Share: mail

When Brett Kavanaugh yelled most of his opening statement it was called defending his honor, but when Serena Williams tried to defend her honor three weeks ago, people said she was throwing a tantrum, a meltdown, was hysterical, and losing her cool. That is the perfect textbook example of the double standard and white male privilege. There is nothing different about how they both reacted. They were both defending their honor and their character but the only thing that makes it different is their sex and their color.

Two weeks ago, millions of people tuned in and watched an angry and overly emotionally charged Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh wine and yell his opening remarks to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Some Republicans and many viewers believed that he was being treated unfairly and that this combination process has become a national disgrace. The same can be said about the incident Tennis player Serena Williams had on September 8th.

To recap with what happened, Williams was charged with three code violations  one of them for receiving coaching when she was not supposed to. It was from there where Williams and umpire Ramos had their altercation.

Williams went up to Ramos and told him, “I don’t cheat. I’d rather lose. Every time I play here, I have problems. You stole a point from me, and you are a thief, There are men out here that do a lot worse, but because I’m a woman, you’re going to take this away from me? That is not right.”

Williams has since been fined $17,000 for the three code violations.

How is it that Kavanaugh could get away with his yelling and people defending him by saying he was being treating unfairly but Williams was penalized and many articles were headlined with derogatory words about her? Even a cartoon illustration was drawn of her that many have said is racist.

In a CNBC article Tennis player Billie Jean King said, “When a woman is emotional, she’s ‘hysterical’ and she’s penalized for it. When a man does the same, he’s ‘outspoken’ and there are no repercussions.” Williams was yet again a victim to the sexism that women face in tennis and around the world.. When a woman has an outburst it  seems to be the worst thing that could happen in the world, however, when a man does it they are given a pass or have excuses made for them. They are never painted out to be the bad guy.

The GOP Senators that were saying Kavanaugh was being mistreated, excused his behavior during the hearings and said anyone would respond the same way if they were in the same situation. Imagine if a women, nonetheless, a woman of color was behaving indignantly towards members of the Senate. What would happen?

A video tweeted by ESPN, shows Patriots Quarterback, Tom Brady yelling at his players but ESPN captioned the video “Tom Brady was HEATED.” His reaction was the same as Williams but again the double standard came into play. It seems that men are allowed to throw tantrum as well but they are able to get away with it. Another video shared by business person Vala Afshar shows how Williams indeed did face the sexist double standard.

The reaction that both Williams and Kavanaugh presented to express how they felt were both the same. Though only one was considered to be an outburst and the other a tantrum. It seems that there has not been an equality to how men and women express their feelings.

Follow: rssyoutubeinstagrammail

Leave a Reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.