Comments on: Which Women Play on the Center Court at Wimbledon?

By: Anders Rasmussen

Anders Rasmussen — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 11:44:19 +0000

“when Ellen Degeneres attended a WNBA game, the camera crews were instructed not to show her”

… this is really interesting, do you have any kind of documentation/references on this?

By: American Women Athletes Part One: In which women athletes need to be sexy and heterosexual (preferably with child/ren and husband/boyfriend) | The Angry Black Woman

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 14:48:41 +0000

[...] as I linked before in Which Women Play on the Center Court at Wimbledon? the best athletes in the world aren’t judged solely on their ability. Oh no. Anyway, Sarah N. [...]

By: C. Ray

C. Ray — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 02:14:40 +0000

It’s tennis not Playboy. Sports are judged on athleticism. Harboring & endorsing sexist ideals makes the objectified but less talented players feel exploited & embarassed, it makes the more talented but less sexy (by whose standards btw?) players feel insulted. Casual fans that didn’t like the sport before aren’t drawn to it more-they might buy playboy, but they’re not buying tix to Wimbledon (as evidenced by the emply seats during one of the “battles of the babes”). Serious fans will be serious fans no matter who’s playing. Contrary to Wimbledon’s belief, independent sports research finds that sexism in sports has been shown to “alienate the core of the fan base that’s already there. Women, age 18 to 55, are offended by these images. And older males, fathers with daughters, taking their daughters to sporting events to see their favorite female athletes, are deeply offended by these images.” These groups are a chunk of the core of fans. Tennis fans aren’t majority male. And in almost all sports the FASTEST growing demographic of sports fans is young women.

By: The “Why are you so angry????” edition | The Angry Black Woman

The “Why are you so angry????” edition | The Angry Black Woman — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 13:37:28 +0000

[...] Which Women play center court at Wimbledon, the sexy or the talented?? I’ll give you three guesses and the first two don’t count. [...]

By: Ragnar

Ragnar — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 20:48:10 +0000

I totally agree that women should not be placed at centre court because of their looks, but I just want to point out a fairly scewed view. All three “pretty woment” ended up playing top 10 seeds in the tournament, and some of them are not ranked as high because of their really young age. Also Williams played at the centre court, and therefore should be presented as a “pretty girl”. It should also be said that Kuznetsova was beaten by a “babe” (Sabine Katharina Lisicki ) in her final game in Wimbeldon, showing that looks is not the only factor in where you play.

By: RE: Mikhail

RE: Mikhail — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 20:33:51 +0000

“In the end this is just another example how on internet everyone can accuse you of being a dog.”

Their pinpointed example may come across biased. but that doesn’t take away the truth to the point they are trying to make.

‘female athletes ARE judged on their appearances as well as their athletic abilities. Female athletes have often felt pressure to meet conventional standards of beauty.’

female body builders are the best example. in a ‘sport’ where one’s muscular buil is most important these women go get implants wear make up, long hair, and bikinis.

ALSO as a lesbian myself i don’t mind the athletes appearing gay. =}

By: Mikhail

Mikhail — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:25:08 +0000

Just FYI, but it surely seems easy to condemn something, without checking hmm… the facts. Like who they played AGAINST.

Here’s what REALLY happened (not in the head of somebody “digging” for sexism):

World No. 45 (unseeded) Gisela Dulko:
Round 1: Court 9 (vs Stephanie Foretz)
Round 2: Centre Court (vs Maria Sharapova – even you should know her)
Round 3: Court 3 (vs Nadia Petrova, seed 10)

World No. 59 (unseeded) Maria Kirilenko:
Round 1: Court 15 (vs Petra Kvitova)
Round 2: Centre Court (vs. Caroline Wozniacki, seed 9)

No. 28 seed Sorana Cirstea:
Round 1: Court 15 (vs Edina Gallovits)
Round 2: Court 12 (vs Sania Mirza)
Round 3: Centre Court (vs Victoria Azarenka, seed 8)

I don’t see anything unusual up to now, but let’s check the other examples:

No. 5 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova:
Round 1: Court 14 (vs. Akiko Morigami)
on that day on centre court played only Venus Williams (seed 3)
on that day on court 1 played only Dinara Safina (world number 1) and Elena Baltacha (home player with home support)
Round 2: Court 3 (vs. Pauline Parmentier)
on that day on centre court played only Wozniacki (seed 9)
on that day on court 1 played only Venus Williams (seed 3) even Safina (world number 1 was on court 2)
Round 3: Court 1 (vs.Sabine Lisicki)

