 |
 |
|
[Home
| Contents |
Forthcoming |
Overview |
Submit] |
|
To be young, gifted, black and female: A meditation on the cultural politics at play in representations of Venus and Serena WilliamsDelia D. Douglas, Ph.D. Abstract: This paper considers the cultural meaning and political significance of the arrival of Venus and Serena Williams on to the women’s professional tennis tour. The discussion considers mass mediated accounts of their physicality, demeanour and style of play in order to examine the complex ways in which race and gender are embedded in dominant cultural narratives. It is argued that these portrayals have largely constructed the sisters as racialized figures, thereby establishing and affirming a cultural boundary that places them outside dominant definitions of womanhood. By drawing upon the scholarship of those who recognize the interconnectedness of formations of race, gender and sexuality, one of the goals of this paper is to contest the ideological systems that have thus far failed to capture the complexity of Venus’ and Serena’s sporting lives. I. Points of departure Her fame was to cause her to be criticized very harshly, very loudly, and very often by black and white people who were unable to believe, apparently, that a really serious intention could be contained in so glamorous a frame” (Baldwin,1969, xiii). 1.1 The title of this paper is a reference to the autobiography and play written by the late black American playwright, Lorraine Hansberry. That work To Be Young, Gifted and Black is relevant to the ensuing discussion of media representations of Venus and Serena Williams because it considers how black women’s lives are shaped by multiple elements of their identity. In 1959, Lorraine Hansberry became the first black writer to win the New York Drama Critics Circle Award for the best play of the year, “A Raisin in the Sun.” These three women were very young when they entered the predominantly white cultural environments of Broadway and professional women’s tennis. Black, gifted and female cultural practitioners all, they share the distinction of exemplifying talents that counter prevailing representations of black women; as a result, their values, creativity and knowledge were unfamiliar and unrecognizable to the public. Their presence in their respective milieu challenged dominant narratives of black women in the public sphere and posed a challenge to the ‘normalizing tendencies of whiteness’ (Davis, 2002). 1.2 This paper examines the various cultural meanings that have emerged from mass mediated accounts of the presence of Venus and Serena Williams on the women’s professional tennis tour. Sporting accounts involve a strategy of differentiation, based on the documentation of differences between social groups (Birrell & Cole, 1990; Miller, Lawrence, McKay & Rowe, 2001; Tudor, 1998). In this manner, media representations of sport play an important part in the production of cultural narratives, in addition to cultivating our understanding of the abilities and potential of different social groups. 1.3 The ability of the mass media to organize and mobilize meanings is inextricably linked to power. As Whannel (2002) summarizes, “…the tensions and contradictions between the absences and lacunae, the socially structured silences and the voices endeavoring to be heard, provide important clues as to the process of ideological contestation” (p.173). This emphasis on representation and ideology is grounded in the belief that one of the ways in which social power is negotiated is through the struggle over the kinds of images, ideas and narratives by which the social world is understood and discussed (Collins 1990; 1998; Duncan & Messner, 1998; Hall, 1981; 1987; Morrison, 1992). The ensuing discussion considers some of the narratives that have been made available to us in an effort to understand how the various interpretive conflicts over portrayals of Venus and Serena on the tennis tour are tied to prevailing relations of race and gender (and class) power. 1.4 Before exploring these various representations however, I want to briefly sketch the analytical and conceptual framework that I will employ. With my reference to Lorraine Hansberry I want to make connections between “timeless and timely narratives,” “expressive language” and genres of representation, by looking outside the realm of sport in order to encourage an expansion of analytical approaches in the sociology of sport (Morrison, 1992, p. xi). Despite the productive and comprehensive work done by black women scholars pertaining to the lives of black women they have had little to say about the meaning and significance of sport as a site of cultural struggle. My interest in looking outside the realm of sport is not meant as a substitute for the much-needed work, which remains to be done in the realm of sport. Rather, it is meant as counter to dominant telling of ‘gender’ and ‘race’ in the sport studies literature. 1.5 Black women in particular have long recognized the complexity of struggles for equality and freedom. There are well over 150 years of black feminist thought and practice that explores the interconnectedness of sexuality, gender, race and class (Carby, 1986; Collins, 1990; Giddings, 1984; Higginbotham, 1992). This discussion, therefore, draws from the work of those who embrace a perspective that addresses the complex and often-contradictory ways in which women’s experience and identity are shaped by multiple systems of oppression (e.g., Combahee River Collective, 1981; Jordan, 1998; Lorde, 1990; Smith, 1998). It is not a perspective that simply seeks to recognize difference and diversity, but one that examines structures of domination (Zinn & Dill, 1996). Relevant to this project is the fact that these writings recognize that all women’s lives are shaped by multiple axes of power. 1.6 To date, the sport literature contains few analyses in which black women are subjects of study (Douglas 1988; Oglesby, 1981; Smith, 1983). Over a decade ago Susan Birrell (1989; 1990) called for greater attention to the insights offered by black feminist scholars and other women of colour, in order to expand the interconnectedness of race, class, sexuality and gender in the sociology of sport. While a great deal of research has been done in the area of ‘race and sport,’ it has largely focussed on black men (e.g., Andrews, 1996; Carrington, 1998; Cole & Andrews, 1996; Whannel, 2002). Similarly, feminist sport studies scholars have greatly enhanced our understanding of the relationship between sport, gender, and sexuality. However, with few exceptions this work has not incorporated ‘race’ in to their discussions (e.g., Birrell, 1988; Griffin, 1998; Hall, 1996; Nelson, 1994; White & Young, 1999). Where it has been addressed, race has for the most part been seen as relevant only in the case of those who are perceived to be racial subjects, namely ‘non-whites’ (Carby, 1992). Thus there has been little discussion of the social construction of ‘whiteness’ as social relation, ideology and system of privilege and power (Frankenberg, 1993; Kincheloe, Steinberg, Rodriguez & Chennault, 1998; Lipsitz, 1998; Scraton 2001; Williams, 1997). Thus, in addition to the fact that black women are absent as subjects of study, it is also important to recognize that the dominant theoretical frameworks in sport studies have not adequately taken in to account the intersection of race and gender. Given that race and gender discourses have most often framed identity as an “either/or proposition”; black (male) or female (white), black women find themselves in a position that “resists telling” (Crenshaw, 1994, p. 94). The failure to consider the ways in which sport is both an engendering and racializing institution has lead to myriad distortions, as well as the marginalization and oversimplification of black women’s experiences in sport (Scraton 2001). 1.7 I am trying to accomplish several tasks here. As young black women, Venus and Serena Williams exist at the intersection of hierarchies of race and gender. In exploring the interconnectedness of multiple elements of their identities, this project seeks to disrupt dominant discourses, challenging the ways in which the relationships between women have been addressed. I also want to bring to bear on this discussion the notion that everyone has been constructed as a racialized subject (Carby, 1992). Specifically, race shapes all women’s lives; it is present whether or not it is named and, contrary, to prevailing narratives, race is not simply relevant to ‘non-whites.’ All persons are assigned positions within the racial hierarchy (Frankenberg, 1997; Ware, 1992). In turn, by introducing the notion that ‘whiteness’ is a place in the racial formation which is a “system of categorization and subject formation,” I want to highlight how professional women’s tennis is a setting in which we can examine the complicated relationship between ‘black’ and ‘white’ women (Frankenberg, 1997, p.9). Histories of slavery and the suffrage movement, for example, have contributed to the development of ideas and beliefs about femininity that are relevant today (Carby, 1986; Davis, 1981; Smith, 1990; Ware, 1992). I hope to enhance our understanding of the connection between portrayals of Venus and Serena and legacies of race and gender domination in order to further our understanding of how black women are historically constituted figures. For example, the relationship between players such as the ‘Swiss Miss’ Martina Hingis, the hyper-feminine heterosexual Anna Kournikova, and the Williams sisters offers an opportunity to examine the part that tennis plays in constructing relations between white and black women. 