Misogyny Takes Center Court

This week is the Wimbledon tennis tournament and the coverage spans three channels and numerous hours. There are a few courts at Wimbledon, including a center court. Recently charges have been levied against the tennis tournament of putting a majority of the most attractive female tennis players on center court, while more competitive matches and better skilled players are relegated to lesser courts. Now misogyny and women’s sports are not new, but women’s tennis is different. Women’s tennis is not like the LPGA or the WNBA, it is popular and sometimes more popular then men’s tennis. However, there is an active push within the tennis community to tone down the masculinity of women’s tennis. Showcasing the best looking players is only the beginning; there are also attempts to eliminating grunting. They are attempting to turn these women from athletes to ladies.
The problem within tennis is not isolated to tennis, but it is the problem of women’s sports in general. The line between sexuality and athleticism must be walked very delicately. The use of sexuality is solely to attract men to the audience, but at the same time it distracts men from their athletic merits. As soon as WNBA players appear in evening gowns in commercials, a short lived and ineffectual commercial, the game lost its credibility. LeBron James does not appear in his underwear for the NBA. This is not to say that female athletes needs to hide their bodies and be ashamed, but overt sexuality will never allow for women’s sports to be equal to men’s in the public. (Ironically the same reasons used to support men’s college sports, are the same reasons to bash women’s sports).