Serena Williams beat Maria Sharapova for the seventeenth time in the semi-finals at Wimbledon on Thursday, yet she still makes less money. While Williams has made $11 million in prize money to Sharapova’s $2.4 million, the difference is in endorsements. Sharapova has made $22 million to Willams’s $11 million. While some marketing experts feel that there is still a double standard for male versus female athletes, racism may play a role as well:
“You’d be hard-pressed to find a popular male athlete who doesn’t also have physicality and sex appeal. But that comes second to winning for guys, whereas for female athletes, looks come first,” [Kevin] Adler told Women’s Wear Daily in 2013. This isn’t to suggest that Serena Williams is not attractive. But perceptions of her body are frequently overlaid with racist stereotypes. Sharapova, by contrast, is blond, thin, leggy and has worked as a model. In the eyes of corporate marketers, that is apparently valued more than on-court performance.
Maybe Serena needs to flex a little of Rihanna’s BBHMM business plan.
Team Blackness also discussed federal benefits now available to same-sex couples nationwide and a judge that ordered kids held in a juvenile center after refusing to see their dad.
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Belafon
There are lots of men – not me (luckily for me) – that are turned off by muscular women.
Paul in KY
Although I’m sure Ms. Sharapova’s aryan features are a big plus in the endorsements racket, I think Ms. William’s prior public dust-ups in a couple tournaments have also hurt her (in eyes of corporations). Bland is beautiful, in their world.
Hoping & expecting Serena to make it 3 GSes in a row & on the NYC for History!
dr. bloor
It’s all about race, and race-based stereotypes re: build and sexuality. Serena is smart, funny and hot as a smokeshow. In a rational world, she’d be able to buy out Donald Trump at this point.
cokane
@dr. bloor: sexual attraction isn’t supposed to be rational. also someone should make $$$$ in a “rational world” because they’re hot? ok
SP
The fact that anyone ever knew who Anna Kournikova was as a tennis player confirms the argument- she maybe got to the semifinals once?
Hungry Joe
All true, but Sharapova is … Sharapova: spectacularly beautiful and one of the best female tennis players ever. Sure, Serena is better, and she has Sharapova’s number on the court. But again, Sharapova is … Sharapova. Unique.
BTW, I walked right by her at a tournament a few years ago, and she is NOT thin — must be a TV effect, in part because she’s about 6’1” or 6’2”. She’s thin-ish, maybe, but she’s mostly rock-solid. Not Serena-solid, but I wouldn’t want to meet her in a dark alley. No, wait, I WOULD want to meet her in a dark alley. Her OR Serena.
Patricia Kayden
How would a “B*tch Better Have My Money” business plan work for Serena? She may need a better manager to get more endorsements. There’s not much she can do about the racist aspect of marketing though. She just has to continue to kick butt on the tennis court like she’s doing now.
KG
Part of it seems to be that Sharapova (or her agents) made a decision to focus on endorsements. Sharapova and Serena have similar deals with Nike (they’re both around $8m a year – similar to Kobe Bryant and Kevin Durant). And while Serena has a deal with Gatorade/Pepsi, Sharapova has deals with Avon Products (new in 2014), Samsung, Tag Heuer, Evian, Canon, Sony Ericsson, and Tiffany (the last three apparently account for about $20m a year). Serena has also done a decent amount of TV stuff, something that Sharapova hasn’t.
trollhattan
“Millionaire A concerned Millionaire B has gathered more millions.” I haz a sad.
The Other Chuck
Serena’s mercurial on-court behavior could account for some of it. Plus she’s five years older than Sharapova, which makes her a grand old matron of tennis, ready to retire any year now.
aimai
@Belafon: What does that have to do with anything? Did you read the crap at the link that covered what sportswriters are willing to say about her body? Its horrifying, like watching your sister be hacked open and left for dead by a serial killer in its pornographic violence. Every portion of her body is considered, described, and attacked.
kc
Remember Anna Kournikova? I don’t think she won a single major tournament, but she made a fortune in endorsements, because she was hot.
BruceFromOhio
Serena Williams is smoking hot.
@trollhattan: LOL
Gene108
Women get paid a lot of money because they look good.
But the demand just is not there for men to make money just off of looks alone, unlike with women.
Until that dynamic of human sexuality changes, I do not think we are going to move beyond rewarding women on their looks alone.
Gene108
@BruceFromOhio:
I don’t see it. Venus is the better looking of the two.
KG
@Gene108: i think a man having to look good is somewhat true in the world of sports/celebrity endorsements (ETA: which is what we’re talking about here). With the possible exception of Peyton Manning (who has a sense of humor and is an all time great in his sport), I can’t think of any male athletes who have big time endorsements that wouldn’t be considered attractive.