1.8 While I have outlined a number of themes, my aim remains modest. This project is a meditation in so far as it is a reflection on how we might begin to make sense of the complex ways in which race and gender operate independently and simultaneously to shape the lives of Venus and Serena Williams. Following Vertinsky and Captain (1998), I want to “stimulate a rethinking of attitudes and approaches to [black women’s] experiences and lives” (p. 537). In this vein, I present this project as a counter discourse to dominant analytical frameworks and representations of ‘women’s’ sporting lives to which they give rise (White, 1990). II. Black women’s bodies in the public sphere 2.1 I begin with a discussion of the language that has been used to describe Venus and Serena’s physicality. Black bodies have long been objects of scrutiny, the recipients of inordinate attention and discussion for over a century. Black bodies were seen as the site and source of black pathology, as boundaries against which one could determine acceptable sexuality, femininity and morality (Giddings, 1984; Gilman, 1985). Historically, white supremacist racial logic has long relied on “the use of a dichotomous code that creates a chain of correspondences both between the physical and the cultural, and between intellectual and cognitive characteristics” (Hall, 1997; p. 290). In this context, blacks were understood as more body than mind. 2.2 Thanks to the insights obtained through the black power movement, the women’s movement, and the anti-colonialism movement, in addition to the work of many others, we have come to understand how representations of bodies are tied to systems of knowledge that developed out of histories of slavery, colonialism, segregation, and imperialism (Berger, 1972; Foucault, 1977; 1980; Mercer, 1992; 1994; Smith,1983; Spillers, 1987). Fanon (1967) spoke of a ‘historico-racial schema’ that defined the meaning of his presence outside of his experience: blackness signifies the ‘already known.’ In other words, “racism is a gaze that insists upon the power to make others conform, to perform endlessly in the prison of prior expectation,” (Williams, 1997, p. 74). What is relevant here is the notion that the ‘visual field’ is in fact a racial formation: the construction of images and the language used to interpret what is ‘seen’ are themselves part of the social production of blackness (Butler, 1993). 2.3 Sport performance is rooted in the body, and as a result sport plays a key part in the production and naturalization of beliefs about social difference (Birrell & Cole, 1990). The persistent notion that blacks are more body than brain means that the inherent physicality of sport, combined with the salience of black athletic participation and success provide “the specific conditions which make this form of distinction socially pertinent [and] historically active” (Hall, 1980, p. 338). A great deal of symbolism is invested in sport events, because in “societies structured in dominance,” (Hall, 1980, p. 305) athletic competitions have historically been the occasion where social dramas have been played out between ‘blacks’ and ‘whites’ (Carrington, 1998). Thus, black sporting bodies occupy a particular cultural currency in the public imagination, and much is at stake in maintaining beliefs about black athletic superiority (hooks, 1994; Mercer, 1994). 2.4 Difference is inscribed on the black female body. If we consider that the visibility of difference assigned by race and sex are the most immediate means through which we try to identify and locate individuals then we can begin to think about how bodies are seen as markers of ‘truth’ (Kawash, 1997; Omi & Winant, 1986). It is not simply that race and gender are readily visible; it is that, as markers of difference, they are understood as conveying ‘self evident’ meanings about one’s social identity. 2.5 Venus and Serena’s skin colour, namely ‘the fact of their blackness,’ is often used to signal their racial ‘otherness’ (Fanon, 1967; Whannel, 2002). Moreover, descriptions of their bodies have emphasized how their hairstyles, size and shape are different from the other players. Initially the media were ‘stuck on the beads’ (Lindsey, 2001), on one occasion going so far as to call them ‘childish’ (Noel, 2000), more recently they have become preoccupied with the fact that a black woman (Serena) has blonde hair. Venus was described as “Cruella de Ville in tennis togs,’ possessing the ‘wingspan of a condor’ (Roberts, September 2001b). Venus is been described as the ‘high jumper,’ and Serena is the ‘heavyweight fighter’ (Jeansonne, 2002). Additionally, Serena has been described as ‘huge,’ with a presence that is ‘physically intimidating,’ the ‘most physically imposing player in tennis’ (Bricker, 2002). Both women have been described as ‘masculine’ and ‘aggressive,’ ‘rugby lock forwards’ (cited in Lindsey, 2001) and ‘predator one and predator two’ (Childs, 2001). By and large these portrayals of their physicality construct impenetrable boundaries between these two black women and their white female opponents. The significance of these descriptions of the sisters rests in the fact that they establish a symbolic line, which supports beliefs regarding racial difference. As Stuart Hall (1988) explains, “racism …operates by…its typically binary system of representation [which] constantly marks and tries to fix and naturalize the difference between belongingness and otherness” (p. 28). 2.6 In the past year and a half, as they became the top two players in the world, media accounts increasingly invoked a vocabulary that portrayed them as figures of aggression (Mott, 2001). Venus’s and Serena’s strong black female bodies were described as ‘pummeling’, ‘overwhelming’ and ‘overpowering’ (apparently frail and powerless) white female opponents. These images of unyielding power and threat resonate with a particular kind of racial imagery, one that always sees black bodies as dangerous bodies. The language that is used to depict Venus’s and Serena’s physicality is instructive because it signals a whole set of meanings and expectations regarding their abilities. These characterizations of power and aggression create figures that are “so loaded with mythical prepossession that there is no easy way for the agents buried beneath them to come clean to emerge unscathed” (Spillers, 1987, p. 65). The cultural significance of these portrayals rests in the fact that media accounts establish identities and create stories that explain athletes and events to audiences (Tudor, 1998). These narratives reinforce the notion that the sisters are trespassers whose presence undermines the cultural integrity of women’s tennis. III. ‘White women…race matters’ (Frankenberg, 1993) 3.1 At the outset, I mentioned that there has been little discussion of the social construction of whiteness in relation to narratives of race and gender in sport studies. This issue will now be treated further. In addition to reproducing the racial boundary as a natural one, representations of Venus and Serena’s physicality portray them as lacking those features attributed to the norm of white heterosexual femininity. Characterizations of Venus and Serena as ‘aggressive’ and ‘mannish’ (Cahn, 1993) is consistent with Euro-American thought which has historically positioned black women outside dominant culture’s definition of ‘true womanhood’ (Collins, 1990; Giddings, 1984; duCille, 1994). Descriptions of their physicality reveals a racialized construction of gender and sexuality that frames black women as the ‘other’ in order to reinforce white women as the hegemonic standard (Young, 1996). 3.2 As analyses of black women’s history have illuminated, the varied relationships between black and white women has been forged out of complex histories of struggle, antagonism and unity, woven through slavery, imperialism and colonialism (Carby, 1986; Collins, 1990; Giddings, 1984; Gilman, 1985). Representations of femininity are tied to broader cultural values, and thus convey “powerful, if subtle, racist messages that confirm not only cultural difference, but also cultural superiority” (Ware, 1992, p. 14). The meaning of being a white woman has been influenced by the existence of subordinated women. The point that I want to make here is that the media framing of Venus and Serena as ‘unfeminine’ reasserts the desirability of the ever present, though not named, white heterosexuality of players like Anna Kournikova, Elena Dementieva and Daniela Hantuchova (Hammonds, 1994; Healy, 2002). At the same time, the hypervisibility granted to these hyper-feminine players shapes our interpretation of Venus and Serena. It is the power relations between black and white women as articulated through portrayals of their racialized femininity that I want to draw attention to here. Historically, black women have been situated outside dominant culture’s definition of acceptable femininity. Gender is both “created and fragmented by race…[and] is inextricably linked to one’s personal identity and social status” (Higginbotham, 1992, p.258). It is important to recognize the extent to which cultural narratives shape perception and action. For black and white women, gender has been represented and lived in a very different, and often contentious manner. 3.3 I want to make a shift here from media representations of Venus and Serena to consider the ways in which the historical development of tennis has contributed to constructing relations between black and white women, in addition to advancing a particular version of acceptable femininity (Carrington, 1998). Different sports, with their different reputations, have organized and given prominence to different standards of womanhood (Cahn, 1994; Gissendanner, 1994; Williams, 1994). Tennis, always an elitist practice, developed as an institution emphasizing exclusion based on class and race: upper class women were allowed to participate because it was regarded as an acceptable activity for women, one which did not compromise their (heterosexual) ‘femininity’ (Festle, 1996). Tennis, thus, played its part in producing particular ideological versions of femininity, which influenced women’s professional tennis towards its racial and class homogeneity (Cahn, 1994; Gibson, 1958). 