It’s been a gruelling week for Canadian tennis phenom Eugenie Bouchard. Sadly it has nothing to do with her impressive play on the court as she continued to advance in the Australian Open.
On Wednesday, the Canadian Press news service reported that a male announcer conducting an on-court interview with Bouchard asked the No. 7-ranked player, “Can you give us a twirl?” Apparently the interviewer had never seen a tennis player wearing a pink top with yellow straps before. An embarrassed Bouchard eventually relented.
This comes after Global News ran an online photo gallery titled “Even Eugenie Bouchard’s ugly faces are cute at Australian Open,” featuring 16 shots of Bouchard grimacing in various stages of athleticism.
For those of you who don’t know or have problems extrapolating, Bouchard is considered by many to be an attractive person. She’s also an elite athlete and has dedicated tens of thousands of hours in her brief lifespan to be one of the best tennis players in the world, something that sadly and far too often takes a back seat to her physical appearance.
We’re not against admiring a person’s physical beauty, but it’s problematic when it overshadows their more relevant and newsworthy accomplishments or if that standard isn’t the same one male athletes are held to.
Sure, people have been known to ogle soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo’s physique, but it would be refreshing if someone asked him to perform a shirtless pushup on the field once in a while. Same goes for Sidney Crosby. The Pittsburgh Penguins captain is a looker. So why isn’t there a picture gallery celebrating the watery depths of Crosby’s dreamboat eyes while he leads Team Canada to Olympic gold. And why oh why aren’t Olympic men’s beach volleyball players required to wear buttock-revealing short-shorts? Come on, give us a serving of sand-dusted hind quarters with that spike.
