During the 2009 French Open Tennis Tournament Portuguese teen tennis star Michelle Larcher de Brito made a stir with her elongated “shrieks” when she strikes the ball. Wimbledon officials are now considering making a rule banning loud grunting for female players. While she claims it is just “part of the game” opponents and fans say otherwise.

As a former collegiate tennis player and coach, I get the distracting and annoying nature of loud grunting by an opponent. That is one side of the issue. Another side of this issue is the problematic and gendered nature of this discussion and pending rule.

First, male players on tour also grunt upon impact, therefore a rule should be equally applied to both men and women. However, there has been no parallel discussion of a rule application to the men’s tournament (although Connors, and Agassi were criticized for their noises). Second, the way Larcher de Brito’s grunts are being constructed in the media as “shrieks”,”screams”, and “annoying squeals”… it appears that males players grunts are expected. Third, this isn’t the first time the discussion of a “grunt/shriek rule” for female tennis players has surfaced. If you recall, in the ’90’s Monica Seles was the original purveyor of loud grunting on impact…and while there was much grumbling then, no rules were enacted. Maria Sharapova was also criticized early on for her grunting, but that seemed to subside as she took over the Kournikova mantle as the “poster girl” of the WTA.

Many scholars have documented how female athletes have to constantly negotiate the tension between the movements, noises, muscles, and bodies that are needed to perform optimally and adhering to a narrow ideal of femininity. Clearly, loud shrieking is NOT feminine and therefore is troubling and must be regulated (i.e., “make the offending women act more ladylike so we can enjoy the match!).

View Original Post at onesportvoice.wordpress.com

• Filed Under:  
• Tennis, Sports, SportsPLUS, OpEd, Discrimination/Title IX

• Tags:
• women
• tennis
• female athletes
• wta
• women & girls in sport
• inequality
• professional sport
• sport fans
• sport leagues

There are 3 comments on this post. Join the discussion!

DianeD

I disagree that gender discrimination exists in this matter. Very few women grunt, and those who do--Medina Garrigues, Safina, etc.--are not at all distracting. The men, such as Ferrer, who grunt, are not distracting. If the sports press would stop referring to screaming as "grunting," it would help. If there is any discrimination at all, it involves fear of confronting top stars such as Venus Williams and Sharapova, who scream loudly. They, Azarenka and Larcher de Brito are the big screamers on the tour. An ITF referee said he thought there was more complaint about Larcher de Brito because her screams are longer. The longer the scream, the more likely it is that the opponent's ability to hear the ball struck will be impaired.

However, many players say they are not at all distracted or impaired by playing against the screamers.

Wednesday, June 17, 2009 at 11:57am EDT

rosa

I didn't realize the rule was only for female players, I was under the impression that the problem was more widespread amongst women and that is why they were specifically mentioned, I thought the rule was universal. But the rule is mean to insure fairness ( As Diane points out) opposing players need to be able to hear the ball throughout the course of the game in order to assess speed and trajectory here is more on the subject: http://www.newsy.com/videos/no_more_grunt_work

Tuesday, June 23, 2009 at 11:53am EDT

Lisa Creech Bledsoe

Are tennis and golf the only sports left where athletes must have perfect silence in which to work?? Part of what makes a great athlete is the ability to work under difficult and strenuous conditions. It's hard for me to sympathize.

The gender issue is entirely separate from the noise issue, though. I can't imagine a regulation on noise being applied to women only.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009 at 11:37am EDT