3.4 From the turn of the century when it was introduced to the United States until the 1950’s, tennis was a segregated sport. In 1916, The American Tennis Association was formed as the black equivalent to the United States Tennis Association, which was formed in 1881. It is important to note that tennis was also an exclusive sport amongst blacks (Ashe & Rampersad, 1993; Gibson, 1958). Althea Gibson was the first black person to break the colour bar in tennis. The struggles that Althea Gibson faced in the 1950’s as the first black woman to gain entry to the heretofore all white world of tennis provide a context in which we can think about how the history of tennis has played a part in shaping relations between women. In her autobiography, she spoke of the difficulty she faced as the sole black woman in an all white sport. She had to negotiate the hostility of the white audience and media in addition to bearing the burden of being seen as the ‘representative of her race’ (Gibson, 1958). Representations of her ‘fierce’ style of play and her physicality constructed her as the outsider, describing her as ‘mannish’ (Cahn, 1993), while her mastery of skill was seen to further undermine her ‘femininity’ (Festle, 1996). The fact that similar imagery was used to describe Venus’s and Serena’s style of play and physicality illustrates the resilience of certain images of black women in public discourse along with the history of antagonism that connects images of black and white femininity. 3.5 The rise of tennis as an institution developed in accordance with particular sensibilities regarding race, gender, class and sexuality. Historical legacies of race and gender domination are written in to contemporary cultural narratives. The intense scrutiny and criticism that all three women (i.e. Gibson and the two Williams sisters) have endured illuminates the “wider social (and unacknowledged) psychological meanings invested in the competitive struggles played out in the sports arena” between black and white women (Carrington, 1998, p. 279). In both instances, media representations have constructed these black women as not feminine in order to legitimate the power and privilege of white heterosexual femininity. Tennis organizations and cultural practices advanced particular ideas about black and white femininity in order to legitimate the exclusivity of the institution, as well as to emphasize the superiority of white heterosexual womanhood (Ware, 1992). As Tudor notes, “there must be an Other – better still, Others – in contradistinction to whom the community can sustain its identity…” (1998, p.154). Through overt practices of exclusion, combined with the invocation of language and images that denigrate their talents, we see the various strategies employed by dominant groups to establish and maintain standards of ‘appropriate femininity’ (Wamsley, 1999). That their presence and style of play have been described as an intrusion, reveals the power of the white gaze to determine the boundaries of cultural ‘belonging and otherness’ (Hall, 1981). IV. ‘Purity and danger’ (Douglas, 1966) 4.1 Much has been made of the fact that the Williams family pursued a different path to professional tennis (Myers, 2002). Amateur tennis in the United States is organized along stringent political economic structures where the junior tennis circuit is a key component of player development. It is a widely held belief that players will not improve if they do not have adequate match experience and appropriate coaching. The Williams’ family decision to eschew this path was read as a mistake on their part, adding fuel to allegations that the family has never adhered to the rules and regulations of the sport (Araton, 2001). Their approach to the sport was therefore deemed ‘unconventional’ (Pucin, 2002; Roberts, 2001a, August). 4.2 Chris Evert (2002b) recently stated that despite Venus’ and Serena’s success, she would not recommend their approach because participating in junior tennis provides training necessary for the development of the requisite mental and physical strength to succeed on the professional tour (Jenkins, 2001). In her view, the reason the Williams sisters excelled was due to their ‘athleticism’: in her view, they are the best athletes on the tour. Their success is the ‘exception’ (i.e., black) to the rule. Evert’s perspective indicates that greater legitimacy is granted to those who pursue a career according to the dictates of the established rules. The professional tennis industry is intricately based on a political and economic infrastructure, which organizes and regulates the ways in which players can develop and pursue their careers. The endorsement of the junior tennis programme is telling, because despite examples showing the harmful effects of developing athletes at too young an age, there has been little commentary about the number of young female players who have suffered unnecessary physical injuries, emotional pain and exhaustion that has often shortened their careers (McKibben, 2001). That these issues are rarely addressed reveals the potency of the belief that blacks are naturally superior athletes. 4.3 Further, Venus and Serena’s decision to play a limited schedule (prior to 2002), and the fact that in 2000 and 2001 Venus returned from a hiatus and won both Wimbledon and the US Open, provides additional support to the narrative that their success is due to their ‘natural’ athleticism. A particular version of blackness is being advanced here, one that is in keeping with essentialist logic of racial difference, which has long sought to mark the black body as inherently different from other bodies. Characterizations of their style of play rely on “a very ancient grammar” of black physicality to explain their athletic success (Hall, 1981, p. 41). Many are reluctant to allow that Venus and Serena’s success is based on a shrewd and savvy knowledge of the game. That the media frequently undermines their mental fortitude, preparation, and their on court tactics and strategy, attributes that typically set elite tennis players apart from the rest, illustrates how racial power plays a part in the interpretive structures used to make sense of events (Crenshaw, 1992; 1997). Because the public accepts this story, drawing on preexisting narratives about blacks, the Williams sisters alternate approach to the sport was not seen as an occasion to reexamine the current organization and ethic of amateur and professional sport. The legacy of white supremacist thought that sees the black (female) as more body than mind continues. V. Black Power tennis 5.1 I now want to explore further the persistence of media accounts that focus on the ‘power’ and ‘invulnerability’ of the Williams sisters. The prominence of narratives that depict the Williams sisters as ‘overwhelming’ and ‘destroying’ their female opponents are significant for they call upon enduring stereotypes of the ‘dangerous’ black body and the ‘strong black woman.’ From the intricate web of mythology, which surrounds the black woman, a fundamental image emerges. It is of a woman of inordinate strength, with ability for tolerating an unusual amount of misery and heavy, distasteful work. This woman does not have the same fears, weaknesses, and insecurities as other women, but believes herself to be and is, in fact, stronger emotionally than most men. Less of a woman in that she is less ‘feminine’ and helpless…In other words, she is a superwoman (Wallace, 1978, p.107). 5.2 Racism and sexism have been a part of black women’s experience for centuries. The history of struggle, resistance and survival that is black women’s legacy has been used as evidence of the ability of black women to survive under horrific conditions; it has also become a burden that has grown increasingly cumbersome. Typically being strong has meant that black women can withstand situations and experiences that ‘other’ women cannot (Collins, 1990). This portrayal has often served as a justification for inhumane treatment. Dominant cultural narratives have had far less to say about black women’s ‘vulnerability’ as recipients of racism, sexism and sexual violence (Crenshaw, 1992; 1994; Davis, 1981; Hine, 1989). In fact, the overwhelming emphasis on the ‘toughness’ and perseverance of black women has contributed to black women’s own fear of being vulnerable as well as their reluctance to acknowledge wounds and harm done (Hine, 1997). The strong black woman credo dictates that regardless of how impossible the situation may be, she must “handle it alone, quietly and with dignity” (Morgan, 1999; p. 90). One consequence of the pervasiveness of this image is a lack of recognition of the fact that black women have been, and continue to be, recipients of violence and oppression. The persistence of the symbol of the ‘strong black woman’ renders these experiences unimaginable to the public (as well as to black women themselves). As Trudier Harris notes, the preponderance of this image has made other narratives difficult to assert and as such it “has become its own form of illness” (cited in Vertinsky and Captain, 1998, p. 553). 