Serena William is 'fighting for women'?! (page 4)

LoveUniHateExams

The other issue is the claim that men are not penalised when they break the same rules because umpires show discretion when applying the rules, and in practice apply them to men and women differently - Serena Williams made this claim so the onus would be on her to present supporting evidence.

sparrowdown

Is this the beginning of the end of this queen of tennis' reign?

All good runs come to an end eventually.

LoveUniHateExams

Is this the beginning of the end of this queen of tennis' reign? - I believe Williams still has at least one more Grand Slam in her.

But she's past her absolute peak and she'll lose more often to young whipper-snappers like Osaka.

If she lashed out at the umpire in the heat of the moment but then apologised I could understand it.

But she seems to be doubling down on crazy and turning her bat-shit outburst into some kind of moral crusade.

Ridiculous!

sparrowdown

She possibly has more wins in her she is a pretty tough athlete and tennis greats seem to have long shelf life.

The tennis heirarchy may be getting bored and wear her down with penatlies and point loss - it happens. Especially of she loses her shit everytime.

The media and the crowds do love a good tennis tanty tho, there's that.

ctrwtf

Except that Billy Jean King agrees with her. I think she knows a little more about tennis than most who have sounded off here.

cofty

Billy Jean King agrees with her

BJK said nothing to excuse her disgraceful behaviour.

She agreed with Serena that men don't seem to get punished equally with women. In fact the umpire has issued violations to a number of top male players in the past.

_Morpheus

Except having played tennis 40 years ago is not a prerequisite for understanding serna clearly broke rules, was appropriately sanctioned, was definitely loosing and ended up behaving like an ass. Also, having played tennis 40 years ago isnt necessary to understand serena is playing the ‘poor little woman’ card. Nobody looks down on her. She has carried woman's tennis for 15 years, damn near single handled. This stunt was below her.

as an aside ole billy gene can hardly be said to not have a dog in this fight. She has been crying about women being treated unfairly for entire career. This was move right out of her worn out play book, of course she backed serena.

Saename

Is there sexism in general in tennis sports?

Yeah. (Example at the end of my comment.)

Was sexism involved in this particular case?

Nope.

Serena broke the rules. Now she's gotta pay (quite literally, too, although her fine is less than 1% of her winnings, so...) She first got a warning for cheating (and it's pretty clear she knew her coach was instructing her because during the game, she said to the umpire he was just giving her a thumbs up, while the coach said in an interview later that she didn't see him. So which was it?) Then she broke the racket because she was losing and getting a warning, which is something anyone is going to penalised for. And then she didn't stop but continued to harass the umpire. Also, keep in mind that she didn't get penalised for just calling the umpire a thief; this was the last straw that broke the camel's back. She was arguing with him for much longer than that. When she accused him of being a liar and a thief who penalised her because he has a sexist agenda, well, that's when the umpire got tired of her bickering. And do keep in mind that Ramos, the umpire who penalised Serena, issued code violations to other players for much less than this, including men (e.g. Andy Murray and Nick Kyrgios who ironically also accused Ramos of double standards.) No sexism here. Ramos is simply stricter than other umpires.

Don't want to get penalised? Don't. Break. The. Rules. Didn't think I had to spell that one out, but here we are.

Also, with regards to the woman who took off her top, I think you're talking about the female player who took off her top just over a week ago because she was wearing it inside out, so she wanted to fix that? Is that the player you're talking about? If so, the penalty was completely unjustified, and yes, that would be an example of sexism (which is why the rule was changed immediately after this.) I think it's more accurate to say, though, that she adjusted her shirt, not that she took it off. The latter doesn't imply that she put it on again literally after a few seconds, which she did. She only took it off because she was wearing it inside out, so she fixed it and put it back on.

sparrowdown

Be interesting to see how this pans out there are probably plenty of celebrities happy to back her up if she cries double standards based on sexism and the media love her and bandwagons.

MeanMrMustard

I am so completely uninterested in tennis, I have to admit I know nothing of this situation except what has appeared on this thread. I also have to admit that I probably won’t go and look into it.

But from the descriptions on this thread, it sounds like social justice screwing up something else.

Serena William is 'fighting for women'?!

Share this