Do you remember last year when the women at Wimbledon were given center court based on their appearance? The Williams sisters, despite being the top tennis players in the world at the time, didn’t make the cut. Some (including me) speculated that the Williams sisters lacked the blonde hair and blue eyes of some of the other players and that both misogyny and racism were at play.

As I recall, the men at center court were not selected by their appearance, which is unsurprising considering the double-standard in appearance standards in sports, especially in tennis.

Now, Venus Williams is playing in the French Open time again and I have to wonder if she is thumbing her nose at the entire attitude towards women in tennis in general with her choice of clothing- she wore a new outfit to the tournament which Lindy West of the Stranger is pretty accurately describing as a “slutty tutu”.

Reactions to her outfit are mixed- it is after all France and the French did give her whistles for her bold choice in lingerie and hopefully applause for her win in the first round of the tournament. Americans polled by the clearly unscientific USA Today poll of the day, however, thought that Ms. Williams should have been asked to change her clothes into more conservative attire. Based on the results from the informal poll, I doubt that Ms. Williams would have gotten away with wearing her new outfit  at the Davis Cup or US Open, but I am glad she did.

A majority of the the USA Today comments reflect the attitude that she is, “taking away from the sport”. Considering the fact that the Williams sisters have dominated the sport for several years and the fact that one of the biggest tournaments was undermined last year by the choice for the “best looking female athletes” at center court as opposed to the best athletes, there’s really no basis for a statement like this.

What do you think? Should Venus Williams be able to wear whatever she chooses for her tennis matches or should she have to conform to an out-dated idea of a woman wearing a white tennis dress? Do you think that wearing a so-called “slutty tutu” really undermines the sport any less than Andre Agassi’s drug use and mullet did in the 90’s?