Serena Williams wore powerful black bodysuit at French Open earlier this year. (Source: AP) Serena Williams wore powerful black bodysuit at French Open earlier this year. (Source: AP) Serena Williams will no longer be able to wear her powerful black body suit to the French Open owing to a new dress code the federation will be issuing. In an interview with Tennis magazine, French Tennis Federation President Bernard Giudicelli specifically mentioned Williams’ last year’s outfit and remarked, “It will no longer be accepted.” Giudicelli was further quoted saying, “I believe we have sometimes gone too far. You have to respect the game and the place.” The 23-time Grand Slam champion had said the outfit made her feel like a “superhero” at Roland Garros this year. The catsuit in question was designed by Nike that helped her cope with the issue of blood clots — like the ones that almost killed her after the birth of her daughter. ALSO READ | Serena Williams’ ‘honest’ message about postpartum depression gets support online The decision left Tennis fans around the world fuming and many took to social media to raise their voice in protest. While some asked how it was okay to wear revealing dresses on court and not a body suit that covered her entire body. ALSO READ | I feared Serena Williams might die, says husband Alexis Ohanian Nike, the brand that designed her special bodysuit for medical reasons too came out in support of the ace player and slammed the French Open’s new dress code saying, “You can take the superhero out of her costume, but you can never take away her superpowers.” You can take the superhero out of her costume, but you can never take away her superpowers. #justdoit pic.twitter.com/dDB6D9nzaD — Nike (@Nike) August 25, 2018 While some furnished proofs that it wasn’t the first time a woman wore a bodysuit on tennis court, other alleged the ban was not only sexist but also racist. Here’s how people reacted to the ban: Anne White wore a catsuit in 1985. Serena Williams is not allowed to wear one in 2019. pic.twitter.com/maSMckXo26 — Simon Hedlin (@simonhedlin) August 25, 2018 The idea that Serena Williams’ catsuit signals she doesn’t respect the game of tennis is ridiculous for a number reasons, but especially because her catsuit wasn’t unprecedented. Anne White wore a catsuit back in 1985 at Wimbledon. pic.twitter.com/ekAzc9k1De — Nadra Nittle (@NadraKareem) August 24, 2018 Having had multiple pulmonary embolisms, Serena Williams is not allowed to use a specially designed black catsuit that helps prevents blood clots from developing in the legs. Because the French Open doesn’t like how it looks. That’s racist, sexist, and dangerous. — Eugene Gu, MD (@eugenegu) August 24, 2018 The amount of control men feel the need to exert over women is petty-level with this one. @serenawilliams is the GOAT. The game respects HER. https://t.co/nXEYCcKZPj — Elizabeth Banks (@ElizabethBanks) August 24, 2018 The game seems quite content to be played no matter what women wear. Perhaps this man should focus on his own fashion choices and respect the GOAT’s rights to wear whatever the hell she pleases. #getoffhercourt https://t.co/sS7QcyJp3y — shonda rhimes (@shondarhimes) August 24, 2018 Another case of racism disguised as a “dress code”. Bernard Giudicelli, head of the French Tennis Federation French Open, said Serena Williams catsuit was inappropriate. But white female tennis players are at the French Open with their whole ass out, and that’s ok pic.twitter.com/xYqnjHofJo — Tariq Nasheed (@tariqnasheed) August 24, 2018 Let’s call this French Open restriction on Serena Williams for what it is- racist and sexist. Arbitrary dress code policies have been disproportionately used to target Black women in schools, at work and now on the tennis court. This is the unfair policing of Black women’s bodies https://t.co/kbMbLSHF2a — Kristen Clarke (@KristenClarkeJD) August 25, 2018 the serena williams catsuit ban is racist. i’m not looking to debate this as i am tired of debating absolutes. — Molly Priddy (@mollypriddy) August 24, 2018 How many times does Serena Williams have to be disrespected? It’s in the language used to describe her or her health-designed bodysuit they just condemned. Why this arbitrary constant picking at an athlete that has given so much to the game of tennis w grace & dominance? SMH😡 — Rosalyn Gold-Onwude (@ROSGO21) August 24, 2018 The French Open has banned Serena Williams’ black suit, saying that, ”I think that sometimes we’ve gone too far…One must respect the game and the place” I *really* want to know how the outfit on the left is less “respectful” of the game of tennis than the outfit on the right pic.twitter.com/3iNUrkDd8y — Mangy Jay (@magi_jay) August 24, 2018 Just ridiculous. Serena has done nothing BUT respect the game. Serena Williams is almost always singled out in tennis. This comes down to what they feel is “acceptable” on a tennis court. It’s not her job to make you feel comfortable. Also, the suit helps her combat blood clots. https://t.co/gR2XqJLi3j — Taylor Rooks (@TaylorRooks) August 24, 2018 Roger Federer wears all black is celebrated and given “cool” nickname “Darth Federer” Serena