An Open Letter to Michelle Obama: Beyonce is Not a Role Model — Page 5

""And she's not the least bit apologetic about her body type, background, or fashion sense.""

She is a great athlete no doubt, but her disrespect for the game, officials, opponents is dreadful and offputting.

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"She is a great athlete no doubt, but her disrespect for the game, officials, opponents is dreadful and offputting."

Early in her career she had racial epithets hurled at her from the stands at more than one tournament. The one that got some media attention before the USTA leadership rushed in to whitewash it was the tournament at Indian Wells. I was subjected to much of the same treatment when I played the junior circuit in the late 70/early 80s.

Much of the Willamses issues with the USTA establishement has not come to light because the family has finally learned to take the high road. I'm no Serena apologist but will suggest that she had a much harder row to hoe than Chrissie Evert, Tracy Austin, Jennifer Capriati once she set foot on court, along with her sister and Lindsay Davenport. Neither the USTA nor the US media elite knew how to package Serena, Venus, Lindsay, and Martina N. before them, who weren't cut from the same mold as Chrissie appearance-wise.

Sadly, looks matter in pro sport especially for women and the numbers don't seem to play in Serena's favor. Long before Serena's unfortunate outburst at the US Open she was not the player on tour with the biggest endorsement deals despited holding the top ranking and more titles at the majors than her contemporaries. So on balance, I would suggest that she's been a good ambassador for the sport stateside.

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@suestorm

I concede you the point that Serena's sportswomanship has not always been stellar.

You also clearly made a point to which I only alluded to earlier. That is, since Chrissie left the sport the players who've dominated the women's tour have been the ones who've arguably overcomed the most odds, e.g. Serena, Venus, Monica Seles, Lindsay, Justine Henin, Sharapova and the other Russian titleholders. I'm not going to include Anna K. because imho she's what's wrong with the women's tour right now in that a not-so-talented player with the right looks can win enough matches to land a sponsorship deal based mainly on the looks.

I sorta agree with Martina Navratilova when she suggested years ago that Anna and her ilk should decide if they're athletes or sports models and comment to one path. But hey, I'm a Libertarian who couldn't hate on the chick for capitalizing on her money maker which clearly wasn't her tennis LOL.

Back to Beyonce, she too picked up on certain trends early in her career and capitalized on her image to capture her target audience look before the global success which is gravy. SEX still sells!

PS: Gotta show some love for Jennifer Capriati too. I really became a fan when she returned to the tour after her troubles off the court. Wasn't a fan though at the start of her career when she was clearly getting the push from the USTA as the "latest it girl". After her fall from grace she was determined to conquer the sport on her terms, not her dad's or the USTA establishment's.

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Updated On: 5/3/13 at 10:19 AM

"Ha Javero, i think we are 99% in agreement!!"

That's encouraging. Now can we agree to get Beyonce to stop already with song titles like "Bow Down". The title and lyrics are just wrong on so many levels. I much prefer Beyonce to her alter ego Sasha Fierce but gather that I don't match her target audience.

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Javero, I believe we're on different pages here. The thread is about Beyonce being a good role model. One of my main points is that her success is due in great part to her looking good and acting sexy.

thanks for your enlightening post though.

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"No, she covets the libertarian and suestorm market fragments."

yes, in NAMOS world, capitalism is bad, big govt good

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Jane,

I don't mean to split hairs but I believe it boils down to how one defines a role model. In some ways, I can see how the FLOTUS might think of her as a good role model. However, I don't want my post to be redacted by the mods so I'm not going there. I introduced Serena as an analogy because I thought she'd be a safer character. I could draw all sorts of parallels between the two as both have been somewhat polarizing figures and both share some attributes with the FLOTUS which might not be altogether obvious to everyone here. My main aim was to point out that Beyonce is not a singularity.

Sex still sells and those in show business who aren't sexy are wise to find another gimmick to get top billing. That gimmick could be talent but talent alone doesn't guarantee success in that field.

And I encourage you to stay away from the Spanish-language networks because it's the rule rather than the exception that a young woman does not appear on camera unless she either looks like Miss Universe or sports a D cup. Much of Beyonce's stage getup is commonplace in that context.

Any threadjacking was unintentional.

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I've never been a Beyonce fan and while I can't deny that she's wildly successful (though I don't think she's an overwhelming talent), I don't think she's a terrible good role model for young women. She was pretty much groomed and raised to be Beyonce and Run the [Pop] World. Her parents moved heaven and earth to get her into the pop world (we should all be so lucky) and make her a success. What kind of education does she have? Does she come across as particularly insightful in interviews, or is she just very good at keeping her persona gleaming?

But maybe my anti-Beyonce bias is showing.

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