The other day, in my Blue-Flame Professional post, I made an admittedly pointed remark about Justine Henin's ". . .admirable indifference to acting out the tedious role of Crossover Female Tennis Star Cum Budding Fashion Icon." The observation triggered a debate featuring some of our most dedicated and valued readers. As so often happens in those situations, I had a nagging feeling that I had not adequately communicated my position, and it was because I had written what I thought without having entirely thought through was I was writing. At such times, I always feel obliged to ask myself: Why, exactly, do you feel this way? " If I can't find a clear and defensible answer, I've probably been guilty of reflexive bias of some sort. So I've thought about this issue - a lot.
The term, "outside interests" is right up there on the plane of cliche with "tennis parent" or "clay-court specialist," although unlike those expressions it isn't a pejorative; in fact, it's considered a positive attribute in a player. But having "outside interests" is not, by definition, a good or laudable thing for a tennis player, any more than it would be for a hard-working hedge fund manager whose outside interest happens to be, oh, making obscene crank calls, or a baseball prodigy whose "outside interests" consists of pulling wings off insects. Outside interests can be good or bad, positive or negative, admirable or loathsome or somewhere in-between.
My problem with classic top tennis player avocations like rock musicianship, acting, fashion or other glam activities is that they often seem to be the anti-thesis of outside interests. They represent aspirations that clearly suggest that there's more celebrity to be had than that which even a famous tennis player enjoys. A tennis player who wants to be "more than a tennis player" may want to be nothing more than a celebrity of a higher magnitude (rather than, say, a good citizen), or may simply be aspiring to replace a limited, athletically-based celebrity with a more broad-based one. And don't think for a moment that the Maria Sharapovas or Serena Williams of this world are above thinking . . . If only the world could see that I'm more than who I appear to be, that I have loads more to offer, if only I had had the opportunity.
There isn't anything inherently "wrong" with feeling that way, but in terms of our discussions here, I've often said that I most respect and admire those players who are content to be successful, exemplary tennis pros - thereby bringing a degree of dignity to what they are doing and sending the message that tennis is a sufficiently worthy occupation, or even that they don't have to answer to anyone about what they pour their hearts and souls into. These players are not above thinking. . . This is who I am, this is what I have to offer, I hope the world likes it.
The thing I least like about these forays some players attempt into a higher order of celebrity is that it suggests - and is often intended to show that tennis was just a convenient springboard to bigger and better things, like acting roles and hobnobbing with stars of stage and screen. Everyone knows full well that the fast-track crowd sees even a famous tennis player as something of a novelty in comparison to the really famous - an Angelina Jolie, or Kanye West.
I've always felt that there's an Emperor's New Clothing element in play whenever a tennis player turns up doing something very public but unrelated to his or her basic identity. While said star is busy thinking, How cool is this, I'm not rubbing elbows with Katarina Srebotnik or Dominik Hrbaty anymore, I'm right here with the Jennifer Annistons and Matthew Perrys of this world!
Meanwhile, I overhear, or imagine overhearing, a typical television viewer saying to a friend on the sofa: Hey, that girl looks familiar, isn't she a famous tennis player or something? Sheesh, get the hook. She can't act her way out of a paper bag. . .
So to me, any tennis player whose "outside interest" is something public and glamorous (as opposed to, say, stamp collecting, chess or rock-climbing) is less likely to be seeking enlightenment, or escape from the stress of performance and celebrity, than someone seeking a broader audience and greater validation. This is not a matter of having outside interests; it's a matter of trying to upgrade an existing and not wholly satisfying interest in being famous.
Although men can be as guilty of this kind of deluded aspiration as women, I have a feeling that women are more prone to it because of gender differences and/or stereotypes. For all their appeal, female pro athletes are, at the end of the day, jocks. That they would like to transcend that perception, or obliterate the notion that they are therefore somehow less "feminine" in the traditional sense, is pretty clear. And becoming known in a field as fully feminized as fashion, or acting, is probably seen by some women players (perhaps unconsciously) as a great opportunity for asserting feminity, for proving that they are not "just" jocks, not just female tennis players, but red-blooded, fit-pitching, camera-seducing, taste-and-talent laden hotties.
The disease is institutional as well as individual, and in that manifestation less defensible. One of the reasons that the WTA finds itself in an increasing mess in terms of how little the top women support the tour is because it has very aggressively tried to create a crossover market and exaults each time a WTA girl makes it into Vogue. So if the WTA is obsessed with portraying the WTA pros as anything but - and something well beyond - mere tennis players, what hope is there that the players will take pride in their talent, profession, and even their professional organization? There's a direct correlation between achieving cross-over success and a loss of interest in the game. I think the WTA's ambitions are relatively innocent, in that at some level all this crossover stuff really is about marketing and promoting the tour, but I'm not sure they're aware of the degree to which they are, to borrow a phrase from Hollywood, sleeping with the enemy.
That's it for me, folks. Have a great weekend and enjoy tomorrow's "Battle for No. 2" in Hamburg!