INTRODUCING THE G.O.A.T.

1. INTRODUCING THE G.O.A.T. SERENA WILLIAMS STARS IN AN INVESTIGATION OF INTERSECTIONALITY

2. THIS PRESENTATION NARRATED BY BEYONCÉ

3. MY ARGUMENT: If the women’s movement is to achieve lasting success, we must follow the lead of our American heroines—the black women working in collaboration, lifting one another up and learning and leaning on one another in love. If the women’s movement is to achieve lasting success, we must discard the jaded feminism of western design and wrap in the radical wisdom of intersectional womanism. Academics, artists, athletes—it’s time for women to reach beyond boundaries established for us by the previous and present patriarchy and to unite within the strata to create a true and active resistance. With tennis legend Serena Williams as a muse, pop sensation Beyoncé Knowles-Carter and award-winning poet Claudia Rankine offer a model of how women can work to mind the gaps that separate and offer a revolutionary guide to how we might move forward together.

4. KEY TERMS: WOMANISM as defined by Alice Walker in InSearchof Our Mothers’Gardens • From womanish.  (Opp. of “girlish,” i.e. frivolous, irresponsible, not serious.)  A black feminist or feminist of color.  From the black folk expression of mothers to female children, “you acting womanish,” i.e., like a woman.  Usually referring to outrageous, audacious, courageous or willful behavior.  Wanting to know more and in greater depth than is considered “good” for one.  Interested in grown up doings.  Acting grown up.  Being grown up.  Interchangeable with another black folk expression: “You trying to be grown."  Responsible.  In charge. Serious. • Also: A woman who loves other women, sexually and/or nonsexually.  Appreciates and prefers women’s culture, women’s emotional flexibility (values tears as natural counterbalance of laughter), and women’s strength.  Sometimes loves individual men, sexually and/or nonsexually.  Committed to survival and wholeness of entire people, male and female.  Not a separatist, except periodically, for health.  Traditionally a universalist, as in: "Mama, why are we brown, pink, and yellow, and our cousins are white, beige and black?” Ans. “Well, you know the colored race is just like a flower garden, with every color flower represented."  Traditionally capable, as in: "Mama, I’m walking to Canada and I’m taking you and a bunch of other slaves with me.” Reply: “It wouldn’t be the first time.” • Loves music.  Loves dance.  Loves the moon. Loves the Spirit. Loves love and food and roundness.  Loves struggle. Loves the Folk.  Loves herself. Regardless. • Womanist is to feminist as purple is to lavender.

5. KEY TERMS: INTERSECTIONALITY as defined by The Southern Poverty Law Center's Teaching Tolerance: … the theory that the overlap of various social identities, as race, gender, sexuality, and class, contributes to the specific type of systemic oppression and discrimination experienced by an individual

6. …me and my ladies sip my D'USSÉ cup I don't give a fuck, chucking my deuces up… Claudia Rankine on “The Meaning of Serena Williams”: A crucial component of white privilege is the idea that your accomplishments can be, have been, achieved on your own. People Magazine on Beyoncé’s music video “Sorry”: It was a pleasant surprise for fans to see the two powerful women on the same screen... Serena her interview with ESPNW about being in “Sorry”: …so they were like, 'We would love for you to be in this particular song. It's about strength and it's about courage and that's what we see you as…

7. MY ARGUMENT: It seems like when Serena is at her best, America's white supremacist patriarchal cultural is at its worst. The more she wins, the more ridicule and degradation is hit her way. Even when it is clear, to tennis experts and popular society alike, that Williams is the greatest tennis champion of all time, not just the greatest woman tennis champion of all time, the media looks to feminize, and thus sexualize and infantize her. This, ultimately is another way to oppress and erase the power of a black woman.

8. From AaronDevor’s “Becoming Members of Society: Learning the Social Meanings of Gender FEMININITY MASCULINITY "Typical masculine body postures tend to be expansive and aggressive. People who hold their arms and hands in positions away from their bodies, and who stand, sit, or lie with their legs apart—thus maximizing the amount of space that they physically occupy—appear most physically masculine." "Body postures and demeanors which communicate subordinate status and vulnerability to trespass through a message of ‘no threat’ make people appear feminine…demonstrate subordination through a minimizing of spatial use: …they keep their arms closer to their bodies, their legs close together…they use their hands in small or childlike gestures."

9. …they keep their arms closer to their bodies, their legs close together… …who stand, sit, or lie with their legs apart—thus

10. From Rolling Stone Magazine: "Inside a Southern mansion, Serena Williams is seen roaming around until she dances seductively around Beyoncé who remains perched on a throne." From People Magazine: "Williams appeared in Beyoncé’s music video for 'Sorry,' in which the athlete frolicked through the halls of a Louisiana plantation home before dancing alongside the singer as she lounged in a throne-like chair.”

