I love you Serena

I tore a page out of the Sunday Age for reference the other day. It was an article about whether the women's contest should recieve equal pay to the mens contest. The writer said 'If women played best of 5 set matches there would be no debate.' But I debate that, I think a better argument would be 'If women played against men in the one tournament there would be no debate.'
Then I would be all for equal pay, except because I assume you get paid more for how well you finish and on genetic probabilities you would expect men to occupy more of the top 8 places in Tennis the end result would be very unequal pay, due to unequal athletic ability.
And then to say that that's not fair because women are born on average smaller, slower (moving) and weaker (hitting) than men they shouldn't be disadvantaged. But I too was born smaller, slower and weaker than champions like Andy, Roger and Nadal, should I then receive equal pay for my innate disadvantage?
Probably not, but what I would be okay with is if they set up a special competitive category for people of my ability at tennis (close to zero) and similar physical characteristics. Then I guess pay would be determined by how much advertising sponsorship such a tournament could attract and ticket sales and event sponsors and state tourism funding and what not. Which for someone of my ability and physical characteristics, would be zero.
So if Serena wants to play in the 'mens' tournament. Let her. I believe in this world you should be given a crack at whatever your ambition desires. But on the converse if Kobe Bryant decides he wants to 'downshift' give up the money for the sensation of winning and play in under 12's basketball I'm all against that due to the impact it would have on the young players development.

Anyway, all that said, it was sadly an upfront digression. I tore the page out because I love Serena Williams and find her incredibly impressive and wanted to use the shot of her serving as reference in FOWP.
But I do generally find the women's singles tourney much more boring than the men's. And not for fast serves and whatnot, but the competitive pool is just so much weaker. For the past ten years there has been the Williams sisters, with a brief cameo by Hingus and that is it.
Whereas in the men's you usually have four contenders (that's double) and a much higher probability of underdogs, whose excrutiating mental endurance truth be told is the only thing about tennis I actually enjoy.
But yesterday looking for some solitude in our 'packed to the rafters' household I went and sat down in front of the TV and watched some blond girl play same brunette girl last night.
I have long felt that if there is any reason on earth I think being a man trumps being a woman it is the body image argument.
From my experience, the men's ideal body is usually in the possession of an Athlete.
Case in point, last century this guy was a sex symbol from the male side of the equation -


whereas at the same time the women's ideal may have been (and may sickeningly still be) -


In the men's case the appeal had little to do with body image and lot's about attitude so 'the ideal body' for a man was presumably someone else's.
But Audrey Hepburn is perhaps 'the hourglass' and a dainty little thing that I'm told many girls still try to emulate along with Marylin Monroe and whatnot.

As another example who from each gender recieved the nickname 'The Body' well for women it's obviously Elle McPherson a fashion super model. But for men it is Ben Wallace one of my all time favorite Basketball Players.

Anyway I noticed in this tennis match though that the two girls duking it out had beefier arms than I'd ever seen before. For me the typical Women's tennis player is some waif from a Balkan state. That was until the William's sisters introduced pro athleticism to the game.

Serena herself is magnificent in my eyes. I would love to have her as a girlfriend if for no other reason than nobody would ever fuck with me again. But it seems her impact has been far more positive, it seems that to be a contender other women's tennis players have had to actually build up their form arms. This I like, it's positive social change.

Admittedly on the guy's side it has slipped. With these emo, geek sheek fashions coming in for men. Fucking stovepipe jeans and what not. But women are coming around.
Well probably not, I am yet to meet a girl that wants to grow up to be built like Serena Williams. But mayhaps subconsciously looking at these more 'traditionally' built soviet girls whom have adopted the bicep young girls will see a place for athleticism and utilitarianism in aesthetics that was not there before.

I love Serena perhaps someone who is yet to be one of the most influential fashion figures in history.