Serena, Sexism, and Sports

The fight for women’s rights has been an ongoing battle for hundreds of years. Women have always been seen as the inferior, weaker and more emotional gender. This is why many women in sports get backlash for doing the equivalent men do. In the finals of the US Open Tennis Championships, Serena Williams received two penalties. One was for hand signals from her coach. The other was a point penalty for calling the umpire a thief because she was upset that the umpire took a point away for yelling, when men do that all the time without penalty. What is baffling is that male tennis players have called umpires much worse. They will swear and yell at the umpire and not get a single penalty. This is a prime example of sexism in today's supposedly forward world, and it is far from the only form of sexism in sports.Often, when women show any kind of emotion, as Williams did, they get called irrational or hysterical. If a man shows an ounce of emotion, they are applauded, while women are degraded. It was this prejudice surrounding the issue that angered Williams above all.“I'm here fighting for women's rights and for women's equality and for all kinds of stuff. For me to say 'thief' and for him to take a game, it made me feel like it was a sexist remark. He's never taken a game from a man because they said 'thief.' For me, it blows my mind. But I'm going to continue to fight for women,” Williams said. Williams’ outburst has gotten many different reactions from women. Tennis legend and gender equality advocate Billie Jean King shared her views on the issue. “When a woman is emotional, she's ‘hysterical’ and she's penalized for it. When a man does the same, he's ‘outspoken’ & and there are no repercussions. Thank you, Serena Williams, for calling out this double standard. More voices are needed to do the same," King said.  Double standards aren’t just seen in the big leagues. They are also seen on our own Samo girls sports teams. An example of this is the cross country team rules. The boys are allowed to take their shirts off to run so they don’t get too hot before they leave campus. However, the girls must wait to leave school premises to run without their shirt, putting them at an inconvenience of having to tuck their shirt into their bra. This may not seem like a problem to most but it will slow them down and itch at their back when they run upwards of seven miles a day. From a young age, especially in school, we are told because of the way boys are built they are able to do more athletic things, such as push-ups and sit-ups. Many never complain about the issue because they don't want to do more than they have to. If we continue to put these thoughts into our children's minds that boys are stronger than girls, how will we ever overcome sexism, not just in sports, but in life?