11. From Aaron Devor’s “Becoming Members of Society: Learning the Social Meanings of Gender …most activities are divided into suitable and unsuitable categories for each gender class. Persons who perform the activities considered appropriate for another gender will be expected to perform them poorly; if they succeed adequately, or even well, at their endeavors, they may be rewarded with ridicule or scorn for blurring the gender dividing line.

12. I tried to be softer, prettier, less……awake. Brough Scott, respected British racing journalist and broadcaster in Chris Murphy's "Serena William's vs. American Pharaoh: The Sports Illustrated Fallout": "There has been an anti-Serena element because she didn't fit the stereotype of the old-fashioned, elegant white female tennis player...She was big and muscular and black. Let's be candid about it, there's been plenty of that sort of unspoken prejudice against Serena, I'd have thought, over the years."

13. sorry iain’t sorry iain’t sorry “For black people, there is an unspoken script that demands the humble absorption of racist assaults, no matter the scale, because whites need to believe that it’s no big deal... But Serena refuses to keep to that script” (CR).

14. 'Don’t try me.' She will tell an audience or an official that they are disrespectful or unjust...'I swear to God I am [expletive] going to take this [expletive] ball and shove it down your [expletive] throat.’ And in doing so, we actually see her (CR). I don't give a fuck, chucking my deuces up Suck on my balls, pause, I had enough Wave it in his face, tell him, boy, bye Tell him, boy, bye, middle fingers up I ain't thinking 'bout you And I don't feel bad about it It's exactly what you get Stop interrupting my grinding I ain't thinking 'bout you She shows us her joy, her humor and, yes, her rage. She gives us the whole range of what it is to be human, and there are those who can’t bear it, who can’t tolerate the humanity of an ordinary extraordinary person (CR).

15. From AaronDevor’s “Becoming Members of Society: Learning the Social Meanings of Gender FEMININITY MASCULINITY “….the following four main attitudes of masculinity. Persons who display success and high status in their social group, who exhibit ‘a manly air of toughness, confidence, and self-reliance’ and ‘the aura of aggression, violence, and daring’…” “As patriarchy has reserved active expressions of power as a masculine attribute, femininity must…communicate weakness, dependency, ineffectualness, availably for sexual or emotional service, and sensitivity to the needs of others…femininity is not particularly useful…”

16. MY ARGUMENT: When her clear excellence  - defined by both traditional masculinity and traditional femininity - is undeniable, when her clear dominance in the whitewashed sport of tennis is undeniable, the age old tactics of racism are employed. Serena is made a beast. She is figured as a threat to property. THE SITUATION: It was supposed to be a landmark moment in Serena Williams' stellar career: Being crowned Sports Illustrated's Sportsperson of the Year. But the somewhat begrudging reaction to the 34-year-old's accolade bears witness to America's complicated attitude towards gender and racial equality, according to…Scott "The poll is fascinating—if that is how Americans are reacting, that is something of a wider discussion about society. It is about their attitudes to race and female emancipation—I don't see how you could view it any other way."

17. tell him, boy, bye, boy, bye Scott: I don't think there is any comparison between the two. Harris & Carbado: …the crowd had descended to an almost animalistic state…if we hadn’t been left down there like animals that they were treating us like…markers of black disorder, chaos, and the ‘animalistic’ nature of New Orleans residents… Scott: American Pharoah’s outspoken owner Ahmed Zayat tweeted that his famous horse had been 'robbed.' Many [fans] threatened to cancel their subscriptions to the magazine in protest. Harris & Carbado: The government focused its attention on violence directed against property… MURPHY: Out of nearly 600,000 votes…Serena collected just over 5,000 votes (about 0.9%), while American Pharaoh romped home with over 275,000.

18. MY ARGUMENT: Because of Serena’s race and gender she has been forced to contend with intersectional oppressions. Her decisive success, which comes in spite of these challenges, is most fully realized when connected to the artistic and academic pursuits of other black womanists. Williams is a tennis phenom, regardless. But she isn’t the same cultural legend without Rankine or Knowles-Carter. Without her, Rankine might not win the National Book Award and “Sorry” risks becoming just another anthem about betrayal. However, when this academic, artist, and athlete seek to cross the superficial boundaries of the classroom, stage, or court, all three flourish and begin to teach us what it means to use our talents for good. Serena is a diamond, most unique, most valuable, under pressure. As intersectional womanists, we must seek, like Rankine and Knowles-Carter, to not only lift her up, but to imitate her and to learn from her. Like Rankine and Knowles-Carter, we must not only recognize greatness, but seek to identify and expand such #blackgirlmagicbeyond the courts, be they lined with chalk or filled with juries.

19. Postscript Baby-G.O.A.Ts

20. me and my baby, we gon’ be alrightwe gon’ live a good life Serena’s strength and focus in the face of the realities we shared oddly consoled me (CR).