SwimExpert
Gold Member
- Nov 26, 2013
- 16,247
- 1,679
- 280
- Banned
- #1
Tennis legend Billie Jean King has been advocating for years for preferential treatment for female tennis players. King has long been an advocate for equal pay for women doing less work in professional tennis. And most recently, she has rallied to the cause of special treatment for delicate female sensibilities.
While the past two weeks in sports have been dominated by the NFL's Deflate-gate controversy, professional tennis has been playing out the first Major tournament of the season with it's own, albeit less celebrated, controversy: Twirl-gate. The uproar stems from a second round victory for Canadian Eugenie Bouchard over The Netherlands' Kiki Bertens in this summer's Australian Open. After the match an interviewer mentioned tweet Bouchard had made the day before expressing admiration for an outfit Serena Williams had worn, and subsequently complemented Bouchard on her own attire. Explaining that "Serena was good enough to give us a twirl," he asked Bouchard if she would do the same. A slightly embarrassed Bouchard shyly obliged.
This has since resulted in a backlash, with charges of sexism. King posted her own tweet in response saying "This is truly sexist. If you ask the women, you have to ask the guys to twirl as well. Let's focus on competition and accomplishments of both genders and not our looks." Which raises an interesting question. Why didn't she jump up in arms days earlier to the defense of Rafael Nadal? During Kia's Drive Time pre-tournament interview Nadal was ask to take off his shirt so that female fans could admire him.
Of course, explicitly asking for nudity from a man for the admiration of women is not as offensive as admiring a woman's clothing. Because, ya know....women.
While the past two weeks in sports have been dominated by the NFL's Deflate-gate controversy, professional tennis has been playing out the first Major tournament of the season with it's own, albeit less celebrated, controversy: Twirl-gate. The uproar stems from a second round victory for Canadian Eugenie Bouchard over The Netherlands' Kiki Bertens in this summer's Australian Open. After the match an interviewer mentioned tweet Bouchard had made the day before expressing admiration for an outfit Serena Williams had worn, and subsequently complemented Bouchard on her own attire. Explaining that "Serena was good enough to give us a twirl," he asked Bouchard if she would do the same. A slightly embarrassed Bouchard shyly obliged.
This has since resulted in a backlash, with charges of sexism. King posted her own tweet in response saying "This is truly sexist. If you ask the women, you have to ask the guys to twirl as well. Let's focus on competition and accomplishments of both genders and not our looks." Which raises an interesting question. Why didn't she jump up in arms days earlier to the defense of Rafael Nadal? During Kia's Drive Time pre-tournament interview Nadal was ask to take off his shirt so that female fans could admire him.
Of course, explicitly asking for nudity from a man for the admiration of women is not as offensive as admiring a woman's clothing. Because, ya know....women.
