Serena Williams & the Silencing of Women

[Reader Rabbit]

The recent incident between Serena Williams and the umpire at the U.S. Open drew a great deal of commentary. While many were supportive of Serena, there seemed to be just as many that condemned her behavior. The condemnations all seemed deploy silencing tactics sadly familiar with women who speak out against misogyny or sexism.

Even here at supposedly-progressive DU, many of these silencing tactics have been employed against Serena. For those unaware of silencing tactics, Geek Feminism maintains an impressive wiki on the phenomenon.

"Silencing refers to techniques used to shut women up when they complain about sexism or other problems. It encompasses harassment or intimidation that discourages women from speaking out, shaming and humiliation targeted at women who do speak up, and techniques used to dismiss or deny the legitimacy of women's speech."

In reading the various threads about the incident, I specifically noticed the following silencing tactics:

First and foremost, many denied that sexism played any role in the incident—as if women cannot be trusted to recognize discrimination when it confronts them.

" The Male Experience Trump Card is often used as a method to silence women. The focus of this tactic is that because a guy hasn't experienced what has been brought forward it simply doesn't exist or doesn't exist in the way that the oppressed person described it...

The Male Experience Trump Card relies on the fact that in a kyriarchical society, the experience of the (white, straight, cisgender, …) male is taken to be normative and seen as the objective measure of all things."

As a black woman, Serena has no doubt experienced too many racist and sexist incidents to count in her long and dominant career. If she calls an incident out, she knows what she’s talking about, and it’s probably just the tip of a very large and offensive iceberg.

Others made much of Serena’s violation of “the rules.”

“A person in a position of authority can deflect criticism by merely stating, "Those are the rules." This can be used as a silencing tactic to defend unjust or discriminating rules. It may also be an appeal to tradition, one of many logical fallacies.

Standing firm on an unjust rule places the Second shift burden on the marginalized party to either fight the rule, and use up time and resources, or remain marginalized. As rule-followers are generally seen as being good in society, rule-challengers risk being labeled trouble-makers or anarchists, particularly if they are othered.”

Selectively-enforced rules have long been a tool to keep marginalized populations “in their place.”

Still others disparaged Serena’s behavior, likening her to a toddler having a tantrum.

"The tone argument also manifests itself where arguments produced in an angry tone are dismissed irrespective of the legitimacy of the argument; this is also known as tone policing.

The tone argument is a form of derailment, or a red herring, because the tone of a statement is independent of the content of the statement in question, and calling attention to it distracts from the issues raised. Drawing attention to the tone rather than content of a statement can allow other parties to avoid engaging with sound arguments presented in that statement, thus undermining the original party's attempt to communicate and effectively shutting them down."

Perhaps these individuals similarly condemn baseball managers who have it out with umpires, football players who throw their helmets or cheap-shot opponents, or soccer players who have hissy fits over what they view as a bad call, but in this incident, their name calling is directed at a black woman who is calling out—in real time—discriminatory behavior: a very common silencing tactic.

And finally, one or two people attempted to claim victimhood on behalf of the umpire by stating that Serena was the bully or the abusive person.

"You're the bully is a silencing tactic sometimes used against people making complaints. Like You're the sexist, it attempts to turn around accusations of bad behaviour on the person who was originally the victim of it or is calling it out...

However, bullying is about power, and is generally understood to be something that occurs when people with more power exert it over those with less. The stereotypical schoolyard bully is a large, physically strong kid who picks on smaller, weaker ones. Bullying can also occur on other axes of power and oppression. For instance, people who are members of marginalised groups (LGBT people, people with disabilities, people of racial minorities) are often bullied by those not in those groups, and those who have large and vocal power structures behind them(IE popular internet figures or those entrenched in zealous religious or political groups)."

Bullying is the province of those with power, not their victims. In any sporting event, the person who does the officiating has the power, not the athlete. (This one was really mind-boggling, given the frequency of DU threads mocking the victimhood mentality so prevalent in straight, white, CIS, male conservative circles.)



Just a little context from a female athlete who has been around for five decades.

[hexola]

1. Didn't seem like much silencing her? She seemed to speak her mind.

Sounds like they need to adhere to the rules more on the men's side...problem solved.

You analysis is a little overblown...

[Pachamama]

4. +1000

I am a woman and was an athlete in college and worked for many years in the tennis industry for IMG working with professional mens and womens tennis and events. I know the players, the officials, the coaches, the sponsors etc...Yes there is sexism and inequality. Saturday and what transpired between Serena and chair umpire was not the example of that.

I completely disagree with the analysis and the supporters of Serena calling this a case of sexism.

I agree with what you said above. Adhere to the rules and work on changing rules to be equal. Throwing tantrums on the court (male or female players) is not the way to do it.

The whole situation is being overblown and this was definitely not the moment or example needed to "change the rules" in the fight for equality. I was embarrassed by what Serena did and think this will not do anything to "help women in sports or equality". I definitely don't consider her behavior a role model of anyone, male or female.

[stopbush]

13. Back when I was playing competitive tennis, you were taught to mix things up

if a match wasn’t going your way. Slow things down or speed things up. Keep your passing shots close to your opponent to see if you can back them off the net, etc.

Since the dawn of McEnroe, it has become acceptable to mix things up by arguing with the umpire. You bring the game to a halt, put the spotlight on yourself, try to get the crowd on your side and against the ump (and by extension, your opponent), all the while your opponent stands there as a non participant, having their edge drained out of them. When the contest finally resumes, you are full of piss and vinegar, while your opponent stands there shellshocked, with any momentum they had built up ground into the dirt.