5.3 This image of the inviolable black woman is relevant to this discussion of representations of Venus and Serena because the prominence of media accounts which assert their power and invincibility, depict them as being beyond injury. They can dominate their white female opponents, but cannot be the recipients of pain and harm. The persistence of this image is problematic because it perpetuates the belief that Venus and Serena do not need protection. Framed as invincible black women, they cannot be perceived as the objects of racism and sexism. The vulnerability of black women is unfamiliar and, ultimately, unimaginable to the public (Morrison, 1992). Should they speak of discrimination, for example, there is no context in which they could be believed. It is not surprising that little has been said about the racial hostility Venus and Serena experienced while they were developing their tennis skills. As their sister Isha recalls, growing up amongst the tennis elite “there’s just a nasty disrespect you see on some people’s faces. …It’s like, they’re not supposed to be there” (Cepeda, 2001, p. 184). She added that when Venus and Serena began playing in junior tournaments some parents would tell their children “don’t let that little black girl beat you” (Cepeda, 2001, p. 184). Challenging the preponderance of images and language that emphasize their ‘destruction’ of their competition is imperative, for these narratives have made the complexity of their lives unrecognizable. Media accounts of their demeanour have by and large denied the ways in which their experience and interpretations have been informed by the interconnectedness of race, gender and class power. These portrayals construct professional women’s tennis as a space devoid of racial discrimination; the sisters presence is readily perceived as evidence of integration. That the invocation of images and symbolic language that positions Venus and Serena as racial figures are themselves not seen as evidence of the continuing significance of race, illustrates the insidious nature of the exercise of racial power in everyday life (Essed, 1991; Feagin & Sikes, 1994; Williams, 2000). Repetition of narratives that deny the existence of (gendered) racism (Essed, 1991) and institutionalized oppression are damaging because they suppress alternative perspectives and become what we know and believe (Lubiano, 1992; Morrison, 1997). VI. Black bodies, black selves… “ The modern epistemology of race hinges on the relation between visibility and truth” (Kawash, 1997, p. 129). 6.1 In this section, I now want to turn to how representations of Venus’ and Serena’s demeanour (e.g., attitude, gesture and comportment) is made manifest through their racialized bodies. Racial logic has advanced a link between the legibility of black bodies, and a racial being. If we consider that black bodies have historically been designated as the site and source of pathology, by extension, one’s behaviour and habits are seen as symptomatic of these racial distinctions (Kawash, 1997). If the black body is the vessel through which one is able to identify and categorize ‘difference,’ then by association, one’s demeanour is seen as an extension of this racial being. Thus, within dominant racial discourses, one’s blackness is seen to correspond to an essence. The visibility of racial difference becomes the explanation for behaviour deemed inappropriate, or in violation, of prescribed race and gender norms. 6.2 Prior to the 2002 season the sisters played a limited schedule so that they could attend fashion design school in the fall (following the US Open). This decision to participate in the professional tour part time offended many (Associated Press, 2002; Barnes, 2001; Buckley, 2001). They are criticized for “using” the sport. In other words, “they win its prizes and its riches with out paying proper ‘homage’ to it” (Corsello, 2002, p. 224). Martina Navratilova, deemed this a sign of their arrogance while Chris Evert felt that the Williams sisters, in addition to other players, were involved in a multitude of activities that were affecting the quality of their performance. The mass media in turn have portrayed this as evidence that the Williams sisters are not taking the sport seriously. As New York Times (May 29, 2001) writer Selena Roberts states: “to dabble in life off the pro tour, Venus Williams has worked an office temp’s hours during her tennis career. To create personal space, she has limited herself to a cameo role on the tournament schedule.” Once again they are portrayed as not behaving in the manner of true professionals. 6.3 Following their arrival on the tour the sisters were reproached for their ‘attitude.’ Their demeanour was characterized in a variety of ways, ranging from ‘cocky,’ ‘haughty’ and ‘aloof’ (Roberts, August 2001b) Former professional player John McEnroe (2000) went so far as to write an article in a British newspaper calling the sisters “cold as ice” and asked “if it would kill them” to acknowledge the other players in the locker room? Martina Navratilova has also criticized the sisters, declaring “they have made excuses and not given credit to their opponents. They’re afraid to show any kind of humility. Humble doesn’t mean you’re weak” (Stein, 2001, p.34). A great deal of the criticism centered on the belief that their sense of themselves far exceeded their level of performance. The sisters were chastised for not being gracious in victory, not making eye contact with other players and for carrying themselves with an air of superiority. Jon Entine, author of the book Taboo: Why Black Athletes dominate Sports and Why We’re Afraid to Talk About It went so far as to say that unlike Arthur Ashe, who he found to be “very accessible,” “Venus Williams won’t apologize to anybody. …When the Williams sisters talk, they seem arrogant. They are definitely wonderful talents, but they’re still not No. 1 yet and their arrogance is a little larger than their achievement at this point.” People loved Arthur, he declared, and they were not threatened by Arthur because he “was as much a Southern black as he was a black, and being a Southern black with this kind of deferential civility ended up making it easier for him” (cited in Noel, 2000). 6.4 The dominant framing of Venus’ and Serena’s demeanour as problematic is instructive for it reveals the ways in which the complex meaning of their identities have been reconfigured to advance a narrative of white racial supremacy. I want to argue that the disapproval expressed by two former players, as well as through mass media narratives, inscribe the cultural values and practices which are linked to white institutions (Carrington, 1998; 2001; Crenshaw, 1997). Entine’s comments reveal the conditional nature of acceptance for blacks that gain access to celebrity culture. The comparison of the Williams sisters to Arthur Ashe reveals the limited criteria in which a black (female) presence would be acceptable. According to Entine, Ashe carried himself in a manner that made his presence tolerable; Ashe distinguished himself from other blacks by demonstrating qualities that match the dominant culture’s image of itself. That Entine compared the Williams sisters to a black male athlete speaks not only to the invisibility of black women, it also illuminates the extent to which ‘the fact of blackness’ is seen as the source of the ‘problem.’ Venus and Serena’s lack of deference is seen to be a demonstration of defiance and the justification for the public’s antipathy towards their presence on the tour. 6.5 Martina Navratilova’s criticism of the Williams sisters’ character points to the unspoken, but ever present tension between relations of gender, race and sexuality. While Martina Hingis was denigrated for her homophobic comments at the 1999 Australian Open, her public persona has not suffered irreparable damage (Miller et al., 2001). Hingis’ self-confidence and assuredness have been well documented but unlike Venus and Serena, these attributes are not regarded as detrimental to her popularity. Navratilova’s comments, as well as those of John McEnroe, portray the sisters as hostile; their demeanour is seen as transgressing the boundaries of appropriate female behaviour set by dominant culture. However, in societies structured by gender and racial inequality, their black femaleness limits the kinds of public support that they can receive (Whannel, 2002). Their confidence and assertiveness is inextricably linked to wider narratives about black incivility. The repetition of the sisters as insolent reasserts the social boundary that places them on the outside. The lack of images of successful, confident and intelligent black women renders their self-regard unfamiliar to the public. The lack of knowledge regarding black women’s lives means that there is no frame of reference from which to understand the particularities of their experience. The denigration of their demeanour negates the ways in which, in a racially demarcated society, expectations and standards shift to bolster the interests of the dominant. 6.6 The criticism leveled against the Williams sisters’ comportment also ensures the continuation of the image of black inferiority. Here, race is spoken through both covert and overt associations. Blackness stands as a ‘global sign,’ obscuring its link to relations of gender and sexuality, ‘disguising’ “its interconnectedness with the very social relations it envelops” (Higginbotham, 1992, p. 255). The emphasis on race, to the exclusion of other axes of power negates the ways in which tennis is understood as a discursive and physical space for white (heterosexual) women (Carrington, 2001; Lipsitz, 1998). The power relations between women are not identified and the ‘problem’ is reduced to the black (female) presence of Venus and Serena Williams. The white gaze continues to identify and monitor the ‘other’ without being named. This exercise of power reveals how racial power operates through “the power of whiteness to categorize the other, and to act upon that categorization and thus exert white power over the other” (Fiske, 1996, p. 251). In sum, characterizations of Venus’s and Serena’s demeanour illustrates how cultural struggles involve the reconfiguration of dominant definitions over what constitutes acceptable values and presentation of self in the public domain. VII. ‘Legacies of masking and dissemblance’ (Hine, 1989) “…No matter what degree of professional I am, people will greet and dismiss my black femaleness as unreliable, untrustworthy, hostile, angry, powerless, irrational, and probably destitute” (Williams, cited in Hammonds, 1994, p. 134). 