(Standing defiantly on the tennis court.)
The NBA, and the WNBA. The World Cup and the Women’s World Cup. Almost every sport out there has some kind of divide between the male and female leagues. Apart from restrooms, locker rooms are often considered one of the most gendered public places a person can encounter, so it is no shock to anyone that there is a copious amount of debate in the field of sports with regards to the genders of its players, especially in one of its most prestigious sports standing alongside golf and polo; tennis.
Being among what some can refer to as a “country club sport,” there are a lot of gender norms placed in order to uphold certain “standards.” At the same time, there are a lot of connections between the clothes people wear and the gender they identify with. Naturally, there is a lot of overlap and a few places where athletes have used fashion to make statements, or as some often refer to them “fashion statements.”
The Basics of Activism
The first thing to address is athlete activism. The LGBTQA+ community was and still is under constant attack in the United States and in other parts of the world. Why? Because despite the evidence in nature with things such as many penguins engaging in homosexual relationships and the way some plants have more than two genders (especially fungi), there are select groups of people who deem it “immoral” and “unnatural” to be anything that is not a cisgender heterosexual. Unfortunately, those select groups happen to be the ones in charge. The way that these groups run things naturally align with their beliefs, depriving the LGBTQA+ community of basic rights such as marriage certificates, bathrooms, and sport participation.
As shown to be the case in American history in the American Revolution’s Boston Tea Party, the multitude of protests during the Civil Rights Movement, and those during the Vietnam War—the most effective ways to make a difference in major issues, especially the oppression of people, nonviolent protests speak the loudest. As such there are many avenues to advocate for the righteous treatment of people outside the cis-het “norm” including; donating to organizations such as the Trevor Project, which is one of the most well known advocacy groups for its support at both parades and in more personally dire situations. In fact, this very article is being written during June, the whole month dedicated to many rallies for the LGBTQA+ called Pride Month.
The sad truth is that while these parades do certainly help in spreading awareness, on their own they simply aren’t enough. The fight for basic human rights is just a constant struggle of 10 steps forward and 7 to 11 steps back. As such, we finally are brought to the notable athletes who have advocated for these rights. There are so many different ways that athletes defy gender norms and advocate for the rights of the LGBTQA+ community. The structures of gender standards have thankfully been corroding as more and more time has passed, but that corrosion would never have happened without any sort of instigation at the hands of advocates big and small. Within the ranks of tennis, there are hopes for the LGBTQA+ community in the form of athletes who are not afraid of speaking out not only with words, but with the fashion that they wear. There are many examples of this including tennis professionals Serena Williams, Naomi Osaka, and Matteo Berrettini.
Serena Williams
Serena Williams’ tutu. Photo from the New York Times.
Serena Williams has a very strong reputation. Whenever someone asks you to name a tennis player, chances are that you immediately think about her. She has truly made a name for herself with her skill on the court. Back during the 2018 US Open, Serena competed in an off-white tutu and won. Not only is this yet another example of her exceptional skills in the battlefield of tennis, but it also shows a sort of audacious statement through her choice in clothing.
Tutus are almost always associated with femininity, a staple of ballet dancing which is typically viewed as a feminine art (despite the fact that there are a number of male ballet dancers who are no less masculine than other male athletes/performers). By wearing an outfit that is so closely associated with ballet, it could be considered a sort of braggadocious statement, saying that Serena moves with the calculated grace of a ballerina when out on the tennis court. That, and wearing something that is typically seen as feminine and supposedly “delicate” whilst taking part in a physically demanding sport and asserting dominance, Serena Williams is effectively subverting gender norms. She reveals the inherent foolishness of trying to associate specific traits with specific genders.
Naomi Osaka
Naomi Osaka is another tennis player who has only been getting more and more popular as she succeeds. When she competes, Naomi often wears a green dress with a large white ribbon on the back. This social media post describes her outfit as similar to Tinkerbell, the green clad fairy that originated from Disney’s Peter Pan and is more often than not used as a feminine mascot for certain promotions whether it be the parks, accessories, or DVD menus. The comparison is rather apt because while Tinkerbell does not wear the white ribbon the shade of green is similar.
Going back to what was said about the tutu Serena Williams wore in 2018, this outfit uses the imagery often associated with it and creates a sort of juxtaposition, a heavy difference between the capitalist feminine figure of Tinkerbell and Naomi’s abilities on the court. This time, the protest against gender norms also holds a taste of commentary of the capitalist monolith that is the Walt Disney Corporation. In fact, this interpretive rabbit hole can go even deeper when analyzing how Disney addresses gender norms, but that is a topic for another discussion entirely. For now, there is a lot that can be said about the way that female tennis players like Naomi Osaka can defy gender norms, but what about male players who strive to do the same?
Matteo Berrettini
Matteo modeling for BOSS. Image provided by Hugo Boss.
The Italian tennis star Matteo Berrettini had a collaboration with Hugo Boss wherein he poses and competes in the BOSS open wearing fashion designed by Hugo Boss, direct sponsor of the event. On the surface, this may not be breaking gender norms in any way, just some straightforward tennis attire and an alternative outfit with a jacket. The thing is, upon closer analysis there is a lot to discuss, all kinds of little details hidden until you turn on the media literacy part of your brain and look deeper into the way that this ensemble is put together.
Firstly, the color he is wearing. While the outfit does not consist of any sort of flowing skirts, the white coloring can be considered evocative of a wedding dress, emphasized by the posing in the photoshoot. Not only that, but the outfit also includes a jacket that can be loosely interpreted as a flowing garment. Once again, we see a dichotomy between feminine standards and stereotypes and the tennis’ physically demanding dance. However, here there is a more overt defiance against gender standards and it could more easily be argued as advocacy for the LGBTQA+ community, (especially the trans community) since again, this is a male tennis player in this unique ensemble.
What Athletes in Dresses Means in the End
Like any art medium, fashion is a place to speak out and express oneself. In these three instances, we see statements of defiance against the binaries set in place by the close minded yet powerful. The clear next step in this big discussion is wondering what all of these decisions mean. The simple explanation is to say that these tennis players were simply confronting gender norms, but it would make sense to lead this wardrobe protest further and into LGBTQA+ advocacy. With communities within the LGBTQA+ including those who are transgender, intersex, gay, lesbian, and so on stand against gender norms, for those norms do not believe these people should be considered people.
There is really one main takeaway from all of this. Even within a prestigious field like the world of tennis, there will always be at least one or more people willing to be the voice that pierces the silence, the light that stands tall and sees past the dark. The world can often be a rather dark and twisted place, opportunities that really should be natural human rights yanked away like a sandwich being stolen by a dog from an unsuspecting tourist. Even if all hope seems lost and nobody seems to be advocating for you or your needs, someone else may. Even if someone does not jump at the opportunity, that does not mean that you yourself are not capable of being the one to speak out. Quite the opposite. Sometimes being the first to speak out about the injustices of the world are the ones who get the ball rolling.
