{"id":3298,"date":"2016-04-02T18:53:21","date_gmt":"2016-04-02T13:23:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/13.201.39.237\/?p=3298"},"modified":"2016-04-02T18:53:21","modified_gmt":"2016-04-02T13:23:21","slug":"serena-williams-outburst-us-open","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/13.207.105.184\/?p=3298","title":{"rendered":"Why Men and Women View the Serena Williams Outburst Differently"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

F<\/span><\/p><\/div>

or years to come, the 2018 <\/span>US Open<\/span><\/a> will be remembered for being one of those rare events when the women\u2019s final was more talked about than the men\u2019s. The sad bit is that this interest comes on the back of a sombre moment: The outright vilification of Serena Williams and a champion moment cruelly stolen from <\/span>Japan\u2019s<\/span><\/a> Naomi Osaka.<\/span>\n\nThe 20-year-old Osaka dominated the final against 37-year-old Serena Williams \u2013 23-time Grand Slam winner and dubbed the greatest player of all time \u2013 from the get-go. In her first ever Grand Slam final, Osaka held her own against her idol and outplayed Williams at every point imaginable to ultimately lift the <\/span>trophy<\/span><\/a>. It\u2019s a fact that Osaka would have won either way \u2013 she was the better player of the day. <\/span>\n\nIt was an extraordinary victory for Osaka: It merited unfettered praise, limelight, coverage. All Osaka got though, was an apologetic post-match ceremony replete with guilt, tears, and booing. The <\/span>winner<\/span><\/a> of the US Open became merely incidental to the proceedings.<\/span>\n\nBut does acknowledging that Osaka was wronged cancel out the crucial fact \u2013 that Serena Williams was wronged as well? That Williams, like Osaka, became a victim of the US Open and the double standards that men and women face when it comes to decorum on court? This is precisely where so many of us differ, choosing to not dwell on the duality of the scenario that unfolded at the final. Instead, we hurriedly place the blame squarely on the shoulders of the \u201cspoilt diva\u201d, Serena Williams.<\/span>\n\n

The larger chunk of the support for Williams has come from women across the world who have responded to her claim of double standards \u2013 possibly because stuff like this happens to us every day.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\nThere\u2019s no doubt that Williams let a seemingly minor infraction snowball into one of the nastiest meltdowns in a Grand Slam final. She is at fault \u2013 just the way chair umpire <\/span>Carlos Ramos<\/span><\/a> is. She could\u2019ve taken a step back and not be consumed by her supposed betrayal. Just like he could\u2019ve defused the tension instead of awarding her a game penalty for verbal abuse. Williams was both accurate and incorrect when she claimed that she was treated unfairly and that male players get away with much lesser consequences. <\/span>\n\nIn reality, Ramos was following the rules when he cited a code violation for illegal coaching \u2013 her <\/span>coach<\/span><\/a> did admit to it. Irrespective of whether Williams saw his signals or not, it\u2019s fair that she be penalised for her <\/span>coach\u2019s<\/span><\/a> actions (it\u2019s another thing that the rules of the US Open are to be actually blamed for it). Likewise, smashing of racquets has always constituted a code violation and Williams shouldn\u2019t be treated any differently. But have male players always paid such a heavy price for expressing their frustration during a heated final?<\/span>\n\nWhile male players too have been penalised in the past, many have gotten away with similar displays of frustration. ESPN\u2019s Mike Greenberg <\/span>stated<\/span><\/a> that he has heard \u201cJimmy Connors, John McEnroe, and plenty of lesser known players say far worse than \u2018thief\u2019 on the court with lesser consequences.\u201d More importantly, none of these \u201cverbal abuses\u201d have cost any male player a game. <\/span>\n\nWhat\u2019s been even more interesting is how this forms the central conflict of how men and women have reacted to Williams\u2019 outburst. Several men viewed it rather straightforwardly, siding with fairness in sport. According to them, Williams\u2019 ego overpowered her respect for a sport which is why her accusation of sexism didn\u2019t hold ground. Save for <\/span>Andy Roddick<\/span><\/a> who admitted that he had said worse and never gotten a game penalty, no male player has refuted the mainstream narrative that Serena Williams stole Osaka\u2019s moment in the spotlight.<\/span>\n\nThe larger chunk of the support for Williams has come from women across the world who have responded to her claim of double standards \u2013 possibly because stuff like this happens to us every day. It\u2019s impossible to ignore that she is right in claiming that the game is not always sympathetic to women, even less to <\/span>outspoken women<\/span><\/a> like her. <\/span>\n\nBillie Jean King, after whom a stadium in the Flushing Meadows is named, registered her support, saying, \u201c<\/span>When a woman is emotional, she\u2019s \u2018hysterical\u2019 and she\u2019s penalised for it. When a man does the same, he\u2019s \u2018outspoken\u2019 and there are no repercussions. Thank you for calling out this double standard. More voices are needed to do the same.\u201d Katrina Adams, the President of the United States Tennis Association, that runs the US Open final has <\/span>also agreed<\/span><\/a>, as has former Grand Slam champion, Victoria Azarenka. <\/span>\n\nIt\u2019s because, as women we are aware that talking back sharply to a chair umpire \u2013 or any man in a position of even slight <\/span>power<\/span><\/a> \u2013 will always have consequences, even when there need not be any. <\/span>\n\nAnd that\u2019s the reason why so many of us can\u2019t brook this vilification of Williams. Because in this case, it\u2019s the rules that are being used to discriminate. <\/span>Sports writer Jonathan Liew writes<\/span><\/a>, \u201c<\/span>Rules derive, essentially, from a system, an implicit covenant that all shall be treated equally, and all shall have the same opportunities. But what happens when the covenant is broken? What happens when the system doesn\u2019t work for you? Perhaps then, your norms diverge from mine. Perhaps neither of us has the monopoly on morality. Many find the instinctive veneration of Serena in certain quarters a little cloying, perhaps even disturbing. But the point isn\u2019t that Serena is always right, or that she makes up her own virtue as she goes along. The point is that when you have been wronged a thousand times over, it\u2019s hard to credit the notion that \u2018right\u2019 exists at all.\u201d<\/span>\n\nIt\u2019s true that on Saturday, Serena Williams was unsportsmanlike. But it\u2019s equally true that even if she handled it better, she would still be wronged. Even in defeat. <\/span>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Men and women have reacted to Serena Williams\u2019 outburst at the US Open final differently. Several men viewed it rather straightforwardly, siding with fairness in sport. The larger chunk of the support for Williams has come from women across the world \u2013 possibly because stuff like this happens to us every day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103,"featured_media":3299,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[394],"tags":[6326,353,5887,6332,6425],"class_list":["post-3298","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","tag-serena-williams","tag-sports","tag-tennis","tag-us-open","tag-venus-williams"],"yoast_head":"\nWhy Men and Women View the Serena Williams Outburst Differently<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Men and women have reacted to Serena Williams\u2019 outburst at the US Open final differently. 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