Sunday, July 30, 2006

The institutionalized sexism of women's tennis

Like all sexism, the sexism in women's tennis is always running in the background, even while the conversation may seem normal, and as well as when the attacks on women are blatant and obvious to most.

Common to all generations is the unstated belief that women may model themselves after male players, but never the other way around. When a young player--or a veteran player who is being featured--is asked who her early role models were, she might say Graf or Seles or Serena Williams, and she might also say Sampras or Agassi. But when a male player is asked the same thing, he will never, ever say Graf, Seles, Evert, or any other woman.

This inequality is encouraged by television announcers, both male and female. They may say of a woman, "Look, her service motion is a bit like McEnroe's. They may also say, "When she comes to the net like that, she reminds me a bit of Evonne Goolagong." But they will never, ever say, "When I see him volley, I think of Navratilova," or "His service motion is abbreviated, like Mauresmo's."

The unspoken belief is: It is good for women to aspire to play like men, but it is forbidden for men to aspire to play like women. The average viewer or listener is not picking up this message; she does not need to. It is part of the message that threads through every part of our culture. And even now, as I write this, there are plenty of people who may read it and say "But men play better." Or "Men may feel 'insecure' being compared with women." Or "You feminists have to pick apart everything." Or "I don't hear the women on the tour complaining." Or "Female athletes have more important things to deal with than that."

I know the litany of excuses used to squelch the kinds of things that I am saying. I have heard them all. I have addressed them all. The bottom line is the same: Women are considered inferior to men.

5 Comments:

Good observations, D. I hadn't thought about this that much in the context of tennis. Where I find it particularly egregious is in softball, collegiate, national, and professional levels. Players will list sport role models or heroes and they are frequently male baseball players and sometimes female softball players. And of course no male players would ever list Lisa Fernandez as a hero or role model. And they excuse seems plainly obvious--baseball is not softball. But they same excuse seems to be inapplicable when it is the other way around.

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