BruceFromOhio
@Gene108: Eyes of the beholder, my friend, eyes of the beholder.
(Though I will cop to Venus throwing off plenty of sparks as well.)
Emma
Annnd the men prove the point!
JDM
Serena was better looking than Venus once upon a time, but Venus has it now. Venus is also classier by far; Serena’s vicious berating of that lineswoman a couple years ago is just one example – hopefully the worst – of her bad attitude. OTOH, that doesn’t really affect a comparison with Maria cause Maria is a stuck up jerk.
Serena is a great player, though. One of the very best, if not THE.
kc
@trollhattan:
Heh, there’s that, too.
I can’t afford to buy most of the crap tennis players endorse. Luxury watches, luxury automobiles, diamond jewelry …
Roger Moore
@kc:
By prevailing white standards of beauty. That’s rather the point.
cokane
@trollhattan: Nowhere here is there evidence of Serena complaining.
Elon is complaining on her behalf.
Because when white and black athletes get the same money from clothing companies that employ slave labor racism will be over.
Keith G
@cokane: Ouch.
You mean to say that there is a deeper issue I should be paying attention to?
Germy Shoemangler
Amy Schumer (to tie it to the above thread) addressed the issue in Schumerenka vs. Everett
The “hot” tennis player loses, but of course gets more attention than the winner.
She removes her panties at the end, which of course endears her to the sportscasters.
jl
I think both Williams are just as hot as Sharapova. But tastes are tastes, they differ, and that explains some of it.
But I was surprised by the discrepancy, so I looked at their wiki biographies. One difference seems to be that Serena Williams has a substantial public life outside of marketing, Maybe the wikipedia bios are incomplete, but Sharapova’s public presence seems to be about making money and not much else, though she has done some charity work. But if Sharapova worked on any books, funded a school, or was majorly involved in school sports programs, seems like there would be at least a mention.
So another factor may be that Serena Williams has very substantial interests outside of making money off of marketing herself.
gene108
@JDM:
She should be in the “freak of nature” category for being so dominant at 34. Most tennis players usually lose a step at thirty – both male and female – and to be the No 1. player into her mid-30’s is a crazy long period of longevity and productivity.
Martina Navratilova played forever (as a doubles player), though stopped being dominant in singles play by 34 and retired from singles play at 37. She did make the occasional run to a Grand Slam finals, but nothing close to what Serena is doing at 34 tournament in and tournament out.
Also, does anybody remember there being a premium on the looks of women tennis players, until Anna Kournikova started raking in the big bucks doing endorsements?
Growing up, I just don’t recall anyone talking about how “hot” Chris Everett, or Stefi Graf or Monica Seles, etc. were like they do about tennis players post-Kournikova, including Serena.
dedc79
What’s a man to do? Be an equal-opportunity objectifier of women, no matter what their race/background? Boycott products that objectify women even if they’re race neutral in their objectification? Go out of our way to buy products sponsored by women we’re not attracted to? It’s all very confusing
rikyrah
17-0
And, they fix the lineup for Sharapova every phucking time, so that she gets a draw of weak opponents, on the hope of thrusting her to the higher level rounds…so that maybe THIS time, she will beat Serena.
Sharapova is a blond, blue-eyed mediocre tennis player…….but, of course, she gets endorsements. Just like that other Blond Russian who never won shyt, but had tons of endorsements……
While the far superior Black, undeniably Black -ancestors came over on those slave ships – BLACK.
Black in color. Black in spirit.
With a Black woman’s body shape heightened even more by her finely toned and sculpted body.
Make less in endorsements.
Uh huh.
Uh huh.
NO Mediocre Black athletic talent would ever be lavished with endorsements.
kc
@gene108:
I think our culture is just getting increasingly superficial.
Amir Khalid
@gene108:
They did talk about Gabriela Sabatini’s hotness, though. It wasn’t as widespread as it is now until the past decade, when a group of white Russian girl players came up who had supermodel looks.
By the way, it’s Chris Evert, not Everett.
Germy Shoemangler
@rikyrah: Ruben Studdard won FIRST PLACE in “American Idol” and yet the guy he beat became the bigger celebrity.
After the season finale, I couldn’t turn on the TV without seeing Clay Aiken, while Ruben was off performing at state fairs. I have to assume that Clay, with all his media exposure, made a shitload more money than Ruben.
kc
@Roger Moore:
Gee, thanks for ‘splaining that to me.
gene108
@rikyrah:
You don’t watch much tennis do you?
Sharapova is one of the top women’s tennis players in the world and has been for over a decade.
She’s been ranked No. 1 overall on several occasions.
