“because she’s the pretty girl”: serving up sexism at the australian open

Image: Christian Mesiano

Like many others, when the Australian Open Tennis Championships roll around again in the summertime, I find myself at first flicking across channels to track players’ progress, then watching the tournament over lunch breaks, and finally, admitting defeat, and watching the broadcast pretty much from start to finish each day until the finals, which usually take place over Australia Day. There’s something about the Australian Open that is appealing in a way the other Gland Slams are not. I don’t know whether it’s because it’s in Australia, or whether it is the attitude the players bring to the games, or even just because it’s summer and there’s absolutely zero else happening on television. But this cycle of addiction happens to me every summer.

I’ve had it on every day at work as well. I work in a sporting merchandise store in a busy shopping centre in Melbourne’s eastern suburbs, so the customers that walk into the store are likely to be interested in watching the matches as well. When I was working on Sunday, I was watching the match between Serena Williams, world’s number 1 ranked female singles tennis player, and Ana Ivanovic seeded number 14. It was a great match, with Ivanovic winning in an unlikely upset. I was enjoying the match – until I overheard a customer’s remarks.

‘Everyone’ll be going for Ivanovic,’ he said laconically to his child when they caught sight of the tennis on the store TV. I thought that this was due to the fact that she was clearly an underdog (nobody was expected to defeat Williams), and we all tend to favour the underdog when impartial. But this was not why he qualified this statement when the child asked.

‘Everyone’ll be going for Ivanovic because she’s the pretty girl. That’s what you do in women’s tennis. You go for the pretty girl.’

This comment made me seethe. I worked as hard as I could to repress any physical reaction to this man’s remark, but I don’t know how successful I was.

These two women are both seasoned, professional athletes who have trained hard for the majority of their young lives (Williams is 32; Ivanovic is 26) in order to play singles’ tennis at the highest level. They are both highly respected by their opponents, coaches and fans alike as being athletically supreme and having the physical prowess to endure long, gruelling matches and to overcome any challengers.

These women have not worked as hard as they have done in their sports solely to be demeaned by being judged on their physical attractiveness.

Or their outfits for that matter. Sure, all tennis players are paid to represent their sponsors and to wear certain outfits branded with certain logos. Yet in Channel 7’s broadcast of Australian Bernard Tomic’s match, the poll asked viewers to nominate the better tennis player between Tomic and fellow Australian Lleyton Hewitt. In the next women’s match between American Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Russian third seed Maria Sharapova, the poll asked viewers who had the better outfit between the two women. I don’t think that I even need to explain the double standards at play here.

I’ve made it pretty clear that I really enjoy watching the tennis, particularly the Australian Open. But I do think that there’s a long way to go in terms of Australian attitudes before it is perfect viewing, particularly for women’s tennis. Rather than asking viewers which woman is dressed better, they should be asked who is more likely to win. Rather than seeing social media flooded with how “hot” Daniela Hantuchova or Maria Sharapova is, it would be better to see spectators applauding their sporting efforts. After all, the tournaments are supposed to be about tennis.