Saturday, January 1, 2011

A message to readers

Welcome to a new incarnation of Women Who Serve. In addition to looking a bit different, the blog will feature some publication changes. There will be fewer scores and fewer daily details about the tour; major news, commentary and summary will continue to be featured. Activity will certainly be heavier during the majors, however, though some regular features may be published with more selectivity and less detail.

Thanks for reading, and Happy New Year to all!

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

I have followed your blog for some months now, and I really value your positions and comments about women's tennis and all things turning around it.

Congratulations for all you have written until now and for all you will write in the future.

Happy new year from France, and I hope all your wishes will be realized :)

Diane said...

Jarem, you are so kind to write this; thank you so much. And Happy New Year to you, also.

Sunny nine said...

Diane,
This looks like a good, new site for you. I think it is good to concentrate more on positions and comments, as Jerem said, than just news,scores which are so many places on the web. I too have valued your opinions and ideas. Although I would like to hear from you everyday, there is no need to blog scores and small news every day. You have a great mind and writing to express opinions. So I am excited about the future of this site and the look of the site. Thanks and Happy New Year.
Sunny

Overhead Spin said...

Diane, I am joining others in saying that I really welcome the change to the site. Very well organised. I also always appreciate your views on topics of the day which I have always found refreshing and a welcome change from the usual drivel that abounds on message boards all over the internet.

I am not sure if you saw the recent article in the Washington Post which spoke about how women's sports was being marketed. It spoke about the lack of coverage being given to the UConn women's basketball team's achievement of 89 straight wins, which apparently surpassed a men's team of 88.

The article basically took the media to task in relation to the way women's sports was being portrayed. I had to mention it on my own personal blog because for the past 2 years I have been like a voice crying in the wilderness, like yourself, speaking about the way women's sports and in particular women's tennis is being marketed.

Gone are the days when women received accolades based on their achievement, now they have to be primed and posed like strippers in order to market their professions. I hope that you will continue to use your blog and other means to get the message across that being sexy is not what being a professional female athlete is all about.

Have a very happy new year everyone

Diane said...

Sunny, thanks so much for your support and confidence, and for your contributions. I'm making this change, at least in part, because my other writing has suffered, so my plan is to get back to that in a bigger way. Also, I just like a change now and then.

Karen, thank you, too. Your support and contribution helps to keep this blog going.

I'm sad to say that I don't see anything changing with regard to female athletes (or female anything). As long as women and girls go along with being treated as "less than," that's exactly how they'll be treated. It used to be that women let themselves be marketed as crude sex objects because they felt they had no choice. Now, I understand that some of them call it "empowerment."

On so many message boards and blogs, I "hear" people say, "But Verdasco poses in his underwear--what's the difference?" The difference is that if Verdasco poses nude with a sock monkey in his ear, he's still considered an athlete first. A woman is hardly ever considered an athlete (or a politician, or a CEO, or a film director) first.

Anonymous said...

Selfishly, I'm a bit sad that you are cutting back. :-) You often come up with tidbits such as doubles news that is not easy to find elsewhere. Nevertheless, I wish you well and am grateful for all that you provide for us tennis fans. Women Who Serve is a blog where we never have to worry about running into news that we'd rather not read.

Happy New Year Diane!

-David

Diane said...

Thank you for saying that, David, and best New Year wishes to you, also. And I will continue to feature doubles news and commentary. Some of the great moments in women's tennis occur on the doubles court.

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