The Challenging Career of Serena Williams Through the Lens of Intersectionality
- genderandsport8
- Nov 2, 2018
- 4 min read
For many female athletes, professional sport and media are a way for their accomplishments and talent to be shrouded by their male counterparts. The intersectionality theory comes into play, as it shows the way oppressive institutions are interconnected and cannot be examined separately from one another. Some examples of the oppressive institutions that fall under the umbrella of intersectionality are racism, sexism, homophobia, and transphobia.
With regard to Serena Williams, there is no doubt that she has had a successful tennis career thus far. She has been ranked number one in singles by the Women’s Tennis Association on eight separate occasions and also holds the most “Grand Slam” titles for current female players. Although her career has been rewarding and victorious, it has also been met with controversy and adversity.
Serena Williams is a great example of effectively applying the intersectionality theory as she, herself is a black woman. Throughout her tennis career she has been followed by several racist and sexist comments directed towards her appearance, physical build, and aggressive-like behaviour.
One of the first of many examples of this happened during the 1998 U.S. Open, the first time Serena had ever participated in a U.S. Open. Irina Spirlea, her competitor, crossed over the tennis court first during the court changeover even though it is protocol in professional tennis that the higher ranked player crosses first, which should have been Serena. This act was perceived as having malicious intent as Spirlea did the same thing to Serena's sister, Venus Williams the year prior. This purposefully signals to Serena that she did not belong on that court as this act incited race-based bias.
Along the same lines, during a match against Serena, Caroline Wozniacki stuffed towels down her bra and skirt in attempt to imitate her physique. The audience’s interpretation of this mockery was a mix of laughter and shock as it could be taken as racist and a dig at Serena’s body type.
More recently, in May of this year Serena wore a black catsuit to one of her tennis matches which lead officials to introducing a dress code. This tennis match was Serena’s first game back after giving birth and her outfit was intended to show off how good she looked after having a baby. Instead, she was praised by fans but not officials. The French Tennis Federation President announced a few months later that they would be banning players from wearing form fitting outfits like Serena’s. Although Serena took the news in stride, many fans were outraged and called the move to implement a dress code sexist. Even television creator Shonda Rhimes took to Twitter to say: "The game seems quite content to be played no matter what women wear. Perhaps this man should focus on his own fashion choices and respect the GOAT's right to wear whatever the hell she pleases. #getoffhercourt".
Although Serena at times keeps her calm, especially over the dress code debacle, there are times when she gets involved in a heated dispute, more often than not with court officials during a tennis match. Just last month during a Grand Slam game versus Naomi Osaka, Serena was struck with code violations and a point penalty after officials believed her coach was giving her hand signals from the stands and for smashing her racket out of frustration. She was then later given a game penalty after accusing the umpire Carlos Ramos of sexism.
At a news conference following the game in question, Serena admitted that she has seen male players call umpires “several things," but only she was penalized for it. Billie Jean King, a notable tennis star tweeted after this event happened and said: "When a woman is emotional, she's "hysterical" and she's penalized for it. When a man does the same, he's "outspoken" & and there are no repercussions. Thank you, Serena Williams, for calling out this double standard. More voices are needed to do the same." At the end of the day, the question that remains is… Would that same umpire have done that to a man? History and prior knowledge of sexism points to no.
As a result of Serena Williams' outspokenness, a derogatory cartoon was published depicting her as an “irate, hulking, big-mouthed black woman” jumping on a broken racket. In the background, the umpire can be seen telling who is meant to be Naomi Osaka, to just let Serena win because she was portrayed as having a tantrum. The components of the cartoon features heavily implied racism as Serena is seen with big lips and coarse hair, which are two racial stereotypes. Serena is again subject to criticism on her physical appearance in this cartoon as she is pictured as overly muscular and almost animalistic.
Considering how the media is at the forefront for all sports related news there most definitely needs to be some sort of reform in place. This needs to happen for all female athletes and for anyone scrutinized under the oppressive institutions of the Intersectionality theory or else this will continue to occur in the future.
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References
Chavez, N. (2018). Serena Williams is calling out sexism in tennis. Here’s why. - CNN. Retrieved November 1, 2018, from https://www.cnn.com/2018/09/09/us/serena-williams-sexism-tennis-controversy/index.html
Hallenbeck, S. (2016). Misogynoir, Intersectionality, and Serena Williams. Retrieved November 1, 2018, from https://voraciousreadersite.wordpress.com/2016/02/06/misogynoir-interesectionality-and-serena-williams/
Serena Williams WTA Tennis Statistics. (2018). Retrieved November 1, 2018, from http://www.wtatennis.com/players/player/230234/title/serena-Williams
Newman, B. (2018). The long history behind the racist attacks on Serena Williams. Retrieved October 31, 2018, from: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2018/09/11/long-history-behind-racist-attacks-serena-williams/?noredirect=on&utm_term=.1c767a521df9
Rossingh, D. (2018). Serena Williams lets her outfit do the talking at the US Open. Retrieved November 1, 2018, from https://www.cnn.com/2018/08/28/sport/serena-williams-us-open-outfit-tennis-spt-intl/index.html
Tredway, K. (2018). Engaging students of Intersectionality through sports media : using women’s tennis to teach the matrix of domination. Retrieved October 31, 2018, from: https://pubs.lib.umn.edu/index.php/tmq/article/view/924
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