...it just seems like commentary on her incredibly muscular frame, which is an anomaly for a tennis player.

God, why does anyone take that newspaper so seriously?

Like going back in time when a woman even being athletic was looked down on. And there could be a subtle racist overtone in that statement too, just in my old white-ass opinion.

This lady is an athlete but this article is glorifying her competitors who admit to always feeling big, which is a body image problem. Personally, I think young girls going to thy gym to be like Serena are better off than the ones who starve and throw up because they are told even athletic women can never be thin enough to be worth h anything.

Irresponsible, sexist, racist, dangerous reporting.

in those quotes that was "sexist, racist or dangerous" reporting.

they say that Serena Williams domainates tennis because of her powerful and athletic body. Then they interview a bunch of women tennis players who say they specifically don't work out that hard because they want to stay small - that staying small is more important than winning games. Would the New York Times have a similar article about men, interviewing them about how they don't work out too hard even if it means they lose because they don't want to get big? Can you even imagine that? That is certainly sexist, and suggesting that women, even professional atheletes, are not as valued unless they are small - even if that makes them worse athletes - feeds into the images and ideas that make anorexia prevalent among young women.

And there are some racist stereotypes at play. There's another thread that was in GD recently that discusses that more. http://www.democraticunderground.com/10026973747

besides play tennis, to make her body look like that.
Anybody ask if she is on steroids? That is a distinct
possibility since most tennis players are thin from all
that running around.

I've known LOTS of women built like that. Add a great deal of physical training to a body type like that and you get Serena Williams.

The other tennis players have said that they don't do weight training and the same level of physical training because they don't want to get big. So they stay small and they lose. In what men's sport would that happen? Male professional athletes are all about winning, but women want to stay small.

Also, tennis players are heavily tested for doping. She would have been caught. Plus she's a Jehovah's Witness and doesn't take foreign substances into her body because of her religion.

Except I'm short. if I am working out regularly, it is very pronounced. I find it offensive that anyone would suggest it's unnatural for women to be muscular. Some of us are genetically inclined to build more muscle mass than others, and people need to get tf over it.

thanks for your posts in this thread.

I was a ballet dancer as a teenager and ran around constantly, was thin. Then at sixteen a growth spurt. Huge body change. Same running around, same diet, same everything, but suddenly a womanly body and muscles. After I stopped dancing I discovered jogging and working with weights, more muscles. The Williams' sisters bodies are perfectly normal for their body type. People don't understand body types.

What's your excuse for Misty Copeland?




Diuretics and AnaMia?

To me she appears as a beautiful Amazonian goddess. If she were white, the story would be completely different. (Hope my wife doesn't see this.)

I don’t really understand how publishing female tennis players expressing their desire to be perceived as petite does anything other than adding to the public perception that women should be constantly critical of their bodies. And it's all especially silly since Williams' body type that they're belittling is regularly beating them at their own game.