7.1 In this section, I want to expand on the implications of narratives that identify and categorize Venus and Serena’s demeanour as a ‘problem’ for women’s professional tennis. Sport is a contradictory space, for while it is an area where black athletic achievement and success are visible, the physicality of sport performance simultaneously reinscribes beliefs that blacks are inherently superior athletes. The resilience of the notion that sport events take place on a level playing field, outside relations of inequality and oppression, is necessary in racially inscribed societies that deem themselves non racist. The persistence of racism is inextricably tied to claims of the absence of racism (Fiske, 1996; Hall, 1980). 7.2 “Race, class and gender oppression could not continue without powerful ideological justifications for their existence” (Collins, 1990, p. 67). As I have discussed throughout, representations of Venus and Serena tend to frame their presence in a negative fashion, constructing them as a threat to the tennis establishment. There is a dearth of images of black women both in and outside of sport. We know very little about the lived experiences of black women athletes. Located at the intersection of hierarchies of race and gender, their voices have not been heard and their experiences have been marginalized. In addition to the absence of black women as acting and speaking agents, the wealth of distorted images and myths regarding black women have been used to undermine their credibility and integrity (Collins, 1990; Crenshaw, 1992). Social power is exercised and maintained by obscuring images of black women that make inequality and discrimination “appear to be natural, normal, and an inevitable part of everyday life” (Collins, 1990, p.68). In this context, the complexity and diversity of black women’s lives are largely incomprehensible to the public. 7.3 Black women have long adopted a particular public presentation or donned a ‘mask’ both as a strategy of survival and a form of resistance (Cepeda, 2001; Dunbar, 1896; Hine, 1989). Historian Darlene Clark Hine (1989) addresses how black women adopted public personas in the face of stereotypes and negative comments in order to deal with the oppression they confronted in hostile environments. “It was imperative that they collectively create alternative self images and shield from scrutiny these private empowering definitions of self” (p. 916). 7.4 In this vein, I want to suggest that media portrayals of the Williams sisters as ‘arrogant’ negates the relations and ideologies of power that shape tennis structures and their experience in them. Elements of their identity are erased, and the complexity and dynamism of their experiences remain invisible. As bright, independent, and talented black women they are unrecognizable to us. I would suggest that mass media’s preoccupation with their physicality has rendered their lives unimaginable to the public. That their experiences are hidden from view has resulted in the public’s inability to conceive of a space from which to comprehend how race, gender and class power affect their lives. Absent from representations and interpretations of their lives is the fact that the history of discrimination and oppression that was directed against black females in particular meant that black women learned a number of strategies to deal with and respond to the particular social forces that confronted them. Ignored by the public is the fact that they continue to receive hate mail and death threats (Cepeda, 2001). Furthermore, strategies of their resistance and survival are trivialized and ignored (Williams, 1994). 7.5 It is not simply that confident and accomplished black females are unfamiliar to the public. In a racial and sexual hierarchy they are deemed a threat to the current social order. The highly visible success and pride of the Williams sisters have been constructed as a challenge to the prevailing culture of professional tennis. They are deemed brazen and too proud: in other words, they are ‘uppity’ black women. They should be grateful. This is familiar representation, one, which we have seen, applied to black women and men throughout history whenever they behave in ways that contravene established racial (and gender) boundaries. In this context, Venus and Serena are seen to be outside the realm of sympathy and empathy. 7.6 As I mentioned previously, mass media have reported how the public, as well as the tennis establishment, are not happy with what they regard as the Williams sisters employing professional tennis as a means to an end rather than an end in and of itself. The Williams family has approached their daughters’ sporting careers with a breadth of vision that contradicts dominant narratives about the lives of professional black athletes. They talk of preparing for their life after tennis. Both have stated how much they enjoy school and how important their education is to them. Of late Venus has spoken of how she enjoys tennis but that she likes other elements of her life as well, while Serena has made clear her interest in acting. Venus does not like to play too much, nor does she enjoy what she refers to as the ‘hype’ and ‘drama’ that goes along with being the top player in the world. Serena has expressed a similar view, stating that it is important to have a life outside of tennis. “If you just have a myopic view, things can get nuts and crazy” (USA Today, August 2001). Such an approach clearly runs counter to the grounding principles that guide the economic imperative of this professional sport industry and contradicts prevailing narratives that cast blacks as more brawn than brain. Their sense, that there is more to life than sport, evokes anxiety, as this perspective challenges the cultural boundaries that have traditionally relegated blacks to the realm of athletics and entertainment. The limited visibility of black women in popular culture gives rise to a limited range of representations, but the Williams sisters are constructing their own sense of themselves as active, intelligent, young black women. Undoubtedly their confidence and success is unsettling to sectors of the primarily white media and members of the tennis country club culture. Strategies of racialization work to categorize Venus and Serena in a manner that locates them simultaneously inside and outside the boundaries of belonging: they are the ‘outsiders within’ (Collins, 1990). VIII. Fear of a black tennis planet “The power to see while remaining unseen, the power to put others into discourse while remaining unspoken, is a particularly effective form of power” (Fiske, 1996, p. 217). 8.1 Racial marking enforces racial boundaries (Wellman, 1997). The continued references to Venus’ and Serena’s demeanour, coupled with the media’s emphasis on their physical differences from other players, re-establishes a binary system of representation, wherein their black femaleness is the signifier of disgrace, of bad manners “of that which is alien: whereas white signifies goodness, purity and that which is familiar, the norm” (Young, 1996,p. 39). The categorization of Venus and Serena as racial ‘others’ obscures that which remains hidden from view: racial power. “Drawing definitional lines around the identities of ‘others’ constructs, for whiteness, the powerful and naturalized status of being, simply, not the other” (Fiske, 1996, p. 42). That Venus and Serena have consistently been constructed as racial figures seems ‘natural,’ while the other women on the tour have not been portrayed as racial subjects. The tendency to address race as if it is only relevant to those perceived to be raced subjects is in fact part of prevailing racial narratives (Crenshaw, 1997; Twine, 2000). Part of the ideological power of ‘whiteness’ rests in its ability to remain unmarked as the ‘white point in space from which difference is identified’ (Hall, 1981). 8.2 Crossing boundaries tends to reveal the boundaries. Tennis is an environment shaped through “the racial and ethnic mapping…in physical and social terms” (Frankenberg, 1993, p. 44). The social geography of a setting refers to commonly held views about who does and does not ‘belong.’ The movement of Venus and Serena Williams in to the ranks of professional women’s tennis is seen as a threat to the established order (Buckley, 2001; Jenkins, 2001; Pucin, 2002). As bell hooks (1992) acknowledges, those who enter into predominantly white settings “whose very structures are informed by the principles of white supremacy that dare to affirm blackness, love of black culture and identity, do so at great risk,” (p. 114). Prior to their arrival, professional women’s tennis was conceived of as a ‘neutral environment’ as indicated by accounts which only speak of race following the arrival of Venus and Serena to the tour. The fact that the white female players are not seen as racial subjects is revealed in the repetition of narratives that only speak of race as though it only matters in light of the arrival of Venus and Serena (or Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe). As two of the top female tennis players in the homogeneous world of tennis they are simultaneously ‘the exceptional black,’ but black nonetheless. The racial dynamics go unnoticed because the very perception that there was no conflict until ‘they’ arrived is not itself seen as part of the prevailing racial logic. This is due in large part to the fact that racism has been “framed in terms of the formal exclusion of nonwhites not in terms of the privileging of whiteness” (Crenshaw, 1997, p. 106). 