I agree that girls need strong role models to look up to, but I’m not completely sold on Serena William’s recent Nike advertisement being a totally positive format. First of all, I find the tagline for the ad to be fairly offensive. The advertisement reads “Are you looking at my titles?” Serena’s title, of course, is worn across her chest. Suddenly, “title” reads more like “titties.” While these ads are supposedly a response to Don Imus' sexits and racist comments toward the Rutger's basketball team, I'm not sure what the message is. Are we fighting fire with fire? The sexualization of William in this ad is frustrating to me. Can we just appreciate Williams for her amazing athletic prowess and leave her breasts out of the equation?
I think that it’s selling women short to say that they are incapable of performing at the same level as men in sport. Keeping on the tennis theme, the famous “Battle of the Sexes” match between tennis player Billie Jean King and Bobbie Riggs comes to mind. A woman also holds the world record for ski jumping, even though women were still not allowed to compete in this event in the 2010 winter Olympics.
While I love to see more athletic bodies embraced by advertising media, and while I prefer the strong, empowered woman to the starved, sulking images so often seen in high-fashion advertisement, I caution that replacing one ideal for another isn’t necessarily a good thing. Women come in all shapes and sizes and we should celebrate any body that is a healthy one. I hope that we can come to a place where we can get away from the sexualization of women in the media and appreciate women of all shapes and sizes just as they are.
**photo from: usa today
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