Stop faulting women Wimbledon stars like Marion Bartoli and Serena Williams over their looks
Sun on Sunday columnist Karren says focusing on female players' physical attributes is a way of diminishing women
I DO love a bit of tennis. And I’ve been enjoying Wimbledon these past two weeks.
However, I can’t help but notice life for the lady players is a microcosm of the world we women live in all of the time — the land of “damned if you do, damned if you don’t”.
Take Marion Bartoli, a top-notch player who won Wimbledon in 2013. But being top of her game and winning in straight sets against Sabine Lisicki that day wasn’t enough for some people.
Why? Because she didn’t look quite right, of course!
While commentating on her win at the time, the BBC’s John Inverdale said on Radio 5: “I wonder if her dad did say to her, ‘Listen, you’re never going to be a looker. You’re never going to be somebody like a Sharapova, you’re never going to be somebody with long legs, so you have to compensate for that’.”
Flash forward a couple of years and Bartoli, 31, has lost a dramatic amount of weight. Her social media is full of numerous gym selfies.
But Bartoli, now a commentator, has been the victim of online abuse and suggestions that she has an eating disorder. Now she has said her weight loss is linked to a virus.
What kind of world are we living in where a woman has to make a public statement explaining her weight loss to stem criticism?
One of the things that annoys me most is how quick other women are to join in on the criticism.
We’ve got to see this stuff for what it is: a way of diminishing women. And it’s time to stop it.
The Bartoli story seems to be a case in point of what we as a society do to women — ridicule them for being too large, too masculine, or too powerful, then criticise them for being too thin.
Then there is Serena Williams who, as of yesterday, has 22 Grand Slam titles to her name and is arguably the world’s best player.
But what has Twitter been abuzz with? People saying they are too “distracted” by her nipples showing through her tennis whites to focus on her game.
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The world is criticising her for something she can’t help, reducing her to her physical attributes rather than talking about her tennis.
What is she supposed to do? Wear a turtleneck jumper on court?
For a long time, it has to be noted that Williams, despite being the queen of tennis, didn’t have as many sponsors as other less good but “prettier” players, like Maria Sharapova.
Sharapova was taking home £18million in endorsements before she was banned earlier this year for failing a drug test. Williams got “only” £10million.
You could say this shines a light on the prejudices about female sports stars and how people feel they “should” look.
And then there is the grunting.
Every year it is a “hilarious” sport for people to mock the women who have the temerity to make a noise as they serve a ball that’s going faster than 100mph. It is, after all, so unfeminine!
Reading some of the Wimbledon coverage this week, it’s easy to think we are more interested in the way our players look than how they play.
But it’s not as simple as that. Just as it is in real life, the messages we send to our female players are very mixed.
They are not thin enough. No, they are too thin! They are too masculine, not sexy enough. Actually, no! They are showing too much nipple.
Why can’t we let women just be excellent athletes?
The pressure on female players to be top-notch athletes AND sexy as hell is out of control.
This is opposed to the men, of course, who pretty much only get comments about their play.
Is anyone putting pressure on Andy Murray to show a bit of flesh and satisfy our desire for eye candy? No.
We just want him to be the best player he can be.
Plastic surgery 'bonus' is a teen-y bit weird for me
BEE CAMERON, the 52-year-old who spent £85k on plastic surgery to get a thigh gap, claims that one of the perks of her surgery is that she gets chatted up by 18-year-olds.
I don’t begrudge her spending the money on her body – whatever floats your boat, after all.
But why would any 52-year-old in her right mind want to be chatted up by an 18-year-old?
Most 18-year-olds have more hormones than common sense and not a word to say for themselves.
I wouldn’t go back there for love – nor £85k!
– THIS week I went to The Legend of Tarzan premiere and, call me old-fashioned, I was a bit shocked about how little effort people made.
Forget red carpet glamour – it was all elasticated waists and T-shirts!
Zara Holland turned up wearing what looked like a swimsuit and a beach wrap.
But there was one exception.
Alexa Chung wore an Alessandra Rich dress that was quirky without being girly, at the same time as being elegant and lady-like.
She looked like a modern-day icon.
– IT’S sad to hear about Ray Wilkins appearing to be drunk on the radio and being caught drink-driving.
We all know that alcohol – in excess – is no good for you. It ruins people’s lives, can take away livelihoods and wipe out whole decades of memories.
Yes, addiction is an illness but it is a self-inflicted one. And the only person who can do anything about it is . . . you.
You can have all the rehab in the world but until you are ready to make the change, you won’t.
I hope Ray will be ready soon but, in the meantime, it’s hard watching one of our heroes self-destruct like that.
BBC has slipped out of gear
CHRIS EVANS tried to be Jeremy Clarkson, which is like comparing a hut to the Taj Mahal.
Unsurprisingly, it didn’t work out.
And I doubt it will work out for whoever tries to replace the fabulous original trio – simply because they are irreplaceable.
The real attraction of Top Gear was not the cars, but the chemistry of the presenters.
It was their sense of fun, the trouble they got themselves into, the fact that they were very un-PC and, most importantly, that they were genuinely good friends.
The only chance the Beeb has got is to call in Chandler, Rachel, Monica, Phoebe and Ross to join Matt LeBlanc . . .
I'm proud to be a 'bloody difficult woman' like Theresa
IT MADE made me laugh when Ken Clarke called Theresa May a “bloody difficult woman”.
In my experience, men think women are “bloody difficult” if they actually dare to have an opinion.
Or if they disagree. Or if they don’t say in a meeting, “Oh, I’ll make the coffee and take the notes”.
So that comment by Ken says a lot about his idea of a woman’s place in the world and absolutely nothing about Theresa.
Oh, and let the records show: I’m proud to be a bloody difficult woman!
Hiddle in plain sight of haters
I’VE been pondering why the world and his wife have been queuing up to have a pop at Tom Hiddleston and Taylor Swift.
Everyone, it seems, is absolutely fixated on pulling them apart.
My eyebrow is always raised when there seems to be this kind of collective hating going on, like this “let’s all pile in to Taylor and Tom” attitude.
I wonder if it is because they seem so blessed – so rich, gorgeous, successful, happy, thin and young – that we think they can handle it, or even that they deserve it?
Sure, there’s an argument to say they are “protesting too much”, what with the endless shots of them kissing and snuggling on their porch, eating ice cream, walking along the beach, having a glass of wine, going down the slide . . .
I’ve had my moments of feeling I’m actually on holiday with them as I’ve seen so many photos.
But yes, Tom’s “I heart TS” T-shirt was a bit odd.
If I were Taylor’s mum, I might observe that this romance is all happening a bit quickly.
I know some people think it’s all for show, but there’s no evidence of that.
In the meantime, why can’t we all just live and let live and let them have their romance?
Personally, I think it’s actually nice to see two people looking happy.
But that is the affliction of the British public.
We don’t mind building them up – but when they get above their station we don’t like it and we need to knock ’em down.