Wednesday, June 06, 2012

What a Drag


Is saying "She plays like a man" the tennis equivalent of calling someone a "hot tranny mess"? Sure seems like it, seeing as it only happens to lesbian players. But truth be told, I don't know what's more amazing about this women's tennis controversy. That Dominika Cibulkova would be stupid (insensitive?) enough in 2012 to compare Samantha Stosur to a man -- Martina Hingis did this with Aemlie Mauresmo years ago and it went over like flats at a drag show -- or that Yahoo tennis writer Chris Chase would write this lede graf in assessing the unfortunate situation (bolding mine):

It tends to go one of two ways for female tennis stars. If you're cute and feminine, like Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams and Ana Ivanovic, you win, earn millions in endorsements and become among the most recognized athletes in sports. If you're not pinup material, you win and endure taunts that you play like a man.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Serena Williams is neither cute nor feminine.

irisgirl said...

I'm surprised that I even feel interested in commenting about this, but I did do a double-take with your description of Serena. My straight-guy friends have referred to her as "hot", with a "bangin' body."

Not cute or feminine (i.e. Maria Sharapova), but just as marketable.

Oh, I'm so glad we got that clarified!