Let Your Voice Be Heard! Unless You’re a Woman.

 

By: Grace Gonzalez

Everyone loves the idea of a strong, opinionated woman until they actually have to hear what strong, opinionated women have to say. We’ve grown up in a society where sports are often  an activity for men and female athletes face more barriers and discrimination.

This month has been particularly irritating for Serena Williams, only the greatest female tennis player of all time, for a variety of reasons. She’s constantly scrutinized in the media for various reasons, but most recently for arguing with the umpire during her match at the U.S Open championship game.

Across all sports, we witness coaches talking or screaming out moves for their players to implement. In Serena’s case, she was accused of cheating. Serena did not remain silent on the call, however, and in fact, approached the umpire telling him that he was making the wrong call. The umpire insisted that she was cheating, and by the sound of her voice, you could tell that she was very frustrated.

What I found disturbing was the way that many people in the sports industry reacted to her frustration.  Several umpires discussed boycotting Serena Williams’ games and very distasteful, discriminating cartoons have been released that make her look like the villain in all of this.

Williams has called out the sports industry in a recent interview stating, “If you’re female, you should be able to do even half of what a guy can do.” Props to Serena for standing her ground and even more for her powerful response, despite losing the championship game. Williams is no sore loser, and despite the drama surrounding the game, she strongly encouraged Naomi Osaka to embrace her winning moment. Naomi Osaka was in tears when she won because of the heavy tension in the crowd in support of Serena, but Serena stood next to her, and gracefully congratulated her.

It takes a strong woman to handle constant criticism about her body, her looks, what she’s wearing, etc. However, Serena Williams is most definitely a strong woman for turning that frustration into a moment of great sportsmanship–more so for bringing light to the different ways that women are constantly targeted in a man’s world.

Solely with her actions, Williams has served as an example for women everywhere to continue to chase their dreams. Scrutiny will always be there and it’s beyond our control, but what we are in control of is how we react to it. Williams also offered a great example of female empowerment by supporting Osaki instead of treating her solely as a competitor. As women, we grow up viewing other women as competitors which is really an idea we should stray away from because all women have great, unique qualities that, when brought together, can lead to great achievements.

This is the moment to reflect on our biases towards female athletes and to support female athletes in our communities and in professional sports because they too deserve equity and recognition.