With all the hoopla surrounding the way Serena Williams lost the U.S. Open comes the comments and reactions from officials, media and the public. Not surprisingly, a majority of comments and poll results indicate disapproval of Williams' outburst. What's behind the public reaction, however, is a long history of discomfort toward, and objectification of, an African-American tennis dynasty.
Relatively few people will make outright racist or sexist comments about the Williams sisters concerning their tennis performance, or their behaviour. However, comments regarding how "masculine" Serena Williams is drip with stereotypical assumptions. She's not a size 00, therefore, her outburst must be "'roid rage". Her anger at a very close call, at a crucial point in the match, is considered evidence of what is interpreted as unwarranted "arrogance", as if, even in being the best in the world, she somehow doesn't deserve to contest anything, or disagree with anyone. In losing the match, she "got what was coming to her".
Perhaps indeed unsportsmanlike conduct must be discouraged, but there is a level of personal vitriol directed against Williams in this situation which appears to go far beyond the issue of sportsmanship. The word "uppity" is the invisible elephant-word in the living room.
When it comes to looking at Serena Williams off the court, things get a lot worse. Her thighs, posterior and breasts, whether observed with lust or disgust, are the subject of the rudest possible comments on sports blogs. And I'm quite sure I didn't read the worst of them.
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Serena Williams is a black, woman athlete. I reiterate this because I don't doubt for a second that she has been subjected to objectification by the parts of the sports media and I know that she has been overtly accused of being 'angry' and 'uppity' by bloggers and those who post comments on stories at places like ESPN.com and SI.com.
That being said, this most recent incident was a clear case of unsportsmanlike conduct. She threatened a visibly intimidated woman. She told this woman she was going to "shove this fucking ball down your throat."
It's the kind of comment that would get anyone ejected from a game in any major sport if directed at an umpire or referee.
I think it is a bit unfair to assume that you know what is "behind the public reaction" to this incident. Undoubtedly some responses are conditioned by precisely the attitudes you have described. Others, however, are aware of these stereotypes and nonetheless feel that the incident more than warranted the action taken by the chair umpire.
I completely agree that a lot of talk about the Williams sisters' bodies and behavior is quite racist, including a number of examples you mentioned.
But I'm not convinced that the outrage about this particular incident is racist in tone... I would expect the same reaction if, say, Sharapova had an outburst.
I definitely could be wrong, but from what I've seen and read about the incident, her conduct was unsportswomanlike and inappropriate, and I haven't seen any examples of people criticizing her in racist or racialized ways.
Well, I'm going to have to eat my words somewhat.
While a lot of the mainstream coverage I've seen doesn't seem particularly racist in tone, I've come across a lot of online comments, blog posts etc that disgust me. If you count those folks as part of the general "reaction," then there's definitely a racist element.
I think there are two issues - what Serena actually did (which I think, just from the words "shove this fucking ball down your throat" that there's obviously poor behavior on her part), and the responses to it. Are the responses enhanced/over the top/using particular phrases because she is a WOC? I'm quite sure they are, although I'm not a tennis fan and will have to rely on someone else to analyze the situation from that respect.
In short - just because Serena obviously reacted inappropriately doesn't mean that the reactions to her aren't being done in an inappropriate/racialized/sexist way, too. She and her sister have been targeted with racist attacks before, which makes it likely that it's continuing now.
Most of the comments I've read on sports blogs are incredibly racist. It's hard to look at them they're so racist. However, the actual articles have made valid points about her unsportsmanlike behavior IMO without bringing race into it.
The headlines I saw were incredibly racist and the stories seemed to pick the angriest photos of Williams that they could find. I couldn't bring myself to read the reports.
No doubt her actions were inappropriate but when McEnroe used to scream at judges no one compared him to an animal.
Where were these racist headlines? I saw racist comments that were mostly quickly deleted at Si and ESPN but not any headlines that struck me as racist.
You are certainly right that McEnroe used to scream his head off. I'm only a casual fan, so please do correct me if I'm wrong - but I never remember McEnroe threatening anybody. The fact that Williams was brandishing her racket while verbally threatening the line judge felt rather different to me and was uncomfortable to watch.
Again, I could be wrong, but my sense was that this was a rather different sort of infraction than what we've seen from McEnroe.
All that being said: She acted in an unsportsmanlike way and she was given a point penalty and lost the match (as provided for in the rule). I think those who are calling for suspension etc. are making rather too big a deal out of all of this. She made a poor decision and faced the consequences.
Right. Serena had a very stupid moment. A lot of those criticizing her seem to be living very stupid lives.
If my separation of what happened and the comments I read about it are not clear, I apologize. I didn't mean at all to say it's okay to scream at officials. What I picked up on in this case as a difference in interpretation between what Serena Williams did and what McEnroe and others have done. The most recent example I can quote is Damien Cox in the Toronto Star trying to argue that Serena Williams' outburst was the worst thing ever in sports. Puhleeze. I just think there might be the danger of a double standard. I'm not arguing, however, that lack of sportsmanship is ok at any point. That wasn't the intent of the post.
When people look back at videos of McEnroe yelling on the court, screaming and insulting the linesman, they laugh and think it's funny, and probably a bit ballsy. When a woman, i.e. Serena, does it, I think people feel uncomfortable because she's asserting herself, in an angry and violent way, something that society does not expect women to do.
I think "I'm going to shove this ball down your fucking throat" is out of line, and an " Are you fucking kidding me?" would have sufficed. Seriously, no one calls a foot fault at that point in time, and it probably wasn't even a fucking foot fault! I'd be pissed too.
Yes, it was unsportsmanlike, but I hate how the media is fixated on this story. Serena is an amazing player, lost her temper, and apologized. Let's move on.
Serena was cheated- I saw the match. She got pissed that she was being cheated and she threatened someone. That reaction was COMPLETELY inappropriate and uncalled for.
The response to her reaction and the calls for severe punishment are equally disgusting, if not worse than what she'd said.