Consider this the latest round in the Battle of the Sexes:
The head of a major tennis tournament gave his sport a bad name this weekend after saying that female players should ‘thank God’ for their male counterparts.
‘They ride on the coattails of the men,’ said Raymond Moore, a former player and the CEO of Sunday’s BNP Paribas Open…
‘If I was a lady player, I’d go down every night on my knees and thank god that Roger Federer and Rafa Nadal were born, because they have carried this sport.’
(Huffington Post, March 21, 2016)
Unsurprisingly, Moore’s comments incited visceral, viral outrage. Serena Williams, the No. 1 female (er, “lady”?) player, led the chorus of those decrying them, duly evincing her disgust at his double entendre:
There’s only one way to interpret that. ‘Get on your knees,’ which is offensive enough, and thank a man. That is such a disservice to … every female, not only a female athlete, but every woman on this planet that has ever tried to stand up in what they believe in.
(MSNBC, March 21, 2016)
Billie Jean King, the female pioneer in the Battle of the Sexes Moore reignited, spoke volumes by merely tweeting that his comments are “wrong on so many levels.”
Unsurprisingly, the backlash forced him to apologize. He admitted that his comments were not only in “extremely poor taste, but also “erroneous.” Yet demands for him to resign abounded. Some even called on Moore to “self-deport” back to South Africa, where, presumably, overt sexism has replaced overt racism. It was clearly only a matter of time before he resigned, which he did yesterday.
But, unlike those reacting to his sexist comments, I preempted them years ago. However, my feminist awareness is such that, while hailing the women, I cautioned that their unequal play for equal pay unwittingly raised the specter of unfairness to the men. Here, in this regard, is an excerpt from “Hail to 4-Time Wimbledon Champ Venus Williams,” July 9, 2007.
___________________
I’ve been unabashed in expressing my preference for women’s Tennis. Because, frankly, the women’s game is not only almost as powerful as the men’s (with Venus hitting 125 mph serves); their fierce baseline strokes, during relatively long rallies, are also far more exciting to watch…
Wimbledon has finally decided to follow the politically correct fashion of other Grand Slams. It too will award women players equal pay for unequal work. But surely any proud (and principled) feminist must take exception. After all, to get equal prize money, women should play the best of five sets like men do, or men should play the best of three sets like women do.
Tennis should follow the politically correct fashion of athletics and triathlons. For example, to earn equal prize money, women must run the same 26.2-mile marathon and complete the same chauvinistically named Iron Man, respectively.
Yet I am also sympathetic to the argument that, because women generate far more fan and commercial interest in the sport…, they should be paid the same amount, if not more, in prize money – despite playing less. This is how I choose to resolve this apparent unfairness.
How about you?
___________________
Since then, however, I’ve heard many professional commentators bemoan having to watch too many boring five-set matches. Therefore, instead of having the women play the best of five sets too, having the men play the best of three might be the better way to resolve unequal play for equal pay.
Which brings me to the ill-advised way men’s No. 1 player Novak Djokovic chimed in. For, instead of raising the issue of unequal play for equal pay, he turned Moore’s sexist comments into a double fault as follows:
I think that our men’s Tennis world, ATP world, should fight for more, because the stats are showing that we have much more spectators on the men’s Tennis matches.
I think that’s one of the reasons why maybe we should get awarded more.
(Los Angeles Times, March 21, 2016)
In fact, stats show that women players are attracting more spectators:
While there are still many more men leading corporate boardrooms around the world, when it comes to Tennis women are taking center stage. For the last two U.S. Opens, the women’s final scored higher TV ratings than the men’s final. Now there’s new data by a Nielsen-like ratings company, SMG Insight, that show the global TV and digital audience for women’s tennis rose 22.5% last year compared to 2013.
(CNBC, February 26, 2015)
The ace in this regard is that Serena is to Tennis what Tiger is to Golf.
Game, Set, and Match: Women!
Related commentaries:
Hail Venus…
Legacy Note: With over 5,600 posts spanning 20 years, I am easily the most prolific blogger on the most eclectic array of topics on the web. That makes The iPINIONS Journal an unparalleled archive of informed political and cultural commentary. Visit the ARCHIVES section in the sidebar or search by topic. You won’t find a more consistent, independent voice on world affairs.