Worth the Weight: Serena Does Right Thing With Body Issue

Serena Williams appeared nude, or at least awfully close, on the cover of ESPN the Magazine's The Body Issue last week, and there was probably some uncomfortable line crossed for women's sports between selling sex and sport.

But if so, it was worth it. Williams has found a great new role, an important role, though the message would have come through much stronger without air-brushing, by celebrating form exactly the way form is. Heaven forbid if any photo-shopping was involved.

Williams looks great in the magazine, as do, frankly, all the other athletes, male and female, inside. But Williams is pushing the line here more than most of the others, and I'd just like to say this:

Good for her. Somehow, we have pushed a dangerous ideal on young girls everywhere, celebrating size zero walking down a runway. Why do we want girls to feel like zeroes anyway?

Williams can send out a much more real message, a healthful and helpful message, that maybe 5-foot-10, 110 pounds is not the ideal afterall.

That phony ideal is playing a big role in eating disorders and self-worth problems.

And here comes Serena Williams, genetically much larger than that, winning Wimbledon, showing strength and independence and success.

And comfortable enough with her body to appear nude on the cover of a major magazine.

Are you watching, girls?

Let's hope this is a new beginning for Williams, because she has had her own body image issues. Maybe that struggle, also reality, is another great message.

But she needs to go all the way with the message. Unfortunately, she undermines herself by lying significantly about her weight.

Officially, she lists herself as 5-foot-9, 150 pounds.

No way is she anywhere near that weight, and it's amazing she finds it necessary to lie to young girls about it.

Olympic hurdler Lolo Jones, also in the magazine, has said she is 5-9, and that her weight pushes 160.

Look at the pictures of the two athletes. Serena does not weigh 10 pounds less, and doesn't weigh just 10 pounds more, either.

But who cares? They don't even have the same body type.

Williams finds herself in a fight with the wrong thing here. She doesn't have to weigh less than Lolo Jones, and probably couldn't anyway.


Jones' body type makes for a successful Olympic hurdler. Williams' body type makes for a successful tennis champion.

Are you watching, girls? And how about you, youth sports coaches? And parents. And teachers.

Here's something Williams said 2 1/2 years ago:

"Just in the locker room, staring at my body, I'm like, 'Am I not fit, really not fit? Or is it just that I have all these extra assets?'

"I don't care if I didn't eat for two years, I still wouldn't be a size 2. We're living in a (Mary-) Kate Olsen world. I'm just not that way. I'm ... bootylicious, so to say.''

You can see the struggle even she goes through. At the same time, it's disappointing that Williams can show enough pride in her body to appear nude in a magazine, and then find herself so trapped by the Olsen world that she can't tell the truth to young girls.

Williams needs to tell the truth about her weight. And if she can't stand that tall, then she needs to simply not list a weight at all, say the number doesn't matter.

Say that her weight is the weight carried by the current Wimbledon champ, one of the best players of all time.

Whatever, just don't lie.

It's tough for her, I know. Williams has been criticized time and again for her fitness. I've done it myself, and will continue to. That's not about appearance, though, but about maximizing her tennis. I still think Serena isn't as committed to her fitness as she should be to reach her potential on the court.

That potential might not have limits. But the message from Williams is about body types, and what can function, look and be beautiful.

The ESPN the Magazine body issue has been billed as an answer to Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue.

How shallow of people to see it that way. Sports Illustrated is selling hot babes with that issue. ESPN is selling a celebration of form.

You see sumo wrestlers, basketball players, softball, ping pong, soccer and golf. Men, women. In some cases, different shapes within the same sport.

Athletic form can be a beautiful form, and that's the point here.

Though, that would be better without air-brushing.

Serena Williams doesn't seem to realize how important she can be. She travels the world for her sport, and it's the one women's game that has broken into the mainstream of sports.

More than any athlete in the world, maybe better than any woman in the world, Williams can make a statement that the number on the scale doesn't matter, that grace, beauty and power don't take starvation.

Her success makes that message. Her magazine cover shows pride in it.

She doesn't have any more clothes to take off to take that message all the way, but she still has one more layer to remove.

Email me at gregcouch09@aol.com