Image of Female Athletes Needs Improvement

Serena Williams
Serena Williams

By Cheryl Mattox Berry

A day after I’m nearly blinded by Dove’s “My Beauty My Say” message on a billboard in Microsoft Square near the Staples Center in Los Angeles, tennis star Serena Williams’ twerking video pops up on TV.

Talking about mixed messages.

Williams’ so-called instructional twerking video for Self magazine and a Snapchat of her twerking prior to Team USA hitting the field for opening ceremonies at the Olympics in Rio de Janiero make a mockery of Dove’s latest beauty campaign.

In a letter on the gigantic LED billboard, Dove implores the media to refrain from using sexist language to portray female athletes because it undermines their achievements and chips away at their self-confidence.

Did someone forget to tell Williams, the No. 1 ranked women’s singles player, and the other female athletes to act the way they want to be treated? How do you expect the media to respect your athletic prowess when you’re performing like a stripper? I don’t recall seeing any male athletes bouncing and rolling their butts before the camera.

Isn’t twerking passé anyway?

As a journalist who worked hard to eliminate racist language about blacks and Hispanics on TV and in newspapers, I understand the importance of treating female athletes like their male counterparts. The focus should be on their athletic ability, not their looks.

However, female athletes need to make sure they don’t invite comments about their bodies by acting in a sexualized manner, such as twerking. (In Williams’ case, of course, the comments were about the size of her butt.)

To make sure Dove’s message is heard by the right people, I made a point of telling my husband, Jim Berry, the CBS sports anchor in Miami, to be careful with words he uses to describe female athletes.

A female writer at The Miami Herald had already given him an earful after remarks about Venus Williams’ new hairstyle at the Miami Open last March. Jim claims he would have mentioned a new do by a male tennis player but conceded that her point was well taken.

If you read or hear comments about a female athlete’s hair, face, body parts or overall looks, write a letter to the news organization. You don’t want people judging you like that and neither do female gymnasts, runners, swimmers, basketball players, volleyball players, boxers, etc. Female athletes deserve respect.

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