Williams wears all black is singled out by French Open president for criticism and has outfit banned from major Grand Slam pic.twitter.com/28ZES1riX4 — Dallas Hunt (@Dallas_Hunt) August 24, 2018 White patriarchy has an assigned tile place for us all and uses “respect” and “rules” that it and it alone defines to keep those of us who bear the brunt of its brutality in our assigned place. Serena Williams is a Superhero. — Mona Eltahawy (@monaeltahawy) August 24, 2018 It is well known that Serena Williams started wearing the compression suit as a means to helping with her blood clots issue. This is just another example of people trying to disrespect a black woman who is dominating. https://t.co/6zFLxWnOpj — Frederick Joseph (@FredTJoseph) August 24, 2018 The Serena Williams issue seems more like a sexist debacle to me. Her symbol of female health and power, the black bodysuit is banned Where clothing used to objectify women on a big stage, the miniskirt, is wholly welcomed — Keith Danso (@KeithDanso) August 25, 2018 Serena Williams being told not to wear her black cat suit which was meant to prevent blood clot is both sexist and racist,let’s call it what it is — On-nown👸 (@Cijae1) August 25, 2018 During the French Open I saw many White players who were nearly naked, but Bernard Giudicelli decides Serena Williams’ catsuit was disrespectful?!?! What would powerful White people do if they didn’t spend so much time policing Blackness? He is being disrespectful! pic.twitter.com/dHRBo5vShA — I Block Bigots (@Fiorentina5) August 24, 2018 I hope Serena chooses not to return to the French Open for the rest of her career. Mrs. Serena Williams, 23-time Singles Grand Slam Champion, greatest tennis player of all time, doesn’t need to attend a tournament that is blatantly racist and misogynist. — Golden (@mylessgolden) August 24, 2018 French Tennis Federation President, Bernard Giuducelli, doesn’t “like” Serena Williams’ bodysuit, which was designed to, oh I don’t know, help keep her alive That’s right, a man who looks like *this* is trying to control a woman’s appearance@bgiudicelli should lose his job pic.twitter.com/kzh0lsgh95 — Diana 🇺🇸 (@DMR09) August 25, 2018<doc-sep>Serena Williams has been banned from wearing a bodysuit at the French Open, the Associated Press reports. Serena wore the black catsuit back in May when she played the French Open and took home her first grand slam win since giving birth to daughter Alexis Olympia Ohanian Jr. The black and red bodysuit was custom made for her by Nike. Serena's husband, Alexis, called it a "superhero outfit," and Serena told reporters at the time, "I feel like a warrior in it, a warrior princess . . . from Wakanda, maybe. I've always wanted to be a superhero, and it's kind of my way of being a superhero." The Associated Press learned that the French Open will now enforce a dress code that will ban certain outfits, and the French Tennis Federation president specifically mentioned Serena's suit. The AP stated, "The French Tennis Federation president, Bernard Giudicelli, says the tournament that Williams has won three times is introducing a dress code to regulate players' uniforms because 'I think that sometimes we've gone too far.'" "It will no longer be accepted. One must respect the game and the place," Bernard said.<doc-sep>Serena Williams stunned fans at the 2018 French Open when she stepped onto the court in a catsuit. Black with a red waistband, the full-length bodysuit looked striking on Williams, a new mom; she was likened to a superhero in the ensemble. You can take the superhero out of her costume, but you can never take away her superpowers. #justdoit pic.twitter.com/dDB6D9nzaD — Nike (@Nike) August 25, 2018 But the catsuit won’t be welcome at Roland Garros again. While fans and the media praised the look, French Tennis Federation president Bernard Giudicelli said in a Tennis Magazine interview published Friday that it won’t be back. “I think we sometimes went too far,” he said. “The combination of Serena this year, for example, it will no longer be accepted. You have to respect the game and the place.” The catsuit ban led to considerable backlash in the days since it was announced. Williams herself weighed in and said she was not upset by the decision. But Giuidicelli’s comments ignore the history of the game: Tennis has long been a sport where athletes’ fashion choices have been the source of conflict. Male and female players alike have toed the line when it comes to the dress codes imposed on them, and others have boycotted tournaments altogether because of the required attire. Throughout the history of professional tennis, the trends of the times have influenced player dress. This makes Serena Williams’s Wakanda-inspired catsuit no more disrespectful of the sport than what tennis stars have worn on the court for more than a century. Fans defended the catsuit because health factored into why Williams wore it The idea that Williams disrespected the sport by wearing the bodysuit outraged fans because the tennis star explained that she wore the ensemble both with her health in mind and to inspire mothers. Williams has a history of blood clots and