Two steps forward, one step behind

Serena Williams derails feminism

One of the few advantages a female tennis player has relative to her peers in other sports is exposure. A simple test would be to name any contemporary female player in either soccer, cricket, baseball or basketball. Now count the number of male names you can quote for the sport. Contrast this to tennis where even ones illiterate on the sport can talk on Williams sisters and Maria Sharapova. One of the positives this exposure allows is bringing attention to the inequality faced by women in sports leading to better conditions. Ranging from times of Billie Jean King’s founding of WTA to more recent activism for equal pay, women tennis players have been able to highlight discrepancies. Leading charge of this has been none other than Serena Williams — one of the most successful women in Grand Slam history. She successfully fought for equal pay for women in Grand slams, dismissed notions of women not being entertaining enough for sports with her complete domination and especially in America was the only beacon of hope for winning alongside her sister while men continued to disappoint. She has been the face of “can do” for women, inspiring millions of young girls despite constant barrage of racism by media and sexism. Her return from motherhood increased her status with an excellent performance afterward showing girls nothing can stand in the way of women. Even male players like Andy Murray have had to stand up against casual sexism by reminding women are equal. Given everything Serena has achieved for women around the world, it was especially disappointing watching her not just lose her cool in US Open Final but go on a constant barrage of abuse towards the referee and when punished for that use women’s issues as a defense.

‘Mama said Knock You Out’ ad campaign

It is well-known society uses double standards on multiple issues towards men and women. But the US Open final episode was not one of them. Here unlike the multitude of incidents when women are treated harshly or aggressively, Serena was anything but a passive observer. Based on perceived personal allegation of cheating, Serena threatened the referee to not officiate her match again, not talk to her again, intimidated with a “how dare you?” before using personal insults of “you are a liar” and “you are a thief too”. A lot of media coverage has focused on the words ‘thief’ and ‘liar’ but it’s worth reading the entirety of her verbal assault on the referee. It’s also worth noting the violation mentioned here is racquet violation, but Serena continues to mention her first coaching violation.

‘This is unbelievable. Every team I play here I have problems. ‘I didn’t get coaching, I didn’t get coaching. I didn’t get coaching. You need to make an announcement that I didn’t get coaching. I don’t cheat, I didn’t get coaching. How can you say that? ‘You owe me an apology. You owe me an apology. I have never cheated in my life. I have a daughter and I stand for what is right for her and I’ve never cheated. You owe me an apology. After being broken to trail 4–3 in the second set: ‘I never got coaching. I explained that to you and for you to attack my character then something is wrong. You’re attacking my character. Yes you are. You owe me an apology. ‘You will never, ever, ever be on another court of mine as long as you live. You are the liar. When are you going to give me my apology? You owe me an apology. ‘Say it, say you’re sorry. Then don’t talk to me, don’t talk to me. How dare you insinuate I was cheating? You stole a point from me. You’re a thief too.’ After being docked a game: ‘Are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? Because I said you were a thief? You stole a point from me. I’m not a cheater. I told you to apologise to me. Excuse me I need the referee, I don’t agree with that.’ With tournament referees: ‘This is not right… [INAUDIBLE]… He said I was being coached but I was not being coached. That’s not right. You know me. You know my character. This is not fair. This has happened to me too many times. This is not fair. To lose a game for saying that is not fair. Do you know how many men do things that are much worse than that? This is not fair. ‘There are a lot of men out here that have said a lot of things and because they are a man it doesn’t matter. This is unbelievable. No I don’t know the risk because if I say a simple thing, a thief, because he stole a point from me. ‘There are men out here that do a lot worse and because I’m a woman you’re going to take this away from me. That is not right. And you know it and I know you can’t admit it, but I know you know that is not right. I know you can’t change it but I’m just saying that is not right. ‘I get the rules but I’m just saying it’s not right. It happens to me at this tournament every single year and it’s not fair. That’s all I have to say.’

FULL TRANSCRIPT: Serena Williams’ entire outburst in US Open final

It’s hard to not deem the words insulting to the referee. He didn’t respond verbally at all during the entire fuss from Serena. When he decided she had crossed a line, he handed her a violation. Having already courted two violations, the third has to be a game violation. As much as I wish he didn’t hand out the game as Naomi was serving, already had broken Serena and was so close to winning of her own accord I find it hard to see how the entire outburst and insults is not worthy of one violation. And yet, after all this when Serena was sure the match wasn’t going her way she quoted her being a woman as the decisive factor for her penalty.

What needs to be cleared out is the first two violations- irrespective of whatever you think of them — aren’t even on the sexism radar. The coaching violation though harsh and in my opinion a stupid rule (and technically correct as per her coach’s admittance later) is just handing out a violation to one of the players in a women’s match. If that is considered sexist, a male referee can never hand out any violations which have an element of discretion as the recipient can allege sexism. Similarly the racquet violation is even less open to interpretation and considered an automatic violation. It’s only the third violation which was a result of the altercation where the ‘double standards’ comes into picture as allegation is if a man would have said the same things he wouldn’t have been punished. Given the serious allegation of sexism, a lot of people have collected data on the incidences for men. I don’t want to go too deep into it because I believe it’s taking away from the core issue, but I will just quote some research from this brilliant Quora answer which also lists other incidences of Serena’s past outbursts:

- Grigor Dmitrov received a game penalty in the final of the 2016 Istanbul Open when he smashed his racket three times. - David Nalbandian lost in the 2012 Aegon Championships final via disqualification after he injured a line judge by kicking an advertising board into his shin. - Andy Murray received a code violation in the semis of the Rio 2016 Olympics after calling Ramos a “stupid umpire.” - Denis Shapovalov was disqualified in a Davis Cup game against Great Britain in February 2017 after hitting a ball which struck the umpire in the face. - Rafael Nadal got stripped of a serve on two occasions (again by Ramos) for taking too long in between serves in his fourth round match at the 2017 French Open. - Novak Djoković received an official warning (from Ramos yet again) for slamming his racket to the ground forcibly during his Wimbledon quarter final match this year. Furthermore, in all the four Grand Slams this year there were a total of 128 code violations given for reasons such as racket/equipment abuse, coaching, time violation and unsportsmanlike conduct. 85 (66.41%) of those violations were given to men and 43 (33.59%) of them were given to women.

