Ilie Nastase - Serena Williams

[Roger]

A prominent issue today - this report is from Yahoo :-

''Serena Williams has described alleged comments from Ilie Nastase regarding her unborn child as "racist" and pledged her full support to the International Tennis Federation (ITF) as it investigates the 70-year-old's conduct. Romania's Fed Cup captain purportedly made racially insensitive remarks relating to Williams' pregnancy, days after the 23-time grand slam champion revealed she is expecting her first child with fiance Alexis Ohanian.
Nastase is reported to have said on Friday of Williams' unborn baby:

"Let's see what colour it has. Chocolate with milk?"

I'm interested in what others might think.
Nasty should remember that 'curiosity killed the cat'. Curiosity in the context of the fact that the Mum to be is black and the Father to be is white.
INTRUSIVE - yes ! BAD MANNERED - yes ! TACTLESS - yes !
But 'Racist' - I don't see it that way.

(Nastase was also abusing female tennis players on Court with aggression and foul language - IMO that WAS disgraceful and I hope he is chucked right out of tennis.
And IMO one could argue that those comments were 'Sexist' ?).

[Teessider]

Good fun?
Not racist?
Got to disagree there.

[Roger]

Hi Teess.
'All good fun' - I refer to the intellectual issue of what is and what isn't racism.
But my post is modified now to avoid confusion. Sorry.

More interestingly, why do you think the Nastase comment is racist ?
Curious yes - that's life. Intrusive, bad mannered and tactless. YES.

Anyway - Nastase should be banned for his 'Sexist' and abusive behaviour to the players on Court.

ATB

[Roger]

Serena Williams complaint to the ITF that Ilie Nastase's words about her unborn child were racist, might be contradicted by her own words on arguably the much more serious part of Nastase's horrendous day.

Williams wrote: “It disappoints me to know we live in a society in which people like Ilie Nastase can make such racist comments towards myself and unborn child, and sexist comments against my peers.''

Anne Keothavong who was born to Parents originating from Vietnam, and Johanna Konta, were both called '****ing bitches' and by Serena's criteria, would that not be racial to AK ?
But Serena describes 'sexist comments'.

IMHO Nastase's awful aggression, abuse and bullying of the two Ladies on Court was deplorable and he should be chucked out of tennis for good on those grounds alone.
I hope he apologises to SW for his crass comment.

[Roger]

More rumbles in the World of Tennis - John McEnroe is in trouble - McEnroe stressed that Williams was the “best female player ever - no question” BUT he also said (1000 times apparently) that Serena would be placed at 700 in the Men's rankings. I read somewhere that Andy Murray also put his foot in it by ranking Serena at 1000 ! Hilarious.

Serena Williams asks McEnroe to respect her privacy as she is too busy posing naked for the cover of Vanity Fair in her advanced state of pregnancy and other hi-jinks, (see the link below).

McEnroe has a brilliant solution to the conundrum of rankings - let the men and women play against each other in joint rankings - mmmmmmmmm - I think that might affect the handsome earnings of the top Ladies but would be justice at last for the Men !

IMVHO equal prize money in Tennis for the Men and Ladies is the biggest 'politically correct' con trick of the Century flanked by the Feminist Fanatics - the Ladies play 60% of the points at half the speed of the Men - so by my reasoning the Prize money for Ladies should be not more than 60% of the £2 million prize for the singles at Wimbledon - £1.2 million.

And I am as 'new man' as the next man. Well I think so 

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2017/jun/27/john-mcenroe-serena-williams-world-ranking-tennis

[Roger]

''. . . . at Wimbledon this year the winner of the men’s title Novak Djokovic earned £2.3m, while the winner of the women’s title Simona Halep got exactly the same amount. It has been a principle for a number of years now that there is no difference in men’s and women’s pay at the top of tennis. So normalised has it become that to question the policy is to immediately occupy the misogynistic position – and who but some unreconstructed neanderthal wants to do that?

Well, here goes: there is something wrong about equal pay, at least in the four grand slam tournaments. The problem was exemplified in this year’s respective Wimbledon singles finals. Djokovic took four hours and 57 minutes to beat Roger Federer in an epic match that tested every aspect of the two competitors: skill, stamina, mental strength, you name it.

Halep, by contrast, finished her match against Serena Williams in just 56 minutes. That is more than four hours less time than the men’s final. The Romanian played the match of her life and deserved to win. But still, 56 minutes? ''

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2019/jul/21/novak-djokovic-men-women-equal-pay-tennis-womens-world-cup-football

[Teessider]

Equal pay should mean the same rules i.e best of 5 sets in grand slam tournaments. I guess the women's final this year would have been extended at least another 20 minutes.

[Roger]

Teess - thanks - I had a real chuckle at that.

NO mysoginist myself either - what a CON is equal pay in Women's tennis ?

Re. Bobby Riggs :-

''Back in the dark days of sporting sexism, when women were seen primarily as genteel amateurs or competitors to be judged by their appearance, women’s tennis was the crucible of what was to be a long and largely victorious battle to gain parity with male players. This was the era of the so-called Battle of the Sexes, the name given to the 1973 televised exhibition matches between the 55-year-old former world No 1 Bobby Riggs and women’s champion Billie Jean King. As the recent Hollywood film based on the clash put it, Riggs intended to put the show back into chauvinism. “The best way to handle women is to keep them pregnant and barefoot,” he announced. In the event King won what was a bizarre spectacle, but perhaps more importantly she played a key role in helping to organise women’s players so they could achieve financial parity with the men’s game.''

[Roger]

Ben Shapiro comments on aspects of equal pay or not  . . . . .

https://youtu.be/6RDZw_xSvDg