developed one after giving birth to her daughter, Alexis, in September via C-section. She dedicated her Black Panther-inspired catsuit to “all the moms out there that had a tough pregnancy.” “I’ve had a lot of problems with my blood clots,” she said at the French Open. “God, I don’t know how many I’ve had in the past 12 months. I’ve been wearing pants in general a lot when I play, so I can keep the blood circulation going.” While the ban on such ensembles is still unofficial, Giudicelli’s remark led to backlash. When asked about the catsuit ban, Williams, however, downplayed his remarks. “I think that obviously the Grand Slams have a right to do what they want to do,” she said. But for some members of the public, the matter didn’t seem so simple. The suggestion that Serena Williams doesn’t respect the game came across as a microaggression. One of the rare black women to dominate tennis, Williams has faced criticism throughout her career for not looking like the women who’ve traditionally played the sport. Her hair, body, and fashion choices have routinely been scrutinized, often with an undercurrent of race, sex, and class bias. The Victorian era gave us tennis whites One reason Giudicelli’s decision to ban Williams’s catsuit has raised eyebrows is because, unlike Wimbledon and its all-white dress code, the French Open has traditionally been a tournament where players can express themselves through fashion. In fact, in 1990 when tournament organizers considered the all-white route, Andre Agassi, known for his colorful ensembles, took offense. “Somebody doesn’t like me,” he said. “The idea is to make tennis enjoyable for people. Why don’t they take a survey? Instead of asking some old guy behind a desk.” Tennis whites only became a phenomenon because of Victorian notions of class and hygiene. The sport first caught on in class-conscious Victorian England, where white clothing was associated with wealth and privilege. The lower classes, who worked with their hands, couldn’t wear the color without getting dirty. Victorians also believed that wearing white allowed athletes to sweat with little notice, although women tennis players dressed in a manner that prevented them from real physical exertion. “When Victorian women played tennis in the 1880s and 1890s, they were wearing their street clothes, which included heavy undergarments like corsets, bustles, and petticoats, and voluminous skirts that grazed the ground,” fashion historian Keren Ben-Horin told Allure. In the 1900s, women tennis players wore “floor-length skirts, stockings, and long-sleeved tops,” according to Allure. But as the decades went on, new fashions dictated what they wore. That meant flapper-inspired tennis attire in the 1920s, and, later, ’50s-style cardigans and ’60s mod. In the first half of the 20th century, tennis fashion was not without controversy. Skirt lengths shortened, and American tennis player Gertrude Moran faced backlash for wearing a skirt that revealed a pair of lace shorts underneath. Because of the shorts, she was accused of bringing “vulgarity and sin into tennis.” What happened to Moran signaled the kind of treatment other women players would face in the years to come. Despite the criticism she received, Moran is considered one of tennis’s early fashion icons. A white catsuit makes headlines at Wimbledon Serena Williams’s catsuit may have caused a sensation at the 2018 French Open, but it wasn’t the first time Williams had worn a catsuit during competition. She also wasn’t the first woman tennis player to wear a full-length bodysuit during a Grand Slam contest. During the first round of the 1985 Wimbledon tournament, tennis star Anne White heeded organizers’ all-white rule but defied tradition by wearing a white catsuit instead of a tennis skirt. White’s opponent, Pam Shriver, insulted White’s spandex suit, calling it the “most bizarre, stupid-looking thing I’ve ever seen on a tennis court.” Wimbledon officials apparently agreed and told White not to wear it again to the tournament. But off the court, the 5-foot-11 White won praise for her unconventional fashion choice. Pony, the sportswear company that provided the ensemble, promoted it as the “Perfect 10 White,” and commentators noted that while the average woman could not get away with wearing the bodysuit, White’s long and lean body made her the exception. As one tennis retailer put it, “It’s attractive, but you have to be built like Anne White is built to wear it. And the rest of the world is not.” Seventeen years later, when Serena Williams wore a short catsuit to the 2002 US Open, she received a significantly different response. Unlike White, she wasn’t praised as an enviable example of femininity in the suit but instead was slut-shamed, body-shamed, and generally demeaned. The outfit was described in the press as “clinging,” “ultra-risqué,” “curve-clutching,” and leaving “little to the imagination,” according to Jaime Schultz’s 2005 essay “Reading the Catsuit,” which appeared in the Journal of Sport & Social Issues. Other media outlets pointed out Williams’s “bulging muscles” and “defensive-back physique.” And Washington Post fashion critic Robin Givhan