Serena Williams Reflects On Coping With Abusive Remarks About Her Appearance
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Serena Williams' place as one of the greatest female athletes makes it easy to forget how much abuse she received at the start of her career on the WTA Tour.
Unfortunately, a minority continues to make negative comments about Serena's appearance. A recent example was when some mocked how she looked while attending a school event, speculating that she bleached her skin.
Serena slammed her haters on an Instagram live video. The 43-year-old confirmed she does not bleach her skin, although Williams also emphasized she does not judge those who choose to.
Overall, the level of vitriol directed at Serena is outweighed by her millions of fans worldwide. The 23-time Grand Slam champion continues to have a devoted following despite retiring from tennis over two years ago.
Serena bid farewell to the sport at the 2022 US Open. Ajla Tomljanovic defeated the American in her final match, and her goodbye on Arthur Ashe Stadium afterward was one of the most emotional in tennis history.
The appearance of Serena swiftly attracted attention when she began climbing the WTA rankings as a young player because of her muscular build, the likes of which had not been seen before in the women's game.
That led to many insecure members of the media making unpleasant remarks about Williams. Some of these attacks may have also been racial and/or motivated by gender since Serena is a woman of color.
Serena recently spoke at the New York Times DealBook Summit, during which the tennis legend mentioned her decision not to read any articles about herself because of how toxic some were and to avoid becoming overly confident after reading praise.
"From that day of me winning my first Grand Slam until today, I made a stance and I said, I'm not going to read any articles about me. I'm not going to read any press."
"Growing up before mental health was a thing, it was only negative stuff - I look like a man, I'm too strong, I can't be that good, I must be taking drugs or whatever it is... Or she's the best in the world she does this it can either inflate you or it can really bring you down."
Williams then elaborated further on why she did not want to read too many positive articles. The seven-time Wimbledon singles champion has strived to be relatable throughout her career and did not want to feel untouchable.
"It's a lot of negativity out there but there's also a lot of positive things out there that can make you feel untouchable. And I never want to be untouchable. I always want to be relatable. I always want to be just real. And so I just have, I've decided since I was, since a very young age, just stay in that space."
That approach of avoiding articles about her worked well, as demonstrated by Williams' incredible career. It is more challenging for players now to avoid abuse because of social media, which did not exist when Serena was at the start of her career.
