Every year we have record number of applications; we only choose the pretty ones.
The dress code for Wimbledon is predominately white, like the audience, with sweat shirts, sweat pants, T-shirts, jeans and cut-offs expressly forbidden. I had to Google what cut-offs were. Apparently they are short jeans that show your bum most of the time. Ok so no cut-offs; I am sure there is some health and safety reason for that. Brightly coloured pants and nude coloured shorts (ahem Venus Williams), are ok. Dresses that look more like tops, so you can actually see the pants, are not compulsory but wearing anything else is quite frowned upon. For example, Anne White wore a white body suit because it kept her legs warm as she foolishly thought it was appropriate and in keeping with the rules of the Wimbledon dress code. It was. She was asked politely not to wear it to the next match as it was distracting to the other opponent. Ok so, flashing knicker-type shorts at your opponent is not distracting at all then? Right.
Seriously, does this sound like 21st century living where women can vote, work, run FTSE 100 companies and be the last two in the finals of The Apprentice? I am surprised they even let these women use a racket, instead of standing around modelling it. To be fair it does seems most of these female players are happy to conform to these invisible rules, be it for sponsorship or for publicity. Some even thrive off it, (ahem Venus Williams). In all truth, that is part of the beauty of being a female with liberation: having choice. I am all for female empowerment as long as it does not leave you feeling empty like the seats in Wimbledon. I am all for the women in Wimbledon dressing however they like within the rules of the Wimbledon dress code. I am all for personal decisions of women deciding what they feel comfortable wearing. So, why wasn't Anne White allowed to wear her white bodysuit again, with it being deemed as inappropriate for Wimbledon?
I have reluctantly come to the conclusion that I will not get the answer to this question anytime soon. There is too much politics, money and ulterior motives involved in the media regarding sport, and women in general. It would be a bit like asking why are the majority of the audience and players at Wimbledon white? Alongside published authors, partners of law firms and CEO's of Fortune 500 companies? See, it is pointless me even asking. You won't get an answer anytime soon except maybe a shrug of the shoulders, a bemused look and then everyone continuing their life as it was before.
The only thing I am sure of, is as individuals, we have to fight for what we believe we deserve whilst large institutions who have no interest in change for our benefit, will sit back and watch, or possibly try resist our efforts. Alongside our individual power, we also have collective power which is what I like so much about the Writers Of Colour initiative to get marginalised groups of ethnic minorities published into British newspapers, something which is not as common as you would expect.
Similar to this idea of collective power amongst ethnic minorities, Serena and Venus Williams' dad, Richard Williams, has set up his own tennis academy after discussing at length the difficulties his daughters' experienced, being from an ethnic minority to becoming professional players at Wimbledon. Mr Williams says now about the system, “It’s not that they dislike you. They just don’t want another Venus or Serena showing up.” Which I believe is quite a representative comment across the board of white-dominated professional sectors.
It sometimes seems that being a black, female makes you go straight to the bottom of their list also. Almost as if it is not bad enough you have the struggles of being from a black or mixed heritage, now you also have the struggles of being female in a male-dominated society. It is like double whammy attack: can you get up from that! This is why I have admiration for Serena and Venus Williams to rise in this particularly difficult sector, regardless of the colour of their pants. They are icons of beautiful, strong, successful black women.
It is not always a race issue. People always think it is just a race issue. Oh no, as a woman, it is often also a beauty issue. The Wimbledon champion, Marion Baroli, showed her strength, determination and grit as a person under great pressure to succeed, and rise to the challenge to smack that tennis ball in her opponents face until she almost ran off in tears of defeat. Regardless, Baroli held in together, mind singular with focus on the task of winning at hand to become victorious, a champion! Hooray! Champagne! Glass ready to toast... but oh no, wait, she is not beautiful enough to be champion.
She is rewarded instead with hate tweets by misogynists and a very ignorant reporter saying, "I just wonder if her dad, ...did say to her when she was 12, 13, 14 maybe, 'listen, you are never going to be, you know, a looker. You are never going to be somebody like a Sharapova, you're never going to be 5 feet 11, you're never going to be somebody with long legs, so you have to compensate for that. You are going to have to be the most dogged, determined fighter that anyone has ever seen on the tennis court if you are going to make it,' and she kind of is."
John Inverdale, is this supposed to be a compliment? Is she supposed to be on the court from intensely training since her youth, sweating her determination, practicing towards her ambitions, for you, the man who says things into a microphone, to base your comments on her looks like she is strutting across a catwalk for your approval, and is not an elite athlete who has just won one of the most prestigious titles in her field?
Many viewers have complained several times on the sexist remarks of John Inverdale, that have still gone unnoticed until now, that is probably because their complaints were going to other misogynists. There the misogynist sits in his little cardboard box of an office, saying, "These women are making a big drama out of nothing: they are probably on that time of month."
This no disrespect to any extent to the truly, strong and brave men who stand up for what is right, to indirectly defend their mothers, daughters, sisters and wives in the process. Although, it still seems there are far too many men who are happy for thoughtless words to just slip out of their mouths like vomit from too much egotistical wine, blurring their vision of the male species being superior to the female species, allowing them to use sexism like ill-fitting condoms to protect their masculinity.
I am grateful for organisations like @EverydaySexism on Twitter who highlight the gravity of the problem, and @IShapeBeauty who try to recreate positive change and action in women. I am grateful for women centres and courses across the UK who take action to put esteem into women to fight sexism on every level, by imparting knowledge, encouragement and empowerment to each woman to be stronger in the lack of current societal change, and places like the Women's Refuge and Women's Aid, who are there to pick up the pieces of a broken society, which naturally lead to more extreme examples where is ok to degrade, humiliate and manipulate a woman's mind to submission or into a pretty skirt.
References
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2001/07/athletes_in_skirts.html
http://www.diversityinc.com/diversity-facts/wheres-the-diversity-in-fortune-500-ceos/
http://jobs.aol.com/articles/2012/10/16/study-workplaces-increasingly-segregated-dominated-by-white-me/
http://www.venusserenatennisacademy.org/index.htm
http://www.theroot.com/buzz/richard-williams-blacks-still-not-welcome-tennis
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/04/sports/tennis/04rhoden.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&ref=todayspaper&adxnnlx=1283612483-dPeMXtMamNhaXeV9YWSDGA&
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2013/jul/09/john-inverdale-marion-bartoli-bbc
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/tennis/wimbledon/10164511/Wimbledon-2013-BBC-apologise-for-John-Inverdales-Bartoli-not-a-looker-comment.html
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