described her as “a working girl of a different sort,” calling the catsuit “trashy.” Why did the response to Williams in a catsuit differ markedly from White in one? The former’s race and body type certainly played a role in the remarks, as did class — hence the idea that the Compton-raised Williams dressed in a “trashy” way. Throughout her career, Williams has been subjected to various microaggressions — from spectators, other athletes, and members of the press. Serena and Venus Williams have been dogged by bias throughout their career For 14 years, Serena Williams boycotted the Indian Wells tournament. Her decision to skip the event stemmed from her experience there in 2001. At that time, not only were she and her sister Venus Williams booed by spectators, they were also subjected to n-word taunts, her father and then-coach, Richard Williams, told USA Today. One man even remarked, “I wish it was ’75; we’d skin you alive,” he said. Williams ended her boycott of the tournament in 2015, but Indian Wells is hardly the only event where she’s faced bigotry. The Williams sisters have repeatedly been compared to animals, characterized as “savage,” or as “pummeling,” “overwhelming,” and “overpowering” their white rivals, Vox pointed out last year. Sometimes, fellow athletes have joined in on such attacks of Serena and Venus.<doc-sep>
Remember that fashionable, black one-piece bodysuit that made Serena Williams feel like a "warrior princess" and simultaneously helped protect against blood clots? Well, turns out it's been banned from future French Open tournaments. When Williams participated in the 2018 French open nine months after giving birth to her daughter, she wore the black Nike jumpsuit because it was designed to prevent blood clots. During Williams' pregnancy, she experienced some complications, including a pulmonary embolism — known as a blood clot or clots in the lungs — and a hematoma — or swelling of clotted blood in her abdomen — which required surgery. "I almost died after giving birth to my daughter, Olympia." "I almost died after giving birth to my daughter, Olympia," Williams wrote in a February op-ed for CNN. But Williams bounced back from her medical challenges and returned to the court in style, claimed victory, and told The Guardian just how much the suit meant to her. "It feels like this suit represents all the women that have been through a lot mentally, physically, with their body to come back and have confidence and to believe in themselves," Williams said. "I definitely feel like it is an opportunity for me to inspire a whole different group of amazing women and kids." Image: AURELIEN MEUNIER/GETTY IMAGES Now, the suit that made Williams feel like a superhero has been banned by French Open president Bernard Giudicelli. "It will no longer be accepted. One must respect the game and the place." In an interview with Tennis magazine, Giudicelli noted a new dress code to regulate uniforms of player is being introduced, per The Associated Press. "I think that sometimes we've gone too far," Giudicelli said, and when asked about Williams' suit, he added, "It will no longer be accepted. One must respect the game and the place." Fans of Williams were baffled by his comments, especially considering the bodysuit was health-related, and released their rage on Twitter. IT’S COMPRESSION MATERIAL TO PREVENT BLOOD CLOTS—LIKE WHAT ALMOST KILLED HER IN THE HOSPITAL—FABRIC LIKE YOU SEE PEOPLE WEAR ON AIRPLANES. THIS IS WRONG. https://t.co/VOAsNiJNhu — Dr. Katie Rose Pryal ♿️🎾📘 (@krgpryal) August 24, 2018 French Open is changing its dress code, and the changes will prevent Serena from wearing her super hero suit. Reason given: “One must respect the game.” I am flabbergasted. https://t.co/t2Y5P3qfbx pic.twitter.com/VYYXyUXFvm — Phillip Barnett (@regularbarnett) August 24, 2018 The idea that she has a disrespectful bone in her body is the most laughable shit ever. And if we’re going to keep it a buck, no tennis player in the history of the sport has been disrespected more often than Serena has. — Phillip Barnett (@regularbarnett) August 24, 2018 Hey, Bernard Giudicelli... regarding Serena Williams and her bodysuit that covers her from shoulders to toe...#FrenchOpen pic.twitter.com/CfUpPjDbUr — Honorable Rod Shaw (@aswadrodz) August 24, 2018 I never thought I would say this, But I will boycott the French Open. @serenawilliams is amazing. The reason I started watching tennis is the Williams sister's. pic.twitter.com/lsVOnNiof6 — AdeepAngel (@adeepangel) August 24, 2018 I'm confused. How was Serena's 2002 catsuit was less controversial than her 2018 bodysuit? — Andrew Atkinson (@atkinsonfasho) August 23, 2018 How much more "conservative" can you get if her whole body is covered, a hazmat suit? But if "someone else" wore it...like a Kornakova...GTFOH https://t.co/n4LKKQq1TG — Jarvis George (@jwgactor) August 24, 2018 Giudicelli did note that the tournament's new rules won't be as strict as Wimbledon's all-white ensemble expectations, but they will definitely "impose certain limits." You're free to have all the opinions on fashion you want, dude. But an individual's health should always be more important.