Today in the 21st century, we have a serious problem with white male sexists and racists who are dictating what women and minorities can wear on and off their playing fields. They're putting evolution on hold with their micro-aggressions of sexism and racism, complains Carron J. Phillips, the sports, race and social issues columnist for The New York Daily News.
The Neanderthal "clothing cops" only see women and minority athletes as sexual objects made for their entertainment. "White men love to dictate what women and minorities wear on the playing field. Don’t believe me?" Phillips asks before he demonstrates the cases of two female tennis pro's unfairly busted by white knuckle-draggers.
Last week at the U.S. Open tennis tournament, Alize Cornet (see photo above) was issued a violation for taking off her shirt after she noticed it was on backward. "A woman was penalized for wearing something female athletes need to wear while playing at a complex," Phillips writes. "Cornet was wearing a sports bra to support to her breasts." The Women’s Tennis Association protested the unfair penalty, and the U.S.T.A admitted an error, but in Phillips' estimation "the damage was already done."
At the French Open earlier this year, Serena Williams’ cat suit was banned because it “disrespected the game.” Phillips defended her because Nike had designed Williams’ suit to improve blood circulation to help her prevent blood clots that threatened her life previously during childbirth.
Phillips quoted two broadcasters who work for an organization that disdains sports bras or any clothing at all in its body issue. On ESPN's High Noon program, Pablo Torres asked “what is so scandalous" about what Cornet did? His co-host, Bomani Jones said "This isn’t about dress code, this is about breasts.”
Phillips also mentions a tweet by Billie Jean King, retired tennis great, who tweeted "The policing of women’s bodies must end." In his view, this policing has been out of control since 2005.
That year NBA Commissioner David Stern announced a mandatory dress code in the NBA that forced players to dress in business/conservative attire when arriving/departing for games, on the bench while injured, and when conducting official NBA business. Phillips saw it as an attack on African Americans.
More degrading treatment of women athletes followed in 2011. That year the Badminton World Federation dictated that women playing at the elite level wear dresses or skirts to create a more “attractive presentation.” The Amateur International Boxing Association asked female competitors to consider wearing skirts so spectators could distinguish them from men.
In 2016, Carolina Panthers' African-American quarterback Cam Newton suffered the cruel indignity of a one-play benching because he did not wear a tie on a team flight.
In 2017, the Ladies Pro Golf Association banned clothing that did not adequately cover women's bottoms. Not too surprising when considering the LPGA canned its female executive director in 2009 and replaced her with a man.
Sarah Spain, who writes for ESPN's women's site, "W," also complains about white male sexism:
"In our society, we have a lot of trouble separating women from their sexuality. It feels like the men's dress code is really about tradition and professionalism, and it feels like the women's dress code — particularly the way it's written in all caps — feels like it's chastising. It's really not about what's best for the golf game or tradition or professionalism, it's really about that fear of sexualization."
Phillips hearkens back to the good old days of 1999, when Team USA's Brandi Chastain "ripped off her shirt exposing her sports bra in celebration after scoring the winning penalty shot in the 1999 FIFA Women's World Cup final." It was "a moment" that thrilled him.
To Phillips' disappointment, those good times did not last: "But yet, here we are 19 years later still having conversations about sports bras and now cat suits. You would think that we would have made more progress by now. ... "(W)hen people only see you as a sexual object or a physical specimen made for their entertainment, evolution tends to get put on pause."
But offering bare flesh for sexual objectification, as ESPN and Sports Illustrated do annually, is not on Phillips' sexual objectification radar.
