gigs, punished if their breasts “slouch”strictly monitored on how they carry on conversation, told how to wash themselves and lectured on etiquette, all while often receiving minuscule wages that don’t always comply with labor law.

Just about every person in America is can post a bathing-suit photo to Instagram without losing their job. Why in the world would NFL cheerleaders be any different?

About Alex Putterman

Alex is a writer and editor for The Comeback and Awful Announcing. He has written for The Atlantic, VICE Sports, MLB.com, SI.com and more. He is a proud alum of Northwestern University and The Daily Northwestern. You can find him on Twitter @AlexPutterman.