"World's greatest female athlete": Serena and When Sex Sticks to the Body

"World's greatest female athlete": Serena and When Sex Sticks to the Body

Serena Williams, semifinal match at the French Open, 4 June 2015
(HuffingtonPost/AP Photo/Francois Mori)

Serena Williams. Even without saying more I'm sure you already have the picture of a tennis powerhouse in your head. Since the age of 3, Serena has trained to become a prominent tennis superstar, now a common household name.

In a letter written for Porter Magazine's Incredible Women of 2016, and republished by The Guardian, Serena wrote an open letter addressed "To all incredible women who strive for excellence."

She wrote the letter to encourage other women to fight for success, acknowledging that women often do not receive support or are discouraged from their path, specifically in sports. She says that one of the obstacles for women is the constant reminder that they are not men. Serena calls out people who identify her as one of the "world's greatest female athletes."  "Do they say LeBron is one of the world's best male athletes? Is Tiger? Federer? Why not? They are certainly not female. We should never let this go unchallenged. We should always be judged by our achievements, not by our gender."

As Serena pens her letter in 2016, it becomes reminiscent of Iris Marion Young's article "Throwing Like a Girl: A Phenomenology of Feminine Body Comportment Motility and Spatiality" from 1980. Marion Young writes "The female person who enacts the existence of women in patriarchal society must therefore live a contradiction: as human she is a free subject who participates in transcendence, but her situation as a woman denies her that subjectivity and transcendence" (141). It becomes, not the woman, but the situation that is denying the possibility of maintaining subjectivity. Sex and gender become interwoven within women's identities in ways that become irrelevant to men.

As Monique Wittig observes, "the category of sex sticks to women, for only they cannot be conceived outside of it," as written in Jennifer Doyle's "Dirt Off Her Shoulders" (1). Serena's letter is written in response to how her sex sticks to her athletic profile in patterns that she identifies with female athletes, but not with male athletes. She is frustrated that her athletic prowess is not enough to earn the recognition of athlete, extrapolated from her biological sex. Sports have historically be sex-segregated, placing women and men in separate divisions, even within the same sport. There's tennis, then there's women's tennis.

Serena Williams serves, 4 June 2015
(HuffingtonPost/AP Photo/Francois Mori)

But this feels too easy an explanation for the feelings behind her letter. I wonder if it is not a little more complex.

She tries to claim there's no difference between men and women, pushing back against the belief that athletes' achievements should be distinguished based on sex. At the same time it almost feels like another ascension for Serena, the first woman to hold what she calls the "The Serena Slam." As explained by Bustle, The Serena Slam comes from winning the four big tournaments of the Australian Open, the French Open, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open within one year. Collectively the four tournaments are known as the Grand Slam tournaments.

She may arguably be one of the best, if not the best woman tennis player. After winning so many titles and taking so many championships over the course of her career, is this the next move for her to claim an even larger title? Perhaps exhausting the titles available in female sports, boys sports becomes a new space to be better as a female athlete.

She would not be the first to seek acceptance as an outstanding woman athlete within the men's division. A recent example would be the story of Mo'ne Davis, a thirteen-year-old girl who joined the boy's league when she proved to be an extraordinary pitcher, commanding the field with power when she plays.

Serena Williams, 6 June 2015, Paris French Open
(HuffingtonPost/AP Photo/Francois Mori)

But even at that, the story continues to remain complicated. While Serena presents herself and her success, there is still the way in which other's frame her success.

"With their signature style and play, Venus and Serena changed the look of their sport as well. Their sheer power and athletic ability overwhelmed opponents, and their sense of style and presence made them standout celebrities on the court" acknowledge Bio.com. Brittanica says that Serena "revolutionized women’s tennis with her powerful style of play, becoming one of the game’s most dominant athletes in the early 21st century." 

Other articles cite her and her sister Venus for revolutionizing women's sports. EuroSport discusses how the Williams sister were responsible for the "power-infused sport" of tennis as it exists now. They claim that "The aggressive players [in women's tennis] continue to maintain the standards of aggression set by the Williams sisters and even a defensive player like Kerber has been forced to take more risks and become a more combative personality, as is the greatest in the world."

The reducing of Serena's (as well as her sister Venus') powers to aggression feel animalistic, a relic of the stereotype of natural power of black bodies. Race adds a new layer to the argument of Marion Young as it adds new complications to the issues of transcendence, adding complexity between gender and race. Feminine is denied transcendence, but in similar and complicated ways, race is also denied that transcendence, complicating both the work of Marion Young as well as the lived experience of Serena Williams.

While Serena's calls for more transparent equality in sports, specifically around the feats of women's athletics divisions, is commendable, I think there exists more in the tension of rising to the title of "world's greatest athlete" over "world's greatest female athlete." I wonder if there is more at work in the power relations between women's and men's sports, especially when the question of race is introduced to the question of sex. The work of Monique Wittig and Iris Marion Young help to illuminate and explain some of these tensions as well as leave us with even more questions to explore.