Serena's Outburst a Reflection of Society

We've witnessed self-proclaimed concerned Americans drown out public debates over healthcare reform with vitriol. We saw a member of Congress heckle the president during an address by the commander-in-chief in the well of the House.

And shortly after Serena Williams belittled a tennis lineswoman in an embarrassing tirade, and then struggled mightily to muster the courtesy of an apology, a music producer extraordinaire selfishly and embarrassingly rained on an honoree's nationally televised parade with his uncontainable ego.

Incivility. It's the new black. Everyone's bearing it: Rep. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), rap mogul Kanye West -- again -- and the world's best women's tennis player.

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Who knows when this all started, but it wasn't yesterday. The former Treasury Secretary Alexander Hamilton said such nasty things about Vice President Aaron Burr in 1804 that Burr challenged him to a duel that turned out fatal for Hamilton.

But I do know one thing for certain: opprobrious behavior has all but been celebrated in recent years. It's even found a new home in which to thrive like some organic poison. It's called the Internet. Just read the profane posts on cyberspace message boards from the cowardly and ignorant suddenly emboldened with a cape of anonymity, and a quick exit into ether, provided by the World Wide Web.

This isn't to excuse Serena's conduct as a product of these coarse times. It is to point out that she is, unfortunately, a reflection of it.

Serena just couldn't hide her extreme displeasure in heading towards her U.S. Open semifinal loss Saturday against Kim Clijsters. She played poorly from start, angrily breaking a racket, and Clijsters capitalized on her every mistake. She was a step away from having Clijsters complete a well-deserved beating of her when she took exception to a lineswoman's call of stepping over the line on her serve. It was insult on top of insult. There was no place to go except to the locker room and she didn't get there fast enough. She exploded before everyone's eyes.Sportsmanship is how you react to adversity and defeat. Serena demonstrated none.

Sportsmanship is how you react to adversity and defeat. Serena demonstrated none. She ranted; she raged. She turned back and did it some more until she was penalized for unnecessary boorishness which nailed her defeat to the wall.

On Sunday, Serena was fined the maximum of $10,000 for her unsportsmanlike and unseemly behavior and there was a report that tennis officials would consider further sanctions against her like a possible suspension.

Just like Rep. Joe Wilson, who yelled out at the President, Serena is without defense. Whatever else befalls her in this incident is of her own doing. Wilson's peers are discussing citing him in some way, maybe with censure, for violating House rules that prohibit members from impugning the integrity of the president while speaking in committee or on the floor.

The people who ultimately decide what more is to be done with Serena may want to consider history before rendering any further penalty. After all, it isn't as if tennis hasn't seen such violently emotional outbursts on its courts under the brightest of lights before. The biggest difference this time seems to be the person who erupted; it was a she and not a he.

Is there any question that as a society we've ascribed a role to the second sex, as Simone de Beauvoir famously tagged women, that we haven't stuck on men, and that even in 2009 some among us still cling to it? It's the one that says women should be mild and meek. (I won't even get into the one that says women can't be trusted with too important a position because they are more prone to react with emotion, because that would force me to recall President George W. Bush's quote explaining the need to wage war against Iraq: "After all, this is the guy [then Iraqi despot Saddam Hussein] who tried to kill my dad.")

I don't think Serena's boorish behavior would be as transcendent an item if she was Roger Federer or Rafael Nadal or Andy Roddick. (That was Federer on Monday night, in being upset by Juan Martin del Potro in the U.S. Open men's final, who was overheard cursing to the chair umpire during a break.) Indeed, some of our most beloved tennis idols in years past in the men's draw were as well-known for their hotheadedness as for their brilliance as players. Most notable, of course, were Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe.

McEnroe's handlers even manipulated his infamous anger management problems on the court into a post-playing career cash cow. He's been awarded commercials were he plays on his old bad boy infamy. There is reward in our capitalist society for bad behavior with men. The fiery basketball coach Bob Knight has pulled in the dough playing on the worst of his character in a movie called Anger Management. Oklahoma State coach Mike Gundy got a raise after he verbally lashed a female columnist. Maybe Serena will be afforded the same moneymaking opportunities off her uncontainable fighting spirit when her fabulous career is over.


Calling the Williams-Clijsters match from the TV booth on Saturday night, McEnroe even expressed some discomfort in criticizing Serena for behaving as badly as he once did, maybe even outdoing him. (I don't recall McEnroe appearing to brandish his racket during a tirade.) McEnroe sounded as if he felt he'd have to recuse himself from the discussion.

But who knew better than he did? At the 1990 Australian Open, he swore at the umpire, a supervisor and a referee. He was warned by the umpire for intimidating a lineswoman (does that sound familiar?) and was subsequently docked a point for (or how familiar does this sound?) smashing a racket. It was all in violation of the Code of Conduct that was introduced just before the tournament and meant that a third violation resulted in immediate disqualification. McEnroe's berating of the umpire was the third strike and he was out.

"Dick and Mary, what do you want to know?" McEnroe asked his broadcasting teammates, Dick Enberg and Mary Carillo. "I feel like I'm on the hot seat now ... I can't defend the indefensible."

Serena couldn't either. Nobody should be able to. But we've been letting too many run and hide from this sort of thing for a long time.