She’s currently ranked No. 4 overall
She’s won 5 Grand Slam titles.
She has had a good career and in a sane world no one would call that a mediocre player.
gene108
@Amir Khalid:
Thanks for the correction.
Germy Shoemangler
Serena Williams deals with racist heckler
Patricia Kayden
@Emma: A little ironic, huh?
kc
@gene108:
.
Indeed. It’s possible to support/defend Williams w/o trashing Sharapova.
gene108
@Germy Shoemangler:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruben_Studdard
Ruben’s wiki page. His first record was a chart topper after American Idol.
His records sales have not kept up with the his first release’s success.
I never followed American Idol, so I do not know much of anything on the people who appeared on it and how they fare afterwards. Maybe he just doesn’t have the “it” factor to have a long career in show business.
gene108
@kc:
Like I posted up-thread Serena really is in uncharted waters. I cannot think of a tennis player at 34, who has been this dominant during a tennis season.
This dominant run late in her career could cement her as the greatest women’s tennis player of all time.
It really is unprecedented.
Germy Shoemangler
@gene108: I know I saw a hell of a lot more of Clay Aiken on TV than I did Ruben. As a matter of fact (because I don’t really follow American Idol) for a long time I was under the impression that Aiken was the winner, just because he was on all the talk shows and being interviewed everywhere.
dedc79
What makes this more complicated is that there are two different layers of inequality alleged – based on gender and based on race. If there is really a racial component to this disparity between Serena and Sharapova, then what would removing it achieve? You’d have equal-opportunity objectification of female athletes. Hooray?!
kc
@gene108:
She’s incredible.
KG
@gene108: that just reminded me of the Jim Rome incident… the old Rams QB Jim Everett, whom Rome used to call Chris all the time… until Jim went across a table at him on live TV. one of the best moments in ESPN history.
MCA1
@dedc79: It’s all intermingled, you’re right. Although I think less of the charge of “objectification of women” athletes when it’s pretty clear, as someone pointed out upthread, that looks matter significantly for male athletes (and actors, etc.) when it comes to endorsements, too. Probably not to the same level, but it’s there.
Regardless, this Serena/Maria issue is further complicated when you throw in a third factor worth discussion: taking the superficiality of the marketing and endorsements world as a given, is it “racist” that the majority’s standard of beauty (being, of course, pinned to stereotypical features more likely to be seen in members of the majority) is the one that marketers tend to try to sell around.
In any event, others have noted other factors here that probably mitigate the endorsement income differences here: Serena’s occasionally pretty prickly as a public persona, has had several very high profile on court instances of bad behavior, and she doesn’t seem generally as interested in maxing out her off court profitability the same way Sharapova appears to be. To add one more, Serena was overshadowed by, and then equal to, Venus the first ten years of her career, while Sharapova’s been a branding presence for a long time.
dedc79
@MCA1:
Yeah, I was trying to get at this in my first comment above, but I think you put it better. I get the complaint about disparate treatment, it just gets very tricky when you start talking about how to fix it. I suppose advertisers could, in the interest of avoiding all appearance of promoting or profiting off of racism, deliberately pick spokespersons who do not meet the majority’s standard of beauty and are thus less likely to move product. Seems like that would be a tough sell.
Amir Khalid
@MCA1:
On the other hand, Sharapova has a considerable off-court rep as one of the most arrogant, entitled jerks on the women’s circuit.
jl
@Amir Khalid: I did not know that.
Just curious, any evidence that McEnroe’s infantile behavior affected his endorsement income? So what, Serena Williams has had ‘a few’ incidents, some of which were blown out of proportion, or maybe manufactured. How is that enough to hurt her getting endorsements? Serena is nowhere even remotely near in the same tantrum league as some of the guys, particularly McEnroe.
Germy Shoemangler
Does anyone remember when pro tennis player Caroline Wozniacki stuffed her shirt and skirt to imitate Serena Williams?
Hungry Joe
@kc: Anna Kournikova never won a WTA tournament, true, but she reached #8 in the world and was a spectacularly successful doubles player, ranked #1 for a while and winning two Grand Slam titles. Back injuries forced her to retire at 21, so she never came close to reaching her peak.
Not that she didn’t get fabulously wealthy off her looks, mind you; I’m just defending her tennis. She was a terrific player whose career was cut short. Man, could she hit an inside-out swinging volley. Just blasted the unholy crap out of the ball.
Archon
Short of Serena Williams looking like Beyoncé of course an attractive white woman with a good tennis game will get more advertisements then a black women, doesn’t matter how good that black women is.
It’s strange that anyone would pretend otherwise.
