Though I've not heard anyone defending Serena Williams's outburst when the topic has come up for conversation 'in real life' - and it's the women I know who've been criticising her - I know there's another view out there, as it's all over the BBC and my social media feed.
I was first alerted to it by clicking on Katty Kay's Twitter feed yesterday morning and finding tweet after tweet in praise of/in defence of Serena Williams and her less-than-serene behaviour. Yes, the face of the BBC in the USA was in full activist mode and wasn't, even for a second, bothering to think about alternative views on the matter. Some 24 hours later she finally tweeted something nice about Naomi Osaka, the woman who'd actually won the US Open. It looked very much to me as if she'd suddenly realised she ought to. Such behaviour is entirely expected.
Hearing that Woman's Hour was going to cover the story today I thought I'd check it out and see if turned out the way I expected it too. Of course, it should - as a one-off topic - have featured both sides of the argument (i.e. defenders and critics of Serena) but, being Woman's Hour, it contented itself instead with inviting someone from the Guardian and no one else. Jane Garvey and the Guardian woman then proceeded to partner up for a doubles match and reinforce each others points about how right it was that Serena had kicked off big time at the umpire and how awful some of the criticism of her has been and how women are generally hard-done-by. Yes, it was the usual stuff about sexism, racism and men behaving badly. 'Impartiality' certainly didn't enter into their conversation, or (evidently) the programme makers' minds.
Anyhow, here's a joke I'm sure even that very earnest woman from the Guardian might find funny (though perhaps not):
Anyhow, here's a joke I'm sure even that very earnest woman from the Guardian might find funny (though perhaps not):
My wife just stopped and said, "You weren't even listening, were you?" I thought, "That's a pretty weird way to start a conversation."Maybe Carlos Ramos should have told that one to Serena. And if Serena didn't laugh at that, maybe he could have tried this one on her instead:
If you lose one sense your other senses are enhanced. This is why people with no sense of humour have a heightened sense of self-importance.
