Comments

1. Gregory A. Butler wrote:

   That Australian sportscaster was a total perv!!! Is he even qualified to call a tennis match???

   To make matters worse, I’m quite sure if Venus Williams was a White athelete, he would not have been talking about her butt like that!!!

   But, around the world, Black women are seen as sex avitars, rather than people, so in his mind it was OK to totally perv out, rather than doing his actual job – talking about the game in progress!!!

   Posted 19 Jan 2008 at 11:22 pm ¶

2. deb wrote:

   There’s a video posted on youtube (of course) of Venus’s slow motion booty shoot.

   The comments on this page are even more priceless: “if she doesnt want to be objectified, then she should not dress like a ho”

   Wonder if this person would say the same thing about Alenka Bikar, ” the pride of Slovenia”?

   Posted 20 Jan 2008 at 8:14 pm ¶

3. TxB wrote:

   “To make matters worse, I’m quite sure if Venus Williams was a White athelete, he would not have been talking about her butt like that!!!”

   What is your basis for this? Assumption is a bad thing when misused.

   Men like women. Black or white, a nice butt is a nice butt.

   Posted 20 Jan 2008 at 8:22 pm ¶

4. Ratrace wrote:

   Wasn’t Anna Kournikova’s entire career based on being objectified as a sex object? This is a non-racial issue. Just a man who doesn’t know when to keep his thoughts to himself.

   Posted 20 Jan 2008 at 9:24 pm ¶

5. Anonymous wrote:

   Re: venus williams
   this has been floating around for a couple of days in oz. I don’t think anyone’s taken the racial angle – it’s been debated more as an inappropriate, sexist comment from someone who was hired to speak about the game vs. ppl who say he should be allowed to “compliment” women on their bodies.

   Posted 21 Jan 2008 at 6:13 am ¶

6. tasha wrote:

   I also think that it is a sexist issue and not a racial one. Many of the famous female players are under the same scrutiny regardless of race. Yes, both the sports caster and any bloggers referring to Venus as a ho are out of line, but don’t think for a second that leering eyes and attention paid to Venus’ apparel and the way it fits her body are unwelcome. She knows exactly what she’s doing. Ever since the 07’ US Open, Venus has been modeling looks from her “Eleven” sportswear line at Steve and Barry’s. Venus wearing short sets and bloomers under her skirts is nothing new, but what is new, is how, lately, her shorts keep riding up, and that’s most likely because Steve and Barry’s is a discount retailer with apparel cheaper than Old Navy’s. Venus didn’t have this problem with her Reebok hot pants, probably because they’re made with a more expensive lycra blend. If you look at footage from last year’s Wimbledon, when she wore the white short set, you’ll see that while she adjusted the waist of her shorts from time to time, she wasn’t picking them out of her rear end. There’s not a doubt in my mind about Venus being aware of how the “Eleven” pants fit. All she has to do is watch her week 2 US Open matches where she kept having to tug at them to keep from giving the crowd an eyeful, but I guess the opportunity to shill her line to an international television audience far outweighs the chore of having to pull the pants down after every point and changeover. If she’s going to continue to play in cheap pants then someone needs to put her on to “tuff skin” (old gymnast trick. Keeps the leotards from wandering) or at the very least hairspray (old beauty pageant trick. Keeps the swimsuit bottoms from wandering).

   Posted 21 Jan 2008 at 9:19 am ¶

7. kjen wrote:

   The commentary was unappealing (not as raunchy as all the media hype led me to believe). But also why did the camera man decide to focus that closely on Venus’’s backside?
   In the end, it’s not a rogue commentator that made some sexist comments, it is the entire industry that chooses to focus on women as sexual beings first and as atheletes second.

   Posted 22 Jan 2008 at 11:56 pm ¶

8. Colin wrote:

   I worry mostly about those who take comments about Ms. Williams’s figure and then use the reaction to the comments as proof of political correctness. That starts to show how poorly we as a nation are doing in terms of protecting civic equality in our national discourse. I mean criticizing overt sexism, of a particularly brazen sort if I may say so myself, is now also PC? This anti-PC stuff is getting WAY, WAY, WAY out of hand.

   Posted 23 Jan 2008 at 2:38 am ¶

9. deb wrote:

   I workout to exercise videos. Now, I’m reminded of how often cameramen (I assume) like to focus on the hot woman with the nice rack instead of the instructor.

   So annoying.

   Posted 23 Jan 2008 at 10:27 am ¶

10. tasha wrote:

    Colin, could you elaborate? What do you have against criticising overt sexism? While I don’t necessarily think the sports commentator was being racist, the blogger who referred to Venus as a ho could very well be, especially if the blogger is reserving that epithet only for Black women. I remember a controversy on a popular, mainstream, celeb news blog that once referred to Beyonce as a “robo-ho” after her performance at an awards show. without ever having referred to white female artists with suggetive stage acts as such.

    Posted 25 Jan 2008 at 7:11 am ¶