That’s pretty much what I saw from Serena on Saturday. The ump was having none of it. He followed the rules of the tournament and assessed penalties, penalties that Serena was well aware of. Let’s remember that this all started with a warning that was issued against Serena for her coach illegally coaching from the stands during the match, a violation he readily admitted to moments after the match ended.

Should the ump have ignored the violations to be “fair” to Serena? How would that have been fair to Osaka?

[MissMillie]

2. I'd be ok w/ the umpires treating the men as they did Serena

I have no use for bad behavior and I don't care where it comes from.

[hexola]

3. That's the rub...seems like she wants equal corruption for women...

Am I missing something?

[Loki Liesmith]

5. lol at "silencing"

[disenfranchised]

6. She is not only dealing with sexism, it is also racism

How many times do we see a black athlete get called a thug on the football field when the white athlete gets called a fierce competitor for similar behavior?

The infuriating thing to me is that people call Serena's behavior embarrassing. The players in tennis that should be embarrassing are players like Maria Sharapova who cheat with performance enhancing drugs. But Maria Sharapova looks like a blonde Fox news host that wears cute, feminine dresses so she gets called things like courageous while Serena gets turned into a villain.

We've all seen Federer lose it on refs. Roger rarely gets penalized. He never gets compared to a toddler. Instead he is considered a gentleman and makes deals to represent sophisticated brands like Rolex and Mercedes.

Serena blew up in the heart of competition. It happens all the time. If she were a white man, she be called a fierce competitor. She is a black woman so she is called a toddler.

[Reader Rabbit]

8. Absolutely.

Powerful black women scare the hell out of the status quo, so they feel the need to bring them down whenever possible.

[stopbush]

11. Serena's endorsements earn her more than double her

on-court earnings. Over $20-million a year.

Your “point” about Roger getting endorsements - as if Serena doesn’t - is born of ignorance.

[disenfranchised]

15. The money was not my point.

Roger is packaged as a preppy, gentleman who wears expensive watches and drives luxury cars. She is not portrayed in the same manner. If that is how she is portrayed in advertising, then yes I am ignorant because I don't see it.

[Awsi Dooger]

7. I can't believe anyone is defending her

It reminds me of the right wing pundits who desperately apologize for anything Trump, regardless of his lies or boorishness or ugly behavior.

Serena displayed all of the above and nobody who has followed her career or personality was surprised. That's the way she acts in situations like that, especially while losing a US Open final as heavy favorite. Somehow that situational aspect was set aside and the themes out of her mouth prioritized around here, which is laughable. The themes meant nothing.

Maybe when Serena mouthed "bitch" to Justine Henin in a match about a decade ago, she should have summoned sexism as the push. The believers would not have numbered zero.

Major kudos to the Australian press. They seem to be the only ones who have gotten it right, in one column after another. That country knows tennis, knows the players involved, and knows tennis etiquette.

[Reader Rabbit]

9. You mean the Australian press who printed the racist cartoon?

That identified her opponent as blond and white, rather than Haitian-Japanese?

That Australian press?

[LanternWaste]

10. As much I'm not surprised anyone is so invested in calling sexism...

...anything other than what it is, invested in holding the aberrant example as the standard, and congratulating the very press which ran a racist cartoon against her, though no doubt, you'll justify that as something other than what it is as well.

"Laughable" indeed... were it not itself, so damned prevalent in the here and now.

[stopbush]

16. Serena has an endorsement deal with luxury watchmaker Audemar Pigeut,

as well as JP Morgan, Nike, Intel and Lincoln.

Your point?

[Tipperary]

17. Serena is known for poor behavior. Lucky for her, she usually wins, or we would see more of it.

It is a real shame because she is a beautiful player.

[cwydro]

12. Serena is many things, but powerless she is not.

I’ve seen her behave badly many times, and it’s always when she’s losing.

I’m a fan, but she only makes herself look bad when she loses it like that.

[Awsi Dooger]

14. Here is a good example of Serena Williams' mean spirited personality

The tennis forums are great because so many posters there remember specific incidents and quotes that are otherwise lost. Today a poster reminded of Serena's low class tweet when Justine Henin tried to explain her side of a controversial incident between the two players nearly a decade earlier. It is referred to as the "Hand Incident" and whether Serena deserved another serve instead of losing a key point in the match.

This article describes everything very well. But Serena's low class tweet rightfully earns a spot at the top. I'll allow the writer's words to suffice. But this is the reason many of us who follow tennis closely are astonished at the determination to excuse or even back Serena's version, when so owns so many prior examples of ugly words and conduct, on and off the court.

https://gregcouch.com/2011/02/25/serena-henin-still-searching-for-closure-on-hand-incident/

"Eight years later, and Serena Williams and Justine Henin are still looking for closure.

“Question,’’ Williams wrote on her Twitter account. “I keep hearing about an admittance to someone cheating me & lying about it after at the French open? Did she confess finally?’’

Well that “someone’’ Williams could not bring herself to name was Henin. And if Williams were truly interested in finding out if Henin had fessed up to what happened at the 2003 French Open, the infamous Hand Incident, then Williams could have just googled it. Instead, she wrote it in a question with very pointed words to her two million Twitter followers, including media members who would make those words even more public."