No. 2 seed Serena Williams:
Round 1: Centre Court (vs. Neuza Silva)
Round 2: Court 1 (vs Jarmila Groth)
Round 3: Court 2 (vs the unknown Roberta Vinci)
on that day on centre court played only Azarenka-Cirstea (seed 8 against 28)
on that day on court 1 played only Dinara Safina (world number 1) and Elena Baltacha (home player with huge support)
Round 4: Court 2, the showcourts were used ONLY by Venus and Safina.

And just few more things – Wimbledon has TWO showcourts – Centre and Number 1, it seems you don’t know this.
And Wozniacki-Kirilenko (former top 20 player) is far better TENNIS, than Kuznetsova-Parmentier. Also Azarenka-Cirstea is better than Williams-Vinci. So props for the organizers.
And the courts are scarce in the opening rounds – fifth seed may play outside

In the end this is just another example how on internet everyone can accuse you of being a dog.

By: Tom

Tom — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 01:55:04 +0000

Sadness that the first black person to achieve mainstream recognition, success and following has died is stupid? Really? As an artist he may have petered out years ago, and as a person he was pretty unsettled. But disposable he was not, past his time he was not (as his lasting influence proves). He was inspirational and reflecting on his career seems a pretty sound idea, IMHO.

By: gwen

gwen — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 22:45:35 +0000

I don’t think sadness is the appropriate response to the Iranian situation. I feel anger about it, and disappointment that my attempt to set up my computer to serve as a proxy for Iranian protesters to post to Twitter failed because of my lack of technological savvy.

By: Jeff

Jeff — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 21:57:20 +0000

I have to disregard the article for a moment (although it makes a good point) and point out that being (albeit unexpectedly) sad about Michael Jackson’s death is really, really stupid, especially for a writer on this site. I mean really, another disposable pop star decades past his time dies and you people are crying rivers? Give me a fucking break, why don’t you get sad about the crackdown over Iranian protests or any one of dozens of real problems that are plaguing people all across the world.

You know, problems that authors on this site usually write about.

By: Dmitriy

Dmitriy — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 18:53:22 +0000

and now the Huffington Post has chimed in as well

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/charlotte-hilton-andersen/wimbeldon-officials-call_b_222809.html

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 14:32:06 +0000

I’d also like to agree about the photo choice being somewhat biased, and point out that number 1 court is big (it’s in the top 30 tennis stadia in the world by capacity) holding 11,429 as opposed to 15,000 (recently up from 14,000) and there is very little difference in ticket prices between the two until finals day. No. 2 court is significantly smaller but has a good reputation for exciting matches, the nickname “Graveyard of Champions” and tickets are still more expensive than ground passes, which allow access to the remaining 16 (yes, 16) courts.

It should also be noted that there are two players on the court on each of these occasions. The first lady pictured was playing against former No. 1 Sharapova, whilst the other two were playing against seeds 8 and 9, respectively. Low seeded and unseeded players play against high seeds in the early rounds to ensure an exciting final.

Having said all that, well, yeah, the comments are pretty damning.

By: Sandra

Sandra — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 10:14:49 +0000

Notice also that the organizers assume (correctly or not) that most viewers are male, or at least interested into women, while those who fancy men have to ‘settle’ for all types of bodies and faces.
Once again supporting the idea that sport is played and watched by men, while women get to hang around for show.

By: TR

TR — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 03:17:46 +0000

Wait, Serena is beautiful. I understand what is being said, but Serena is attratcive…maybe not the growl, but she’s considered attractive…her booty, her face, her body….so I’m confused…..maybe the attractiveness is codeword for thin, white, and young….which ISNT the same thing.

By: NancyP

NancyP — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 02:51:51 +0000

I notice that the most comprehensive telecasts pay pretty strict attention to rank – you only see unseeded players if they are scheduled to play stars. At least that’s what happens on the Tennis Channel (yes, there is a cable channel just for current and rerun World Cup and pro tennis). Who knows what happens at the just-a-glance channels? I would imagine that all courts have feeds 100% of the playing time, just in case some newbie has spectacular play.