Hungry Joe
@Germy Shoemangler: Wozniacki and Serena are close friends; they hang out, sometimes travel together, confide, etc. … and Wozniacki apologized for that. Anyway, tennis players make fun of each other all the time, often in public. Remember Djokovic mimicking Sharapova’s pre-serve tics? Hilarious.
Bill Murray
@gene108:
I remember lot’s of talk about how “hot” Chris Evert was back in the early to mid 1970s, but Graf and Seles were generally not talked about that way. Well Graf did get some after an SI story and photo shoot in maybe 1997
Another Holocene Human
@Archon: Thank you.
@Bill Murray: Maybe the exact words weren’t used but I certainly heard that men were all over Steffi Graf for her looks, loud and clear. Monica Selles to a lesser extent. No offense to those who watch tennis because they love the sport, but there’s a strong subtext of just watching the sport, especially the women’s sport, to see hot people in motion. The men have more room to act obnoxious, like drunken hockey players. It’s all good if they can win on the court.
Bruce Webb
Absent the single minded drive of Venus and Serena’s father, who was willing to become the most hated person in the world of tennis to actually have his daughters even be admitted to that world, even in the face that their subsequent brilliant successes should have made that even an issue, these women wouldn’t even be in that world. There really wasn’t any arena of sports more racist than tennis in the 50s and 60s, it was a sport of, by, and about white people. (Which incidentally made the whole I Spy story arc so subversive, casting Cosby as the tennis guy was in story so outlandish that nobody would have suspected that he and his ‘coach’ were spies).
The Williams sisters were not supposed to be stars. They certainly were not supposed to inject a certain type of sex appeal into the white world of tennis, one accentuated by their early adoption of a newer bolder style of tennis attire. The hope and expectation was that they would be a flash in the pan and their father exposed as just another posing arriviste intruding on the pure (meaning white) world of tennis. And Pere Williams did get side-lined. But not before his daughters were launched on a trajectory that changed tennis.
But none of that means that the old guard of tennis weren’t yearning for the days of Chrissie Evert and hoping that they could just crown the likes of Lindsay Davenport to replace ‘those’ ‘girls’. Well sucks to be the old guard. Which doesn’t mean they won’t continue to throw their ad dollars at the likes of Anna Kournikova then and Sharapova now. it’s the same old story as it was when white boxing fans a century ago reacted to Jack Johnson by rooting for the “Great White Hope”, whoever he might be.
Another Holocene Human
Elon, shame on you trolling in the header.
Much more interesting comments at one hour about why do political candidates do Q&A when meeting with other constituent groups but come to the Black community and deliver a monologue?
Something every pol needs to think about.
gaderson
@KG:
Well, if you don’t think looks can get a man extra endorsements, us Soccer fans have to endure David Beckham. He’s good with a (dead) ball at his feet, but, we all ask each other if we’ve seen him actually run with the ball at the defense? And though [Christian] Ronaldo is a great player (for his Club Team, i.e. $$$$) his play at the World Cup and Euro have been more about how he looks in a pair of shorts;)
I must say for me, Serena is the one athlete for whom I’ve seen the ‘90% mental’ game where She just powers through and through force of will wins the match—quite incredible. No wonder She’s still going into her 30s.
burningambulance
Maybe Serena Williams doesn’t have as many endorsements as Maria Sharapova does because she doesn’t seek them out. Williams also has her own clothing line.
jl
@burningambulance: Sharapova’s wiki bio says she has a line of candy, and that she considered changing her last name to Sugarpova to help promote it. Wiki has a reference that purports to have evidence she prepared a court filing to do that.
So, who knows? But if that is true, Sharapova sure has a singular devotion to marketing her fame. Would be interesting to compare Sharapova’s endorsement take with some tennis stars similar to her in terms of looks and tennis reputation.
Heliopause
I find this interesting because I personally see Serena all the time in TV ads, while surfing through the shopping channels, and so on, but almost never Sharapova. Is Sharapova earning all this loot overseas?
columbusqueen
@JDM: Exactly so–Serena stopped being marketable when she melted down that time. McEnroe had the same problem until he retired & mellowed out.
moderateindy
Please, Serena is attractive, but she ain’t Sharapova hot, the same way Sharapova ain’t Halle Berry hot. Sure some folks think Serena is ugly becuase she’s black, but if she was white, and looked like that those same people would still find Sharapova to be prettier. Your complaint is what? everybody should like what you like in a woman? There’s plenty of racism to go around, we don’t need to invent it.
Or is the complaint that pretty people get more advantages than regular looking folks? Boo as well as hoo. Grow up and live in the real world. It ha always been the case, and I doubt it will ever change.
I know it’s hard to churn out content on a daily basis, but try to do a little better than this hunk of crap