Shot in the Dark

Inexorable

When John McEnroe recoils at Venus Williams’ behavior, you know someone really uncorked it.

Men don’t have the right to break rules without repercussion. John McEnroe was getting penalized for his nasty behavior in 1981. Jeff Tarango was banned from Wimbledon for abusing an umpire in 1995. Now Williams lost a match because of her penalizations for her abusive behavior. She’s joining a club filled with men who have suffered as she did for similar behavior.

The “rights” Williams is fighting for seem to be the ability to be free from the same rules men have to follow in order to be equal with them. That’s not equality, that’s asking for special treatment.

Yet we’re being lead to believe that Williams is bravely standing up against an unfair system of men that punishes women unjustly. While there are a few ridiculous calls out there made against women in the past (Alizé Cornet’s code violation for fixing her shirt while men are known to go topless on the court being a glaring one) what Williams did was childish, abusive, and just plain mean. Not only did it paint an innocent man doing his job as a villain, her attitude stole a moment of pure glory away from another woman who even looked up to her.

And it’s not as if Williams hasn’t been down this road before. In 2009, Williams lost a match after having a point deducted after she abused an umpire, and that umpire was a female. This entire debacle isn’t a story of Williams facing sexism, it’s a story of Williams lack of control over her temper.

And, from what I’ve seen, about a lot of middle-aged women who are upset thatthe “powerful middle-aged woman on her inexorable comeback” narrative has been sidelined.

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Mitch Berg

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16 responses to “Inexorable”

  1. jdm Avatar
    jdm

    I think you mean Serena. I read someplace yesterday that Venus is actually a class act; this is all Serena and it’s the second time.

  2. Emery Avatar
    Emery

    I agree: This is entirely on her. She behaved as a spoiled Diva, not for the first time, incredibly self-centered, petulant and with the emotional control of a teenager. And then when she starts complaining that she deserves better treatment because she is a mother, a woman and African American? Please. She discredits feminism and women everywhere when she blames her poor behavior on sexism. Serena Williams has been the leading figure in women’s tennis for ten years. The sport needs a leader; instead they have a whiny, self-entitled sore loser. Women’s tennis should be celebrating the arrival of Osaka. Instead, it’s debating rule changes to placate a Diva in decline.

  3. Night Writer Avatar
    Night Writer

    And, from what I’ve seen, about a lot of middle-aged women who are upset that the “powerful middle-aged woman on her inexorable comeback” narrative has been sidelined.

    Serena needed a super-delegate in the chair.

  4. nerdbert Avatar
    nerdbert

    Come now, you don’t support the latest SJW ruling that multi-millionaire hotheads are to be given special dispensation from the rules governing everybody else?! Sacrilege! Prepare to hounded by our special Twitter mob of radical feminists!!!!

    (I have to say that I was at a tennis club with my daughter at the time and we got stuck watching Serena’s tirade in real time on the TV in the background while they were restringing her racket. I was appalled at the whiny tone and entitled attitude. I kept thinking that I hadn’t seen that juvenile behavior even on a high school team, and I’ve seen quite of few of those. My only comment to my daughter was, “She’s a piece of work.” My daughter’s reply was only to say “Bad sport” and to ask about how much longer it would be until the racket was done.)

  5. nerdbert Avatar
    nerdbert

    I mean, who isn’t instantly persuaded they’re wrong by repeated whines of “It’s not fair!” and “You stole that!”? It’s such a cogent argument that every non-parent will instantly succumb to it! *gawds* That whole behavior still sticks in my craw. I wouldn’t tolerate that in my gradeschooler, much less in a grown competitor. She couldn’t even articulate *why* she thought it unfair at the time.

    Serena is a remarkable female physical specimen. Her serves absolutely dominated the women’s match by a good 10-20 mph (although her first serve still didn’t come up to the standards of the men’s second), but she wasn’t moving well after the serve in that match and really didn’t deserve to win it. But how she argued with the judge confirmed that she probably needed her coach to figure out how to adjust her play rather than being able to figure out things on her own.

