Serena Williams: Powerhouse Physique, Big Money Dominance, Humble Heart

Superstar Serena Williams is styled by Jillian Davison in 'World's Greatest Female Athlete'. The sportswoman powerhouse is lensed by Norman Jean Roy for Glamour's July 2016 cover story./ Makeup by Sir John; hair by Ursula Stephen

Former MSNBC host Melissa Harris Perry interviews Serena in Serena Is Unstoppable:' 'Am I the Greatest? I Don't Know. I'm the Greatest That I Can Be."

If you believe -- as I do -- the the male castration complex is unconscious, real and flourishing in patriarchal societies, you understand how it expressed itself xxxxx then the white male sports writer for The New York Times who wrote that 'Large biceps' aren't feminine

In July 2015 New York Times writer Ben Rothenberg voiced Tennis's Top Woman Balance Body Image With Ambition, an interesting survey of how Serena's "mold-breaking muscular frame" is not copied among the players. 

“It’s our decision to keep her as the smallest player in the top 10,” said Tomasz Wiktorowski, the coach of Agnieszka Radwanska, who is listed at 5 feet 8 and 123 pounds. “Because, first of all she’s a woman, and she wants to be a woman.”
Radwanska, who struggled this year before a run to the Wimbledon semifinals, said that any gain in muscle could hurt her trademark speed and finesse, but she also acknowledged that how she looked mattered to her.

Germany's Andrea Petkovic told Rothenberg that she particularly loathes seeing images of her executing two-handed backhands, "when her arm muscles appear the most bulging."

“I just feel unfeminine,” she said. “I don’t know — it’s probably that I’m self-conscious about what people might say. It’s stupid, but it’s insecurities that every woman has, I think. I definitely have them and I’m not ashamed to admit it. I would love to be a confident player that is proud of her body. Women, when we grow up we’ve been judged more, our physicality is judged more, and it makes us self-conscious.”

Player Timea Bacinszky admitted to Rothenberg that she has sought therapy in an effort to become more comfortable with her muscular, powerhouse body.

Maria Sharapova, the slender, blond Russian ace who has enjoyed being the highest-paid female athlete because of her endorsements admitted that she always wished she could be thinner. “I always want to be skinnier with less cellulite; I think that’s every girl’s wish,” Sharapova laughed. The superstar was banned Thursday by the International Tennis Federation from the Rio Olympic Games for testing positive for meldonium, a recently outlawed substance. Her two-year ban from tennis could be a career-ender.

One wonders why Serena Williams didn't supplant Sharapova on the Forbes list of highest-paid athletes until this year, where the powerhouse lives at No. 40 with earnings of $28.9 million.

One wonders how deep the racial component runs in an often dirisive commentary about Serena Williams' physique. Or is it sexism pure and simple? Women should not appear muscular and strong because that is male or masculine. I remember America's obsession with First Lady Michelle Obama's toned arms, so intense that it occupied a top spot in Google news on September 2009.

Sharapova's domination of Williams in endorsement dollars is particularly interesting when one considers that the powerful Black woman has utterly dominated Sharapova on the tennis court, winning 17 of their 19 matches. Williams lost twice to the Russia in 2004. Since then Serena's athletic prowess has dominated Sharapova's meldonium, metabolic modulator-enhanced body.

If Serena Williams, a long-standing, outspoken voice for women and people of color in the world of tennis and beyond is bitter about obvious disparities in endorsement deals between her and Sharapova, she is pure graciousness in the Glamour interview.

Serena is one Grand Slam away from tying Steffi Graf's singles record. For all her achievements, the Compton girl says she never thought about leaving a tennis legacy. Williams has opened two schools in Africa and one in Jamaica.

I never left my roots. You can identify me as someone that didn’t become high and mighty. Humility is a defining [trait] all of us can forever learn, and I try to be as humble as anyone can be.

Beyoncé asked Williams to share her throne with an unexpected cameo in Lemonade; Epix will air Serena, an intimate documentary in June. Harris Perry shares her favorite momen in the documentary: "when she rips her pants doing aerial acrobatics, only to laugh it off.) In person Williams is so utterly present, thoughtful, emotive, and human. She is quite simply slaying—in a Snuggie."