8.3 The presence and success of the Williams sisters is often portrayed as evidence of the absence of racism. Women’s professional tennis has been characterized by racial and class (and sexual) homogeneity. The elitism of tennis organizations and associations remains intact. Framing their presence as proof of the democratization of tennis negates the ways in which the relegation of blacks to the realm of sports and entertainment means that blacks occupy a marginal existence in white America’s representation of public life, largely excluded from those public spheres in which power and politics are negotiated and implemented” (Giroux, 1998, p. 134). As Richard Lapchick (1991) notes, the presence of less than two black stars per decade in all four of the decades following the integration of tennis is ‘hardly dominance.’ When Althea arrived on to the women’s professional tennis scene, the media and fans alike expressed their fear and anxiety. Scottie Hall, a reporter for the Sunday Graphic captures the nature of this fear in his description of the scene at Wimbledon in 1956. Following her defeat at Wimbledon, he described the atmosphere as ‘anti-Gibson.’ Recalling an incident at the press bar at lunch time where an American reporter described the fear succintly: ‘So Joe Louis became a champ. And what happened? Nigger boxers came out from under every stone. Same thing if Gibson walks away from here with a tennis pot” (Gibson, 1958, p. 116). 8.4 Portrayals of Venus’s and Serena’s physicality and demeanour tend to confirm an association of blackness with anxiety, hostility and threat that has most often been linked to black male bodies. Moreover, while it is customary for television commentators and the print media to identify and describe the physical features of all female athletes, cultural and historical legacies exert pressures upon the kinds of images and portrayals that are employed (Miller et al., 2001; Nelson, 1994). 8.5 The ‘fear of a black tennis planet’ continues to be made manifest in representations of the meaning and significance of the Williams sisters’ arrival on to the women’s professional tennis tour. On the eve of the 2001 US Open, Time Magazine released an issue with Venus and Serena on the cover bearing the title “the Sisters Against the World.” In light of the pervasiveness of representations that seek to frame these two women as intruders who compromise the integrity of the sport, this title makes explicit that which is often coded through language and symbols that emphasize their racial difference. They are not simply competing against other women; they are competing against the rest of the world. The unmistakable message here is that they do not belong. 8.6 This is most vividly expressed in the media’s exultation following the return of Martina Hingis and Lindsay Davenport (both white) to the tour following injuries. Under the guise of a desire for more competitive matches (the ‘all Williams’ finals are not appealing enough to the public) the media and the players announced that they were suffering from ‘Williams family fatigue.’ In July 2002, Los Angeles Times reporter Lisa Dillman wrote an article titled “The Yearning for Hingis and Davenport.” She acknowledged that this ‘hope’ began at the French Open in May and that it had picked up speed in June at Wimbledon. Evert (2002a) expressed a similar desire in the September issue of Tennis Magazine. “There’s no doubt about it,” says Evert. The game needs a competitive Martina and a healthy Lindsay Davenport. Lindsay’s presence adds a sense of normalcy to the game. Her feet are firmly on the ground, when she’s around, you just feel like everything is going to be okay.” Indeed! With all the concern expressed about the advent of the ‘power game’ and the game’s subsequent demise (owing to the Williams sisters), these proclamations declare that the return of a player like Hingis whose game displays her ‘brain power’ would elevate the quality heretofore lacking in the sport (Roberts, August 2001a). The expressions of longing for the return of these two players reasserts the white female presence as the norm, and reinscribes the cultural superiority of ‘whiteness.’ The presumed devaluation of an environment following the arrival of a black presence has been oft repeated. These narratives suggest that the return of these two players would secure the civility and restore the image of a sport (apparently) tarnished by the presence and the overwhelming success of the Williams sisters. IX. Closing remarks: “Other kinds of dreams” (Parmar, 1989, p. 55) 9.1 We live in an era dominated by images where we receive “sudden, accelerated, sustained blasts of media messages – visual and in print – that rapidly enforce the narrative and truncate alternative opinion” (Morrison, 1997, p. xiv). In this context, media messages operate as a surveillance mechanism, monitoring, coding and recording virtually every element of our daily lives. Together, the pervasive gaze of the predominantly white media and sport commentators continually observe, categorize and impose norms that seek to fix in the public imaginary the myriad ways in which the sisters are different from the other players on the women’s tour. The visibility of blackness, in contrast to the invisibility of whiteness, assists in the detection and representation of cultural differences, serving as a constant reminder of how their public presence disrupts the current social order of tennis (Collins, 1998; Gray, 1997). This constant marking of the Williams sisters’ bodies as the site and source of racial signification and racial subjectification establishes and reaffirms the racial boundaries, simultaneously normalizing and justifying the current racial order (Kawash, 1997). The principle of boundary, of an unambiguous distinction, is a key feature to the production and reproduction of racial power, for it constructs racial difference as an essential one. In turn, the complexity of Venus’ and Serena’s lives is undermined in representations that focus on their ‘difference’ (read blackness) and “use it to mark social, cultural and political differences as if they were unbridgeable human divisions” (Carby, 1992, p. 192-3). 9.2 The persistent evaluation and codification of Venus’ and Serena’s presence is in fact illustrative of the kind of surveillance that confronts many blacks who enter mainly white public spaces (Collins, 1998). This social practice of surveillance is significant because it creates particular forms of social knowledge and, as such, it produces a particular form of power (Fiske, 1996). The constant gaze and criticism reminds everyone that black is a ‘suspect category’ whose presence warrants constant observation (Morrison, 1992). In this context, media saturation is itself a form of social containment and suppression (Essed, 1991). In addition, the repetition of images is important because they preclude alternate perspectives and, over time, they become what we know and believe (Lubiano, 1992; Morrison, 1997). The dearth of diverse images of independent, wealthy black females makes Venus and Serena Williams unrecognizable to the public. The primacy of the narrative of racial difference obscures how race intersects with other relations. Dominant narratives have failed to capture how hierarchies of race and gender (in addition to sexuality and class) give form and content to the particular women that they are (Higginbotham, 1992). As a result, elements of their identity are erased and the complexity and dynamism of their experiences are marginalized and they remain hidden from view. There is no space from which we can comprehend the ways in which their lives are shaped by multiple elements of their identity. 9.3 Much is at stake in challenging these images. “Visual symbolism has begun to rival spoken or printed words as the medium by which our sense of cultural tradition is to be carried forward” (Williams, 1997, p. 28). One of the goals of this discussion was to address the ways in which dominant assumptions are embedded in both cultural representations as well as in the organization and structure of tennis itself. I also wanted to make whiteness visible in order to illuminate how ideologies of race, class and gender power are intricately connected to the development of tennis. The continued references to the ways in which Venus’ and Serena’s bodies, demeanour and style of play are ‘different’ reveal the constructed nature of racial difference. That is, “the very necessity to police and monitor, and to denigrate those who do not conform, indicates the instability of the racial sign ‘black’ and its refusal to be contained and codified” (Young, 2000, p. 427). 9.4 I also wanted to bring to bear on this discussion the notion that we are all racialized and gendered subjects so that we can then think about representations of ‘whiteness’ in relation to ‘blackness.’ Tennis is both a racializing and engendering institution. In this regard, cultural practices and structures are also implicated in the production and perpetuation of beliefs about ‘black’ and ‘white’ women. The negative meanings assigned to Venus’s and Serena’s values and style of play reveals how different images and beliefs are mobilized to support particular arguments. The sisters’ success clearly signals the disruption their presence has caused to both fans and mass media. The repetition of the narrative that they are undermining the cultural standards of professional women’s tennis illustrates the extent to which dominant groups have tended to establish and maintain what they have regarded as appropriate ways of being ‘female’ (Wamsley, 1999). Part of the terrain of struggle involves interrogating the limited and limiting representations of black women athletes. One other challenge that lies ahead involves drawing attention to the different conditions in which relations of race, gender and class power are reproduced so that we might have a greater understanding of the complex nature of black women’s experiences and interpretations of their sporting lives. References Andrews, D.L. (1996). The fact(s) of Michael Jordan’s blackness: Excavating a floating racial signifier. Sociology of Sport Journal 13 (2), 125-158. Araton, H. (2001, August). Errant shots in spotlight at the open. New York Times, August, 28. Ashe, A., & Rampersad, A. (1993). Days of grace: A memoir. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. Associated Press, Venus happy she did it her way. (2002, February 25). Baldwin, J. (1969). Sweet Lorraine. In L. Hansberry (Ed.) To be young, gifted and Black (pp. xi-xv). New York: Signet. Barnes, S. (2001, July 6). Effortless Williams infuriates by refusing to
bow to convention. The Times, July 6. [Electronic version]. Retrieved
from: Berger, J. (1972). Ways of Seeing. London: Penguin Books. Birrell, S. (1988). Discourses on the Gender/sport relationship: From women in sport to gender relations. In K. Pandolf (Ed), Exercise and sport sciences review, 16 (pp.459-502). New York: MacMillan Publishing Company. Birrell, S. (1989). Racial relations theories and sport: Suggestions for a more critical analysis. Sociology of Sport Journal, 6, 212-227. Birrell, S. (1990). Women of color. Critical autobiography and sport. In M. Messner & D.Sabo (Eds.), Sport, men and the gender order (pp. 185-199). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics Press. Birrell, S. & Cole, C.L. (1990). Double fault: Renee Richards and the construction and naturalization of difference. Sociology of Sport Journal, 7 (1), 1-21. Bricker, C. (2002, March 29). Serena bully of her block. Los Angeles Times, March 29. [Electronic version]. Retrieved from: http://www.latimes.com/la-00002263mar29.story. Buckley, W. (2001, July). Are the sisters carving up the game for themselves? Perhaps they should. The Guardian, July 7. Butler, J. (1993). Endangered/endangering: Schematic racism and white paranoia. In R.Gooding-Williams (Ed.), Reading Rodney King, reading urban uprising (pp.15-22). New York: Routledge. Cahn, S. K. (1993). From the ‘muscle moll’ to the ‘butch’ ballplayer: Mannishness, lesbianism, and homophobia in U.S. Women’s Sports. Feminist Studies, 19, 343-368). Cahn, S. K. (1994). Coming on strong: Gender and sexuality in twentieth century women’s sport. New York: The Free Press. Carby, H. (1986). ‘On the threshold of woman’s era’: Lynching, empire, and sexuality in black feminist theory. In H.L. Gates Jr. (Ed.), ‘Race’, writing and difference (pp. 301-317). Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Carby, H. 1992). The multicultural wars. In G. Dent (Ed.), Black popular culture (pp. 187-199). Seattle: Bay Press. Carby, H. (1999). Cultures in Babylon: Black Britain and African America. London: Verso. Carby, H. (2001). Postmodern blackness and the celebrity sportstar: Ian Wright, ‘race’ and English identity. In D.L. Andrews & S.J. Jackson (Eds.), Sport Stars: The cultural politics of sporting celebrity (pp. 102-123). London: Routledge. Carrington, B. (1998). Sport, masculinity, and black cultural resistance. Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 22, 275-298. Cepeda, R. (2001, June). Courting Destiny. Essence, 124-126, 182-184, 192-193. Childs, D. (2001, September 7). Williams sisters combat racism. Black
Radical Congress News, September 7. [Electronic version]. Retrieved
from: Collins, P.H. (1990). Black feminist thought. Boston: Unwin Hyman. Collins, P.H. (1998). Fighting words: Black women & the search for justice. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Cole, C.L., & Andrews, D.L. (1996). Look-it’s NBA showtime! Visions of race in the popular imaginary. In N.K. Denzin (Ed.), Cultural Studies A Research Volume, 1 (1), pp.141-181. Combahee River Collective. (1981). A black feminist statement. In G.T. Hull, P.B. Scott & B. Smith (Eds.), But some of us are brave (pp. 13-22). Old Westbury, NY: Feminist Press. Corsello, A. (2002, October). Curse of the succubus, Gentleman’s Quarterly, 220-228. Crenshaw, K. (1992). Whose story is it, anyway? Feminist and antiracist appropriations of Anita Hill. In T. Morrison (Ed.), Race-ing justice, en-gendering power: Essays on Anita Hill, Clarence Thomas and the construction of social reality (pp. 402-436). New York: Pantheon Books. Crenshaw, K. (1994). Mapping the margins: Intersectionality, identity politics, and violence against women of color. In M. Fineman & R. Mykituk (Eds.), The public nature of private violence: The discovery of domestic abuse (pp. 93-118). New York: Routledge. Crenshaw, K. (1997). Color-blind dreams and racial nightmares: Reconfiguring racism in the post-civil rights era. In T. Morrison & C.Brodsky Lacour (Eds.), Birth of a nation ‘hood: Gaze, script, and spectacle in the O.J. Simpson case (pp. 97-168). New York: Pantheon Books. Davis, A.Y. (1981). Women, race and class. New York: Random House. Davis, A.Y. (2002). Reflections on ‘education and liberation: Black women’s perspective.’ In P. Essed & D.T. Goldberg (Eds.), Race critical theories: Text and context (pp. 517-519). Oxford: Blackwell Publisher. Dillman, L. (2001, July 19). The yearning for Hingis, Davenport. Los Angeles Times, July 19 [Electronic version]. Retrieved from: http://www.latimes.com/la-sp-tennis.col19jul19.column Douglas, D.D (1988). Race, class and sex: Towards a relational level of analysis of black women’s responses to oppression in education and sport. Unpublished master’s thesis, Miami University (Ohio). Douglas, M. (1966). Purity and danger: an analysis of the concepts of pollution and taboo. London: Routledge.. du Cille, A. (1994). The occult of true black womanhood: Critical demeanor and black feminist studies. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 19 (3), 591-629. Dunbar, P.L. (1896). In J.R. Sherman, (Ed.), African-American poetry: An anthology, 1773-1927 (pp. 61-68). Mineola, NY: Dover Publications, Inc. Duncan, M.C., & Messner, M. (1998). The media image of sport and gender. In L.A. Wenner (Ed.), MediaSport (pp. 170-185). London: Routledge. Entine, J. (2000). Taboo: Why black athletes dominate sports and why we are afraid to talk about it. New York: PublicAffairs. Essed, P. (1991). Understanding everyday racism: An interdisciplinary theory. Newbury Park, CA: Sage Publications, Inc. Evert, C. (2002a, September). ‘Etc’: Chris Evert on the Williams domination, Tennis Magazine, n.p. Evert, C. (2002b, September). Evert concedes father knows best. Reuters, September 8. Fanon, F. (1967). Black skin, white masks (Charles Lam Markmann, Trans.). New York: Grove Press, Inc. (Original work published 1952). Feagin, J. R., & M.P. Sikes. (1994). Living with racism: The black middle-class experience. Boston: Beacon Press. Festle, M. (1996). Playing nice: Politics and apologies in women’s sports. New York: Columbia University Press. Fiske, J. (1996). Media matters: Everyday culture and political change. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Foucault, M. (1977). Discipline and punish: The birth of the prison. (A. Sheridan, Trans.). New York: Vintage Books. Foucault, M. (1980). Power/knowledge: Selected interviews and other writings: 1972-1977. (C. Gordon, L. Marshall, J. Mepham, K.Soper, Trans.). New York: Pantheon. Frankenberg, R. (1993). White women, race matters the social construction of whiteness. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. Frankenberg, R. (1997). Introduction: Local whitenesses, localizing whiteness. In R. Frankenberg (Ed.), Displacing whiteness: Essays in social and cultural criticism (pp. 1-33). Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Gibson, A. (1958). I always wanted to be somebody. New York: Harper and Row. Giddings, P. (1984). When and where I enter: The impact of black women on race and sex in America. New York: William Morrow. Gilman, S.L. (1985). Black bodies, white bodies: Toward an iconography of female sexuality in late nineteenth –century art, medicine, and literature. Critical Inquiry, 12 (1), 205-243. Giroux, H. A. (1998). Youth, memory work, and the racial politics of whiteness. In J.L. Kincheloe, S.R. Steinberg, N.M. Rodriguez, & R.E. Chennault (Eds.), White reign: Deploying whiteness in America (pp. 123-136). New York: St. Martin’s Press Gissendanner, C. H. (1994). African-American women and competitive sport, 1920-1960. In S. Birrell & C. L. Cole (Eds.), Women, sport, and culture (pp. 81-92). Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics Press. Griffin, P. (1998). Strong women, deep closets: Lesbians and homophobia in sport.Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics Press. Gray, H. (1997). Anxiety, desire and conflict in the American racial imagination. In J. Lull & S. Hinerman (Eds.), Media scandals: Morality and desire in the popular culture marketplace (pp. 85-98). Cambridge, UK: Polity Press. Hall, A.M. (1996). Feminism and sporting bodies: Essays on theory and practice. Champaign, IL: Human Kinetics Press. Hall, S. (1980). Race, articulation, and societies structured in dominance. UNESCO:Sociological theories, race and colonialism (pp. 305-345). Paris: UNESCO Press. Hall, S. (1981). The whites of their eyes: Racist ideologies and the media. In G. Bridges & R Brunt (Eds.), Silver Lining: Some strategies for the eighties (pp. 28-52). London: Lawrence and Wishart. Hall, S. (1987). Minimal selves. In L. Apignanesi, (Ed.), ICA document no 6. London: ICA. Black film, British cinema. London: ICA. Hall, S. (1988). New ethnicities. In K. Mercer, and I. Julien (Eds.), ICA document no 7. Black film, British cinema. London: ICA. Hammonds, E. (1994). Black (w)holes and the geometry of black female sexuality. Differences: A journal of feminist cultural studies, 6 (2 & 3), 126-145. Hansberry, L. (1959). A raisin in the sun. New York: Signet. Hansberry, L. (1969). To be young, gifted and black. New York: Signet. Healy, M. (2002, October). Three more reasons to forget about men’s tennis. Gentleman’s Quarterly, 262-265. Higginbotham, E.B. (1992). African-American women’s history and the metalanguage of race. Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 17 (2) ,251-274. Hine. D.C. (1989). Rape and the inner lives of black women in the middle west. Signs:Journal of Women in Culture and Society, 14 (4), 913-920. Hine. D.C. (1997). The future of black women in the academy: Reflections on struggle. In L. Benjamin (Ed.), Black women in the academy: Promises and perils (pp.327-339). Gainesville: University Press of Florida. hooks, b. (1992). Representing whiteness in the black imagination. In L. Grossberg, C. Nelson, & P.A. Treichler (Eds.), Cultural studies (pp. 338-346). New York: Routledge. hooks, b. (1994). Feminism inside: Toward a black body politic. In T. Golden (Ed.), Black male: Representations of masculinity in contemporary American art (pp. 127-140). New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. Jeansonne, J. (2002, August 25). Separated at service: Serena, Venus have contrasting games and personalities. Newsday, Inc., August 25. [Electronic version]. Jordan, J. (1998). Affirmative acts: Political Essays. New York: Anchor Books. Jenkins, S. (2001, September). Venus wins sisters act. Washington Post, September 8. Kawash, S. (1997). Dislocating the colorline: Identity, hybridity, and singularity in the African American narrative. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Pres. Kincheloe, J.L., Steinberg, S.R., Rodriguez, N.M., & Chennault, R. E. (1998). White Reign: Deploying whiteness in America. New York: St. Martin’s Press. Lapchick, R.E. (1991). Five minutes to midnight: Race and sport in the 1990s. Lanham, MD: Madison Books. Lindsey, E. (2001). Notes from the sports desk: Reflections race, class and gender in British sports journalism. In B. Carrington & I. McDonald (Eds.), ‘Race’, sport and British society (pp. 188-198). London: Routledge. Lipsitz, G. (1998). The possessive investment in whiteness: How white people profit from identity politics. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Lorde, A. (1990). Sister outsider. Freedom, CA: The Crossing Press Lubiano, W. (1992). Black ladies, welfare queens, and state minstrels: Ideological war by narrative means. In T. Morrison (Ed.), Race-ing justice, En-gendering power: Essays on Anita Hiill, Clarence Thomas and the construction of social reality (pp. 323-363). New York: Pantheon Books. McEnroe, J. (2000, September 17). The cocky Williams sisters are as cold as ice. Sunday Telegraph [Electronic version] Retrieved from: http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?a…rrrrvs&pg+/et/00/9/17/stmac17.html McKibben, D. (2001, April 26). Tennis’ growing pain. Los Angeles Times, April 26, p. D12. Mercer, K. (1992). ‘1968’: Periodizing postmodern politics and identity. In L. Grossberg, C. Nelson, & P.A. Treichler (Eds.), Cultural studies (pp. 424-438). New York: Routledge. Mercer, K. (1994). Welcome to the jungle: New positions in black cultural studies. London: Routledge. Miller, T. (2001). SportSex. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. Miller, T., Lawrence, G., McKay, J., & Rowe. D. (2001). Globalization and sport: Playing the world. London: Sage Publications. Morgan, J. 1999. When chicken-heads come home to roost. New York: Simon & Schuster, Inc. Morrison, T. (1992). Introduction: Friday on the Potomac. In T. Morrison (Ed.), Race-ing justice, En-gendering power: Essays on Anita Hill, Clarence Thomas and the construction of social reality (pp. vii-xxx). New York: Pantheon Books. Morrison, T. (1997). The official story: Dead man golfing. In T. Morrison & C.Brodsky Lacour (Eds.), Birth of a nation ‘hood: Gaze, script, and spectacle in the O.J. Simpson case (pp. vii-xxviii). New York: Pantheon Books. Mott, S. (2001, July). Heart of an assassin: Williams
overpowers Davenport to roll into Wimbledon final. The Daily Telegraph. [Electronic
version]. Retrieved from: Myers, C. (2002). Quoted during the US Open Telecast, September 4 on CBS. Nelson, M.B. (1994). The stronger women get, the more men love football: Sexism and the American culture of sports. New York: Harcourt Brace & Company. Noel, P. (2000, November 8). Fear of the Williams Sisters. Village Voice,
November 8. Oglesby, C. (1981). Myths and realities of black women in sport. In T.S. Green, C.A. Oglesby, A. Alexander, & N. Franke (Eds.), Black women in sport (pp. 1-13). Reston, VA: American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation and Dance. Omi, M., & Winant, H. (1986). Racial formation in the United States: From the 1960s to the 1980s. New York: Routledge. Parmar, P. (1989). Other kinds of dreams. Feminist Review, 31, 55-65. Pucin, D. (2002, September). They’re tennis’ power couple. Los Angeles Times, September 9. Roberts, S. (2001, May). Venus Williams exits early from French open.
New York Times. [Electronic version]. Retrieved from: Roberts, S. (2001a, August). The no. 1 who’s no longer relevant. New York Times, August, 27. Roberts, S. (2001b, August). Serena Williams escapes rocky start. New York Times, August,28. Roberts, S. (2001b, September). Venus Williams has the sport firmly on her racket. New York Times, September 11. Scraton, S. (2001). Reconceptualizing race, gender and sport: The contribution of black feminism. In B. Carrington & I. McDonald (Eds.), ‘Race’, sport and British society (pp. 170-187). London: Routledge. Smith, B. (1983). (Ed.), Home girls: A Black feminist anthology. New York: Kitchen Table Women of Color Press. Smith, B. (1998). The truth that never hurts: Writings on race, gender, and freedom. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. Smith, D. (2001, August 25). Venus at center of
tennis universe. USA Today, August 25.[Electronic version]. Retrieved
from: Smith, V. (1990). Split affinities: The case of interracial rape. In M. Hirsch, & E.F. Keller (Eds.), Conflicts in feminism (pp. 271-287). New York: Routledge. Spillers, H.J. (1987). Mama’s baby, papa’s maybe: An American grammar book. Diacritics, 17 (2), 65-81. Stein, J. (2001, September 3). The Power Game. Time, 34-41. Tudor, A. (1998). Sports reporting: Race, difference and identity. In K. Brants, J. Hermes, & L. van Zoonen (Eds.), The media in question: Popular cultures and public interests. London: Sage publications. Twine, F.W. (2000). Racial ideologies and racial methodologies. In F.W. Twine & J.W. Warren (Eds.), Racing research researching race: Methodological dilemmas in critical race studies (pp. 1-34). New York: New York University Press. Vertinsky, P., & Captain, G. (1998). More myth than history: American culture and representations of the black female’s athletic ability. Journal of Sport History, 25 (3), 532-561. Wallace, M. (1978). Black macho and the myth of the superwoman. New York: The Dial Press. Wamsley, K.B. (1999). The public importance of men and the importance of public men: Sport and masculinities in nineteenth-century Canada. In P. White & K. Young (Eds.), Sport and gender in Canada (pp. 24-39). Don Mills, ON: Oxford University Press. Ware, V. (1992). Beyond the Pale. London: Verso. Wellman, D. (1997). Minstrel shows, affirmative action talk, and angry white men: Marking racial otherness in the 1990s. In R. Frankenberg (Ed.), Displacing whiteness: Essays in social and cultural criticism (pp. 311-331). Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Whannel, G. (2002). Media sport stars: Masculinities and moralities. New York: Routledge. White, E. F. (1990). Africa on my mind: Gender, counter discourse and African-American nationalism , Journal of Women’s History, 2 (1), 57-73. White, P., & Young, K. (1999). (Eds.), Sport and gender in Canada. Don Mills, ON:Oxford University Press. Williams, L.D. (1994). Sportswomen in black and white: Sports history from an Afro-American perspective. In P.J. Creedon (Ed.), Women, media and sport: Challenging gender values. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc. Williams, L. (2000). It’s the little things: Everyday interactions that anger, annoy, and divide the races. New York: Harcourt, Inc. Williams, P.J. (1991). The alchemy of race and rights. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Williams, P.J. (1997). Seeing a color-blind future: The paradox of race. New York: The Noonday Press. Wine, S. (2001, September). Sister vs. sister: Serena and Venus. Washington Post, September 7. Young, L. (1996). Fear of the dark: Race, gender and sexuality in the cinema. London: Routledge. Young, L. (2000). How do we look? Unfixing the singular black (female) subject In P.Gilroy, L. Grossberg, & A. McRobbie (Eds.), Without guarantees: In honour of Stuart Hall (pp. 416-429). London: Verso. Zinn, M. B., & Dill, B.T. (1996). Theorizing difference from multiracial feminism. Feminist Studies, 22 (2), 321-331. | v5i2 contents | submitting?| |
|