In chapter 12 Radar discusses how the sport of tennis goes public. Tennis started off with the English upper classes and rich Americans that played the sport on their prestige estates or in exclusive clubs. Tennis really started to become a public sport when two tennis players hit the scence, Big Bill Tilden and Suzanna Lenglen. Although tennis started becoming more of a public sport I feel that the game of tennis is still a sport that is very classy. If you go to a tennis match such as Wimbeldon, or the U.S Open, everyone is casual attire, and respect the game by being quite during the match until a player scores.
Looking at tennis a few years back there was a female player by the name of Anna Kournikova. Kournikova a very attractive Russian tennis player was in my opinion gave a negative impact on the classiness of the sport of tennis. She was in news tabloids, posed half-nude in magazines along with having dramaic problems with other sport celebreties. I strongly feel that tennis should be kept the way it is without her. Tennis is a very classy sport and by having her doing all of these controvesial acts gives tennis a bad look. I mean yes there are no rules that say she can't show off her body, or have a good time but I feel that it is an ethical issue that she should just play the game, and let the game stay classy. I previously talked about this in another blog about Danica Patrick. I may sound contradicting because there are woman that like to show off their body but in the sport of tennis I think that it just shouldn't fly.
It is interesting to me that you mention the different standards for tennis and auto racing. I was going to say that I thought perhaps you were contradicting yourself, so I am glad that you acknowledged that you did. In the Sport & Gender class, we often discuss a comment that was made by a sport marketer who said that when women like Anna Kournikova pose (in Playboy, or calendars, or whatever), you can call it "sexism," or "good business." I have always been of the mind that it was more sexism than good business. But I must admit that when Kournikova was playing competitive tennis, she certainly raised the interest level in the game.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you that tennis is a sport that needs to be kept classy, but it seems tennis players that model seem to bring alot of extra attention to the game from fans that normally wouldn't pay attention to the sport. Female tennis players such as the Williams Sisters and Maria Sharapova are in multiple ads that show off their bodies, and have gained many admirers and fans that have tuned in to watch their matches. I do agree, that their is a certain point that shouldn't be crossed as long as its done in taste and the athlete is still succesful at the game of tennis, the more fans the better.
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