14 DAY TRIAL // Marion Bartoli, a 28-year-old tennis player from France, is the 2013 Women’s Singles Wimbledon champion, beating Sabine Lisicki for the title. If you ask the Internet, Bartoli did not “deserve” to win.
As a post on Public Shaming on tumblr highlights (*caution is advised because of incredibly offensive language), this has nothing to do with Bartoli’s accomplishments on the tennis court, but only with the fact that she’s not skinny and blonde, or prone to giggling like a silly girl whenever there’s a TV camera on her.
This isn’t to say that Lisicki is that (a giggling silly girl), but rather that this is what many male viewers (and some women, too) expected Bartoli to be like. This is who should have won the Wimbledon cup.
Twitter is filled with venom and some of the most outrageous and offensive things ever committed to paper / the Internet.
From being called an ugly fat slob to being called a lesbian (and some other choice words I refuse to reproduce here), Bartoli’s regular looks are thrown back into her face as if it’s something she should be ashamed of.
Nay, as if it’s something that should even be considered when speaking of female tennis. Which, by the way, it shouldn’t be, not even in passing.
Apparently, the BBC also asked her how she was dealing with not being a looker (seriously).
“It doesn’t matter, honestly. I am not blonde, yes. That is a fact. Have I dreamt about having a model contract? No. I’m sorry. But have I dreamed about winning Wimbledon? Absolutely, yes,” Bartoli said.
Point well made.