Serena Williams and Eugenie Bouchard have both enjoyed success at the 2015 Australian Open so far. So right now, you would think that they'd be making headlines for what they've done on the tennis court in Melbourne. But instead, they find themselves at the center of a controversy because of questions that were asked to them by a male interviewer after recent matches.
During separate post-match interviews with Tennis Australia commentator Ian Cohen, Williams and Bouchard were asked to "give a twirl" for the crowd so that those in attendance at the Australian Open could get a better look at the outfits that they were wearing. And that didn't sit well with some people, who immediately accused the organizers of the Australian Open of being sexist:
Williams was asked about Cohen's request after knocking off Vera Zvonareva on Thursday and, while she refused to refer to it as "sexist," she did sound like it had made her uncomfortable and also pointed out that no one would ask a male tennis player to "twirl" for the crowd.
"A commentator asked me to twirl," she said. "I wouldn't ask Rafa [Nadal] or Roger [Federer] to twirl. Whether it's sexist or not, I don't know. I can't answer that. I didn't really want to twirl because I was just like, you know, I don't need all the extra attention. But, yeah, it was fine. I don't think and look that deep into it. Life is far too short to focus on that. We have so many other problems we want to deal with that we should focus on. Whether I twirl or not, it's not the end of the world. It's about being positive and just moving forward."
Bouchard didn't necessarily think Cohen's request was sexist, either. But she looked noticeably surprised when he asked her to "twirl":
"It was very unexpected," she said. "I mean, yeah, I don't know. An old guy asking you to twirl, it was funny."
It's worth noting that there are plenty of people out there who didn't think Cohen's request was sexist at all:
Where do you stand?
[via For The Win]
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