ABSTRACT

When tennis champion Serena Williams, days before winning the 2002

U.S. Open, appeared on the courts in a black spandex outfit, media

frenzy ensued. Her body, adorned in all its “ghetto” glamour-

bleached-blonde braids and tight-fitting suit, outlining the contours of

her curves, among other things-managed to disrupt, literally and fig-

uratively, the elitist game of tennis. Williams, who defended herself by

stating that she wanted to wear something “comfortable” as she moved

around the tennis court, was nonetheless attacked in the press for her

“tackiness” and “inappropriate” display of sexuality.