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Thursday 23 July 2015

J K Rowling/ S Williams vs Twitter troll

Another year of Wimbledon has passed by and I tried to watch as much as I could. Unfortunately, my children didn't appreciate Daddy monopolising the T.V. to watch people hit a ball backwards and forwards to each other for hours on end. So I only caught glimpses. 

Serena Williams won her 6th Wimbledon title and her second Serena slam at the age of 33. Kudos to her and let her enjoy the praise and glory. However, when the picture below was published, some people decided to comment on how masculine she looked. This brought about a rather witty response from J K Rowling. 






As sad and as dumb as some people are, I thought this would be an opportunity to explain why this guy is a moron and to shut this discussion down once and for all. I'll also show how these kinds of morons are unwittingly attracted to men, despite being heterosexual. 

  • Men and women are very similar. It's only a small genetic varation which brings about such a difference in how we look. Young boys and girls are very similar in their performances until puberty strikes. Then the gap widens. Your genes don't change the older you get, but some genes are expressed differently. 

  • Successful female athletes tend to be those who display more male characteristics. Narrow hips, long arms and low body fat. There  There is also a syndrome known as androgen insensitivity which means that genetically you are male, but your genitals don't develop and you look female. So being classed as 'female' may not be as straight forward as people think. 

  • The most overlooked point of this topic is Serena has curves, which  is a distinctly female characteristic. Hips, thighs and breasts. You can't get more feminine!  Men on the other hand don't have curves. If you saw a man with her curves, you would say she looked like a woman. 

  • Testosterone differentiates men from women. Men have higher levels, but not all women have the same levels. Many athletes have higher levels of testosterone which enable them to build muscle more than women with less testosterone. The debate continues about whether black athletes have a genetic advantage as a high proportion of athletes are black. Those that do will look more muscular (if they train) than those who don't. 

  • Most female track athletes have male qualities. Narrow hips are more efficient for speed than wider hips (like Serena). However, many men seem to make an exception when the athlete has an attractive face. They are prepared to overlook the male qualities. 

  • Models display more male characteristics than you would think. Narrow hips, long limbs and above average height. What makes them unique is the have a feminine looking face on a male frame. Again men overlook the male qualities. 


Back to Serena. The only reason people may think she looks masculine is mainly cultural. We don't see women with muscle. It's the same when we see a person over 40 who is muscular or lean. We think there is something wrong with this picture. Personally, this is a regression in us as a species and we shouldn't we lauding this as the new 'norm.' However, when I look at Serena, her body fat levels are at a guess in the normal ranges for women (10-30%). She looks like she can build muscle better than other women (which is true for a lot of athletes). Even you would build some muscle if you played sport for 8 hours a day.

If you showed this to black males, or those who live in Africa or the Caribbean, they would think she was slim. What I find funny is if Serena didn't exercise, she would be slightly softer and would carry more bodyfat. She might even be classed as overweight. So people need to stop comparing her to Maria Sharapova (who has male characteristics despite many men finding her attractive) and they should compare her to a bigger version of herself. However, I doubt they would be wearing a dress like she is and this conversation wouldn't be happening.


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