On July 11, Serena Williams won the Wimbledon Open for the 6th time, earning her 21st grand slam title. This is an impressive feat, and many people are calling Williams not only the best female tennis player, but also the best tennis player currently playing today. Only two other tennis players – Margaret Smith Court and Steffi Graf – hold more titles than Williams. Clearly, Serena is a serious athlete with a plethora of achievements under her belt.
But, of course, some people would rather criticize Serena Williams for what she looks like, not what she does. One man took to Twitter saying that Serena Williams “is built like a man.” Author J.K. Rowling saw this and replied to him saying, “Yeah, my husband looks just like this in a dress. You’re an idiot.” She attached the following photo to her tweet:
This resulted in a giant Twitter war, as touchy subjects tend to do.
Sports Illustrated writer Elizabeth Newman posted an article on July 14, talking about the same Twitter exchange. Newman reminded her readers that we should be praising Williams for her accomplishments, instead of focusing on the shape of her body. “Make no mistake…” she writes. “Serena is neither thin, nor demure and she makes no excuses for it… through all the criticism and body shaming, both Venus and Serena have managed to look the other way. Although Serena has commented about insecurities with her muscular body in the past, she maintains that her physique is genetic and that her workouts are not centered on weight training.”
In the past week, I have heard a few comments that I think really crossed the line. One person commented that Caitlyn Jenner looks more like a woman than Serena Williams. If you don’t understand how inappropriate that comment is, keep reading the rest of this paragraph; if you understand how awful that comment is, you can skip to the next paragraph. Why this is bad: the media and society are constantly pitting women against one another. Many fashion magazines find instances in which female celebrities wore the same outfit, put pictures of both of the women online and ask readers to vote on “who wore it better?” The media loves to pit women against one another, constantly encouraging women to be thinner, more toned, and to drop weight. The reality of this competition is that it’s destroying the confidence of thousands of women, creating both physical and mental illnesses in an attempt to look like the photo-shopped girl in advertisements. This is an even more awful comment because I know that the person responsible for this comment does not support Caitlyn Jenner’s brave actions these past few months. This person is only trying to insinuate that a transsexual woman looks more feminine than Serena Williams (aka someone who was born as a man looks more like a woman than a natural born woman). Honestly, it makes me upset and sad that people take this kind of attitude towards women like Caitlyn and Serena. The only thing “required” to be considered feminine is to identify as a woman, and I’m certain that both Caitlyn and Serena identify as women.
This comparison and constant criticism needs to stop. I would encourage everyone to stop talking about what Serena Williams, and all celebrities, look like and instead focus on what they do. Serena has won 21 grand slams, 67 singles titles and will only continue to dominate the court in the future. Like almost all female athletes, Serena takes a lot of criticism for what she looks like, even though it is no one’s business but her own. And if you’re not comfortable with how she looks in a dress or on the court, keep it to yourself, because Serena knows that she looks great.
