On July 11, Serena Williams won her sixth Wimbledon championship. After 21 Grand Slams and this milestone, Serena has quite clearly made history as one of the greatest athletes of all time.
On July 10th , The New York Times ran article about the body-shaming, body-perception, and most notably the bodies of female tennis athletes. Among those discussed, and in fact the one other athletes were compared against, is Serena Williams.
The media exploded in an analysis of Ben Rothenberg’s article, in particular pointing out that in his claimed attempt to address body-shaming of women athletes he did precisely that. Opinion pieces appeared all over, from to Salon the activist-oriented TakePart. Even J.K. Rowling took part in the conversation through Twitter by responding to those challenging Serena’s womanhood.
Unfortunately, the body-shaming of Serena Williams is nothing new. She has made many statements about her struggle with body-acceptance, as well as the way media’s body-shaming of her has impacted her. Neither is she alone, with The New York Times article noting how other woman athletes like Agnieszka Radwanska and Andrea Petkovic are body-shamed and policed for their body types.
Although Williams now says that she is “really happy with [her] body type, and [she’s] really proud of it”, the continuous body-shaming of her and other athletes is important to recognize. It is important to call out Radwanska’s trainer for equating a certain body-shape to femininity. It is important to note the almost imperative tone of Caroline Wozniacki stating that following her career that “she could then trim down.” The conversation about the body-shaming and internalization of beauty and size standards of women athletes must happen.
It just has to be done in an intersectional manner.
As Kareem Abdul-Jabbar points out in his Time article, the body-shaming of Serena Williams is not just about womanhood or femininity, it is “a racist rejection of black women’s bodies that don’t conform to the traditional body shapes of white athletes and dancers”. Serena’s body-shaming is about the intersection of racism and sexism. After all, the NYT article was published at the time when she was about to enter the Wimbledon finals. After all, it was her body that all other (white-presenting) women athlete’s bodies were compared against.
Moreover, the idea of femininity should have been challenged in the article. By not actively questioning or addressing the continuous perpetuation of feminine ideals, the article did nothing more than reinforce that women’s and women’s athlete bodies are shamed. It simply stated this as a fact, without even contrasting it with the experiences of male athletes, whose accomplishments are recognized far more than their bodies. In fact, it implied that Serena’s body-acceptance was more futile than radical.
It is also important to note here that the whole conversation surrounding femininity and woman-hood should be addressed in relation to trans* rights. After all, throughout this conversation, many individuals’ attempts to defend what it means to be a woman has often bordered on transphobia.
Instead of body-shaming Serena and casually accepting the issue surrounding women’s athlete’s bodies, The New York Times should have celebrated Serena’s accomplishments. An article written about her accomplishments, her strength and resilience, and journey to self-acceptance, would have been empowering to her and other women athletes. If body shaming is to be eradicated from our culture, our analysis must be intersectional and it must be empowering.
