Via: The Root
She was born in Compton. I was born in Trinidad, the most southerly island in the Caribbean. She was raised to become a tennis superstar. In high school, my tennis instructor quietly took my parents aside and let them know that their child was ”more of an academic.” But now that we’re both grown women, for the first time I can truly identify with Serena Williams.
In a recent interview with Harper’s Bazaar, Serena confessed that, under all that raw physical talent, the body, the unstoppable ambition to be the best in her field, all along she has been dealing with body-image issues. Self-comparison issues that just about any woman in the world could easily recognize.
”I was 23 when I realized that I wasn’t Venus. She’s totally different,” she explains. ”I’m super-curvy. I have big boobs and this massive butt. She’s tall and she’s like a model and she fits everything. I was growing up, wanting to be her, wanting to look like her, and I was always fitting in her clothes, but then one day I couldn’t.”
Serena’s words speak to a mentality that plagues many women. For many of us, there is a perpetual feeling of not quite measuring up, a constant comparison of our features with someone we’ll never be, an ongoing lamentation that you’ll never be as (fill in the blank) as (fill in the blank). For me, it was all about comparing myself with my high school friends who were impossibly lissome, long-haired and universally desired by boys. And for Serena, it was all about comparing herself to her svelte sister — a sister who possesses a name that is synonymous with archetypal female beauty: Venus.
But the truth is, it is Serena’s body that has made her an icon, and not her sister’s. She is the one who is known for being a real powerhouse on the court. It’s her ”massive butt” that has inspired rap lyrics. These days, Serena controls her own appearance, owns her image and celebrates her identity. She doesn’t seek to cover herself up to appease the masses — instead of dressing conservatively, Serena struts out in one of her self-designed outfits. Read More..