  6. Prince of Darkness_666 Avatar
    Prince of Darkness_666

    “everyone else equal but some are more equal than others.” Seriously this whole thing is playing out almost exactly like Animal Farm to the point its almost disturbing. Orwell was a freaking prophet

  7. Prince of Darkness_666 Avatar
    Prince of Darkness_666

    is equal* jesus I cant even type the quote right

  8. Swiftee Pinochet Avatar
    Swiftee Pinochet

    Banning any check on feral behavior is the hot ticket on the left in the current year.
    A Negro woman was arrested on the Minneapolis choo-choo. Solution? Disband the Met Council’s private cop shop.

    Border jumpers getting snatched up? Disband ICE.

    I fully expect the next move (from Al Sharpton or his ilk) will be that umpires be removed from the courts.

  9. Prince of Darkness_666 Avatar
    Prince of Darkness_666

    Swiftee not to be critical but in my personal view (and I am by NO means politically correct) saying Negro in 2018 is in my opinion in the same league as dropping the big N now. Just say black, man.

  10. nerdbert Avatar
    nerdbert

    PoD, I’m glad you keep up with these things. I remember when we went from “Negro” to “Colored People” as the preferred appellation, then to “black”, then to “African American”. But since we’re going from “African American” back to “people of color”, isn’t Swifty just ahead of this regressive terminology trend by going back to negro?

    Then again, I’m so far behind in my subscription to the Journal of Social Justice Warrior Victimology Hierarchy that it may be I’ve wandering into “cis white male micro-oppressor” territory by even suggesting such a thing.

  11. Prince of Darkness_666 Avatar
    Prince of Darkness_666

    All I know is that I only use language I would be comfterable saying to the people I described. Id never call a black person a Negro to their face because it seems so insulting I feel. And I am consistent. I had a friend back my freshman year of high school when dropped the big N when we were hanging out and I never hung out with him again. And I didnt have a ton of friends back then exactly either. I dont care what your race is. If you drop n*****/colored/negro I generally will have nothing to do with you because those words have such a awful history no one should use them. And I went to school with a bunch of Wiggers (white kids trying to act black) and it disgusted me. And does still to this day. Talk to Bill C, he has a kid thats now going to the high school I graduated from in 2005 (BSM)

  12. Prince of Darkness_666 Avatar
    Prince of Darkness_666

    I dont have a subscription either but like I said I just personally think the word is awful and never meant in a complementary way, I will always use black, its seems safe and its what I grew up saying, being a big basketball fan.

  13. bikebubba Avatar
    bikebubba

    I’m with POD, and if “people of color” laugh at me for declining to use terms they’re not actually offended by, I’m fine with that.

    That said, Swiftee is 100% correct that efforts to prevent minorities from being punished for breaking rules are not exactly going to work out well for them. Ignore the rules in little things, then all of a sudden somebody decides, rightly, that nothing will work if the rules don’t apply–and then you’re screwed.

  14. jdm Avatar
    jdm

    Oh, f’r’chrissakes… can’t say negro, but wigger is OK. And is a group by which to be disgusted. Apparently. This is all one big “meh”. Sad to see this here.

  15. Joe Doakes Avatar
    Joe Doakes

    When I was little, they were colored people (some still are, at the NAACP) but saying so is a hate crime. Now, they’re people of color.

    When someone’s life revolves around the order of the words used to describe them, that person is no longer impoverished, downtrodden, oppressed or disenfranchised.

    When a person’s life revolves around the order of the words used to describe someone else, who isn’t even offended by them, that person is either holier than the Pope nor brainwashed by incessant pummeling.

    I still have a couple of old Anthropology books. I’m going to look at the pictures of the Negroid and Mongoloid races, to distinguish them from the people who originated in the Caucasus Mountains.

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