ok, so i know i'll catch hell from male readers, but i have to fully explain my distaste for miss kournikova. put on your feminist listening caps:
saying that anna made it pretty well as a teenager but had to use her looks to "make it" is actually my point. it's a disservice to all the other women on the tour--unless they're destroying the competition a la martina navritalova (sp?) in her day, the women don't get noticed unless they can be marketed as a sexpot. and i dislike kournikova because she purposely did exactly that--why should lindsey davenport or kim kjlisters (sp?) have to pose provocatively to earn the praise they deserve? oh wait, they don't--they're actually good at what they do. you don't see the gratuitous use of tennis for reasons other than competing with maria sharipova, martina hingis, or the men for that matter--andy roddick, while pretty yummy, puts it all out on the court and earns his keep *there*, not in photo shoots and pretending to be something he's not.
it's one thing to pursue a modeling career of sorts. it's another to pursue it while saying that you're a great athlete when you're truly not. she was using her initial fame in tennis as a springboard to more of a celebutante life, all the while claiming that she was a great player. so gratuitously dragging the sport along with you, just to boost your cred, pisses me off, especially when, as has been said, the other "non-lookers" have to work their butt off for any recognition. the way she conducted her path distorts what sport is about.
oh, and she's not terribly brilliant either. she's now a fitness columnist for elle (i think it's elle, anyway), and i'm sure that the editors vomit every time she submits a piece. her snippets on workouts and the healthy, sporting lifestyle are written at a middle school level and don't provide any insight into anything. her title at the magazine should be Captain Obvious.
thus ends my dissertation on my distaste for miss kournikova. next time i'll discuss something that's not so ridiculously... ridiculous.
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2 comments:
I understand your larger point here, that female athletes are often judged on their appearance to an unfair degree. Anna Kournikova made a lot more money than her tennis career otherwise would have generated.
I don't think Kournikova did anything that hurt women's tennis. The last few years of her career where she was either injured or playing poorly were rather dismal, but by then she wasn't being taken seriously as a tennis player. With the exception of some curious male onlookers, I don't think anyone was distracted by anything Anna did at the expense of the accomplishments of Davenport, Hingis, the Williamses, etc. I won't make the rather weak argument that Kournikova was a boon to women's tennis, but I certainly doubt that she did anything that hurt it.
As for using her fame as a tennis player to boost her other ventures, isn't that what any athlete who gets an endorsement deal is doing? Is it really different than the Williams sisters advertising for Nike or Maria Sharapova appearing in camera commercials? They're just better tennis players.
As for any writing that Kournikova has pursued, I would have strong doubts whether she writes it at all. More than likely the magazine uses a ghost writer, at best who talks with her fo a few minutes each month.
Thus ends my spirited if not complete defense.
I would also submit that this is part of the "Happy Gillmore" syndrome that seems to be hitting the periferal "sports" on TV. Please allow me to explain.
There are three main sports on TV:
Footbal
Baseball
Mens College Basketball
These are your top three ratings and money earning sports right now.
After that you have in no particular order:
Hockey
Basketball
NASCAR and other motorsports
Golf
Tennis
Special events like the Tour de France or the World Cup.
Arena Football
These marginal sports need a hook. Anna was that hook. I'm sure the tennis federation turned a blind eye when they saw the ratings. Just like there will never be a crackdown on any bad boy in sports so long as he or she keeps them in the seats and buying the product.
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