tennis trash talk – the negative way we speak about female athletes

Francesca Schiavone and Sam Stosur at the 2010 French Open final

In the midst of another Australian summer of tennis I, like many others, gear up in the living room with an iceblock and watch the action of the women’s draw unfold. However, there is an unpleasantness I feel during this seasonal attention to the sport.
You hear it again and again. You tell a friend you’re going to a match. You discuss the evening scores with a colleague. You go on social media sites to check the scores. You’re just chilling with your mother or father or sibling on the couch and then it happens.
‘She looks like a man.’
‘She plays like a man.’
‘She has a man’s body.’
It’s comments like these, so ingrained in our society, that always manage to taint my summer of tennis viewing.
There are three players we know who cop it the most. Sam Stosur, who really broke through with her 2010 French Open final, which translated as success at the 2011 US Open, and has since been the darling of Australian sport. Often, the attention falls to her body and style and play, comments circulating from players and celebrities of the sport.
After Stosur played some of her best tennis and whitewashed top ten player Jelena Jankovic 6-2 6-1 at the 2010 French semi-final, the Serbian excused her loss by saying ‘to be honest, she almost has the game of a man. That’s what it feels like. When I look at how the men play, she has kind of a similar strength.’
And when Stosur won her maiden grand slam in 2011 Russian Maria Kirilenko said ‘she hits the ball like a guy. She’s a very strong girl and her tennis is similar to the guys.’
I find these comments coming from fellow female players, ambassadors of the sport to be odd. What sort of message does this say about women’s sport and female athletes in general?
This message is also prevalent in the media. The Australian called Jelena Jankovic’s comments the ‘ultimate compliment’. In television and radio, commentators frequently make reference to Stosur’s body, on particular occasions calling her a ‘beast’. I’m not sure how complimentary that is.
Stosur is a strong, muscular woman who plays a hard-hitting game. Why do these attributes make her less of a woman?
In discussion of women’s tennis, people often bring up that Serena Williams is ‘manly’. In fact, I find she is a very feminine woman, a fashion icon and with her sister Venus, a great campaigner for women’s tennis for decades. Serena has the best serve in the history of the women’s game, consistently over 200 km/hour, which is the power that many male players aspire to. I can’t help but think some of the negative comments come from jealousy or tedium of Serena’s dominance of the game for so many years. Serena Williams is all woman, but the public are still not ready for a bustier, heavier and dare I say it, black tennis glamour girl.
Stosur’s opponent in the 2010 French open final, Italian Francesca Schiavone, generates negative perceptions too. Unfortunately, a lot of this increased after Schiavaone cut her hair short in 2010. I have much admiration for Francesca, who is one of the few professionals to sport shorter hair and wear shorts instead of the traditional tennis skirt. Unfortunately, her non-conformity makes her the butt of jokes and loaded observations.

I feel, as a woman with short hair and who often wears jeans and a t-shirt, we constantly have to live with the anxiety of being named a man. This is more prevalent as a female sports player, where an opposing player can use your appearance as a cheap dig.
In the late 1990s, Amelie Mauresmo generated similar comments from fellow players Lindsay Davenport and Martina Hingis. Mauresmo was upset and these players were forced to retract their comments and apologise. Where are the apologies today?
The Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) recently promoted their ‘Strong is Beautiful’ campaign, which features the top female players in a video series. Is a stand-out advertisement, beautifully made, but unfortunately the well-meaning message goes against what is really going on in the sport.
I think more needs to be done to stop this sexism, this shaming of women who don’t quite fit the mould. We all should spare a closer thought for our comments and those of our friends and family, and celebrate the female athlete in her many forms.

By Ellen van Neerven-Currie