Different strokes

This is sports reporting, by the Star's Damien Cox. (I added the link.)

Opening night of the Rogers Cup women's competition at the Rexall Centre last night featured two of the three. Glamour girl Maria Sharapova is working on coming back from a serious shoulder injury at the tender age of 22, while her opponent, Nadia Petrova, is a long-time vet who might well, at the age of 27, have played her best tennis.

Sharapova, in her seventh tournament back from shoulder surgery that put her on the shelf for nine months, was clearly the focus of attention in what turned out to be a rather pedestrian affair on a sultry evening that followed a broiling day of action at York University.

So is Sharapova really back? Is she looking like she might challenge again for No. 1 in the world after tumbling to No. 49?

Well, the answers were at best unclear, with Sharapova's 6-3, 6-4 victory rather less entertaining than the hit-and-giggle event beforehand that including former stars Martina Navratilova and Monica Seles, the brilliant Serena Williams and Canadian ace Aleksandra Wozniak.

Petrova's effort was riddled with errors, particularly with her uncooperative forehand, with the only drama being her pushback from down 5-2 in the third, twice staring down double-match point before succumbing.

This is sexism, by the Sun's Mike Strobel. (I added the boldface.)

It's sex. Game, sex, match.

Take a gander at the promos for the women's Rogers Cup this week.

Maria Sharapova, the world #49, is usually in the foreground.

Or at least her derriere is.
   
There's a "backhand me, buster" glint in her eye.

Defending champ Dinara Safina slouches saucily.

The Williams sister pose like they just busted your racket and chewed up your headband.

What are these women offering? Overhand volleys? Or a lapdance?

There is nothing wrong with this, of course. Especially if you are a male with a pulse.

In fact, it's a refreshing change from the dark ages of uber-feminism.

Now that men and women are equal, we can all get back to ogling each other.

Once upon a time, you were lucky if women tennis players bothered to shave their legs.

They wore spinster white and spectacles and had names like Billy Jean and Margaret.

Oh, they were good, all right. Just no sizzle.

Because women athletes have to titillate? Because multi-grand slam winners and world champion players, born before people started naming their kids after soap opera characters, sucked because of their names? Because tennis whites were tennis whites -- or you got kicked off the court?

Look, I get that sometimes a guy has to squeeze a column out on a slow news day. And I also get that Strobel is riffing on promotional posters rather than the actual matches. And I have no problem with sexy puns or references.

But demeaning world-class athletes with ''lapdance?''

''Backhand me buster?''

Where are the feminists men's rights activists?

H/t to my Tweeps @OntarioRebELLES and @HarpeGirl.

UPPITY WOMAN DATE: I just had a good look at those posters again. There is nothing overtly sexual about them. They show women with strength, confidence and attitude. Just the kind of poses we would see male athletes strike.

But these are supposed to be come-ons?

COME ON.

(And yeah, I got the double entendre.)

Comments

[Scott Piatkowski]

When exactly were those "dark ages of uber-feminism"? I must have missed them.

[Barry_R]

"I just had a good look at those posters again. There is nothing overtly sexual about them. They show women with strength, confidence and attitude."

Ahem. Some of us guys find strength, confidence and attitude VERY sexy. Not to mention those uber-feminists, which are a REAL turn on!

No question - Strobel and his editor live on a planet with which I am not familiar.

[The Stygian and his Shemitish Dogs]

"But these are supposed to be come-ons?"

Esteemed and Beautiful Moderator,

For some people they are. You know who I mean.

"When exactly were those "dark ages of uber-feminism"?"

Scott,

Think the first two billion-odd years of the evolution of life. On that time-scale male domination appears very recent, and ephemeral.

[Turkey]

I think those posters are incredibly dumb. The WTA is trying to overcome this idea that they are just pretty girls in short skirts out there giggling and jogging around. All these posters say (well to me at least) "come see some players whose names you probably don't know but boy are they hot." Does it look like they are tennis players or models? You remove the tennis rackets and put purses in their hands and shoot you would hardly be able to tell the difference.

Surely you could promote this sport without appealing to the loins of men. Or is the idea that you can't be a popular female athlete without being pretty as well. Funny how no one felt the need to photoshop Federer's incredibly hairy arms.

[sooey]

"Once upon a time, you were lucky if women tennis players bothered to shave their legs."

... Why were you lucky? Who's he even talking to when he says "you"?