A sports magazine has drawn the ire of tennis fans for its ignominious statements regarding female tennis players. BusinessF1 is a publication that looks at the business side of Formula 1. It investigated the failure of the W series in one of its articles. The W Series is an all-female racing championship.
One of the reasons given in the article for the failure of the W series was the lack of sex appeal among its drivers, many of whom are minors. It went further, discussing how female tennis players use their sex appeal to make the tennis sport a more satiable and attractive proposition.
It took the example of Coco Gauff, who emerged on the scene at the young age of 15. At the age of 18, she breached the Top 10 of the WTA rankings. Here is what the magazine wrote, “Coco Gauff burst into the tennis consciousness in 2019 and was an overnight sensation. As arguably the best-looking tennis player currently on the circuit, she has not been afraid to discreetly use her sex appeal to enhance her image,” one of the lines in the article read.
Tennis fans are angry because the sports magazine did not count the hard work the female tennis players put in. It did not count in the pain, the pressure, and the media scrutiny that they have to face during the course of the year.
“Many people believe that the biggest asset of the W Series was the sex appeal of the 18 drivers. But the drivers were never exposed to the media in the way that women in some other sports are, such as tennis. They [marketing people] have compared the selling of women’s tennis to W Series and have found it lacking. Women’s tennis stars use their sex appeal to sell themselves and the tennis,” a part of the article read further.
Social media slams the magazine to have such views about Coco Gauff
The 18-year-old Coco Gauff came into the Australian Open riding on high hopes and expectations. She had already won the ASB Classic 2023 tournament. However, she could not do much at this year’s Australian Open. She defeated some outstanding players such as Katerina Siniakova, Emma Raducanu, and Bernarda Pera before succumbing to Jelena Ostapenko in the fourth round.
With Jessica Pegula, in the ladies’ doubles event, she reached the semi-finals round of the tournament. The all-American pair lost to the all-Japanese pair of Ena Shibahara and Shuko Aoyama 2-6, 6(7)–7(9) in this round.
Hence, social media was bound to fume at the published article and the magazine. Judging by the comments, while the majority of viewers came out in full support of the female tennis professional, a few even bashed the magazine. Sharing a wide spectrum of reactions online, here are a few reactions that came in.
Why we’re ignoring that disgusting part about Coco and only talking about women in motorsport https://t.co/p85ya8EGGV
— Dame⌚️ (@Bonocedes44) January 30, 2023
Shameful. https://t.co/ib1YGuPP4u pic.twitter.com/g6ARJ9H05L
— Bruce Burhans (@LocalAlienParty) January 31, 2023
This is disgusting how we’re in 2023 and there’s still this level of sexism in motorsport. This idea of women being objectified should’ve gone out the window long ago. These women have proven themselves in their class as they continue to improve in a system quite literally… https://t.co/8MDoewsDcs
— Thomas🏎️🏁🇮🇪 Danke Seb (@ThomasMaguireF1) January 30, 2023
This article is wrong on so many levels. How was it deemed ok that such a misogynist, degrading concept of a what should be female driver was written that way? This is unacceptable that women who showed time and time again their racing abilities are still reduced to their bodies https://t.co/pPcRXWtGh5
— Ori | チェコ SV5 🇩🇪 🇫🇷 (@checolution) January 30, 2023
This is seriously grim. Hard to believe it would be published in the 70s, nevermind now. https://t.co/wXm28OBpz6
— Martyn Williams (@MartynWilliams2) February 1, 2023
Although she failed to win the first Grand Slam of the season, she gave her best performance in both the singles and doubles events in this tournament this year. However, all of these achievements were missing from the magazine’s article. The magazine also failed to include all the previous-year heroics of the American tennis player.
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