More similar aggregated data can be found in BBC’s analyses of the issue. Past umpire Richard Ings published an article saying Serena owed apology for bad behavior, citing the time when he docked three violations for oft-quoted John McEnroe in 1987 US Open costing him a set. He even debunked ridiculous claims on Twitter himself:

It’s hard to claim referees like being abused by men. In soccer they are even more stricter handling immediate red-card to mocking claps after yellow card. Regardless I don’t want to make it about statistics as one can always cherrypick, nit-pick. The point is Serena made the claim of sexism after she had abused and insulted the umpire for a very long time. This is not like Colin Kaepernick who peacefully sat down during national anthem and is facing issues getting drafted. This is also not like chair umpire being called a “whore” by Fabio Fognini who rightfully faced a ban. This is also unlike the incident where United Airlines used unprovoked force on a passenger. Here Serena is the bully, the perpetrator of abuse and her usage of feminist rhetoric after everything seems like a desperate tactic rather than being a victim. The punishment she received (one violation) was minor and proportionate.

Why is it bad?

Right now the sexism of the umpire has been the dominant theme of discussion post-altercation. However it is possible to put a lot of alternate spin on the match, and examine them. Some examples:

The crowds booing of Osaka can be considered a hangover of anti-Japanese racism which led to interment of Japanese-Americans. It can be also be perceived as anti-immigrant chants on defeating local born Serena Williams. Serena’s calling umpire Ramos a thief can be suggested to be inspired by him being Latino (in US, he’d be considered Latino by ethnicity) consistent with racist stereotype of stealing Latinos. The media depicting Osaka as “first Japanese woman” rather than “first Japanese to win” shows sexism.

Anti-Japanese sentiments, anyone?

Some other examples from sporting history:

Maria Sharapova could have claimed her doping ban was a result of sexism or a result of her Russian ethnicity. Zidane can claim his red card following headbutt in 2006 WC final was because he is of Algerian/ Islamic descent.

You see, the list goes on and on. Some of them might seem ridiculous to you. However if the player did make these allegations, people will be forced to collect data to prove otherwise. Some of them might even be true. The only difference between these allegations and Serena’s is the latter has shown willingness to actually use elements of her identity to shift the discussion in a case where her behavior has been obviously bad towards an official.

How does it derail feminism?

An important part of any identity-based rights movement is allies. So what happens when feminists side with someone who was so obviously abusing the umpire on public TV because she quotes double-standard on women causes more men to sympathize with the referee because it amplifies their concern that even if you confront an extremely hostile female, retorting will lead to the female quoting feminism and the man will be hung in public court of opinion. Before Serena quoted feminism after her tirades, most likely the analysis was driven on support lines- her supporters would’ve come a reason to support her, her opponents would nod in disapproval while the neutral ones would be shocked to see such a spectacle. Unfortunately after the quoting of feminism a lot of the lines shifted as a lot of women (including ones who don’t watch tennis at all) gravitated towards Serena identifying with her. I am one of those who nodded my head in disapproval and felt sympathy for the poor referee, but when she quoted women’s issues and shit hit the fan it was disgruntlement. I am one of those men who disagree with the likes of James Damore quoting “differences between men and women”. I also have skepticism of critics of diversity efforts for women in tech. Heck, I am sure a lot of people who think “a black woman should be put in her place” are jumping at this moment to further their hatred. But a lot others like me also feel unwelcome when an obvious incidence of belligerence is met with sympathies on gender identities as long as female voices concerns of “double standards”. If you want to make up your mind on the incident, watch the highlights of show:

Where do we go from here?

Despite disillusionment with Serena’s behavior, discussions on women discrimination and differential treatment are good in general. So the question becomes when we criticize for double standards, what do we really want in terms of solutions (apart from criticizing men). One obvious thing which women want is to voice their concerns to men without repercussions. Sounds like a reasonable ask, but how do you implement it? Does the man have any scenario he can take action? Serena’s actions on public TV tell otherwise. This leads to a scenario where the implementable ask becomes to allow belligerents to bully without repercussions.

One of possible solutions in tennis scenario is having only women umpire for women players. This will definitely fix the sexism claim, but how does Serena fare with women umpires? This is the entire discussion from 2011 US Open final with a female chair umpire when she was losing.

Asderaki: “It’s her point.” Williams: “I don’t understand.” A: “Because when you called out, she got distracted.” W: “Then maybe you should replay the point. I’m not giving her the game.” A: “This is not a replay. It’s her point because when you shouted she went to the ball and touched the ball.” W: “Are you the one that screwed me over the last time here? You’re nobody. You’re ugly on the inside.” The personal abuse continued along those lines at the next changeover. “We were in America last time I checked,” she barked at Asderaki. “You’re totally out of control. You’re a hater and you’re unattractive inside. What a loser.”

So it’s obvious Serena’s tirades aren’t specific to men either. She has behaved like that with women umpire too so it seems almost certain a move to only female umpires wouldn’t fix her behavior (also making her defense with Ramos look more silly).