Okay, so this whole Serena Williams in a catsuit thing. Yeah, it’s been around, right? Popped up, everyone had something to say, then it kinda fades, then sometimes it pops up again. My practice, if you wanna call it that, was just me trying to actually get what the whole fuss was about, beyond the clickbait headlines, you know?
My process, if you can call it that…
So I started clicking around, not like some serious academic study, just seeing what regular folks were saying, what the articles really said after the headline. And man, it’s not just one thing. It’s like an onion, or maybe one of those Russian dolls, layers inside layers.
- First, you got the look. Fashion statement! Power move! Some loved it, some hated it. Standard stuff.
- Then you hear it was for health reasons, compression, blood clots. Okay, makes sense. Practical.
- But then, BAM! The French Open folks pipe up, “Nah, not having it. Dress code!” And suddenly it’s about rules, tradition, who gets to decide what’s “respectful.”
- And that just opens up a whole bigger can of worms, doesn’t it? About women’s bodies in sports, about Black women in particular, about double standards. It’s all connected.
It’s like a big ol’ messy knot. You pull one string, and three others get tighter. Everyone’s got an angle, everyone’s got a strong opinion. One minute it’s about tennis, the next it’s a full-blown culture war debate happening in the comments section. Trying to find a simple “right” or “wrong” in all that? Good luck.
Why I even bothered, you ask?
It’s funny, this stuff sticks with me. Reminds me of this dumb situation years ago. I wasn’t a pro athlete, obviously, just working this office job. Super corporate, you know the type. They had this “casual Friday” policy, but their definition of casual was, like, one step down from a full suit. So, one Friday, I wore this perfectly decent band t-shirt. Not offensive, nothing crazy, just a band I liked. And you’d think I’d committed a crime.
My manager, this guy who probably thought a daring fashion choice was wearing a blue tie instead of a grey one, pulls me aside. “We need to talk about your attire.” Attire! Who even says that? He goes on about “professionalism” and “brand image.” For a band t-shirt. On a Friday. In an office where most clients never even saw us.
I tried to argue, like, “Dude, it’s clean, it’s not ripped, what’s the big deal?” But it was like talking to a brick wall. Policy is policy. It wasn’t about the t-shirt, it was about control, about them wanting everyone to be these identical little worker drones. I wasn’t even trying to make a statement like Serena, just wanted to be comfortable and a bit myself. But they made it into this whole thing. I ended up just wearing their boring polo shirts after that, but it always bugged me. That feeling of someone else’s arbitrary rules boxing you in.
So when I see stuff like the catsuit drama, I get it. Or at least, I get a little piece of why it’s not just about a damn outfit. It’s about more. It’s about who has the power to say “no, you can’t,” and why. And you see people pushing back, and you kinda go, “Yeah, I get that feeling.” It’s that same annoying buzz you get when someone tries to tell you how to be, based on some rule they just pulled out of their backside. So yeah, that’s my little “practice” on the Serena catsuit thing. Just connecting the dots, I guess.
