Serena Williams is an icon, both on the tennis court as well as off it. The trailblazer’s every accomplishment, failure, and outburst draws attention and is always a matter of debate. Unsusrprisingly, her argument with the chair umpire in the 2018 US Open is still fresh in the minds of people.

The matter again caught fire in 2020 when Taylor Swift included a scene similar to the incident in one of her songs. Fans took over social media platforms to pitch in on the discussion. It garnered a range of ideas and analogies.

Fans’ reaction to Serena Williams’ US Open reference

The entire thing started from a tweet pointing out how the singer used the US Open incident to portray the injustice women face. The Man from Swift’s seventh album took efforts to point out how men enjoy different privileges. Therefore, joining the dots, an author from London wrote, “Serena was criticised for her reaction at the US Open final, even though men who’ve reacted worse in the past were just called “passionate”.”

“Taylor including this in the video for “The Man” while literally singing “If I was a man, then I’d be the man” whew.” He added. To which one responded, “Who knew it was so hard to conduct simple research? The way that first, groundless paragraph has been regurgitated by casual and non-tennis-fans is infuriating. For a huge musician to jump on the bandwagon and promote it to millions is irresponsible.”

While the other providing backing mentioned some of the earlier cases which were treated the same way as the 23 times Grand Slam champion. “Tbf McEnroe was viewed as a douche bag for having a meltdown back in Wimbledon. Nick Kyrgios is widely hated. Serena’s outburst was unreasonable coz her coach admitted to coaching her in the middle of the match?? This is not the first time she did this too (USO vs Clijsters ).”

Williams got tangled in an argument with the chair umpire when accused of coaching. She refused to take instructions from coach Patrick Mouratoglou during the finals clash with Naomi Osaka. Further, she raised allegations of sexism against the umpire for piling a penalty on her.

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Though Mouratoglou later admitted to coaching Williams from the box, he professed that Williams didn’t seem to notice his gestures. Also, he pointed out that Osaka’s coach was indulging in similar activities.

The other side of the debate

There were also the ones who found the tweet factual. Speaking of which, even the 12 times Grand Slam champion Billie Jean King backed Williams‘ claims and thanked her for pointing out the sexist behaviour.

Here’s how the other half responded. “Pointing out sexism via the “The Man” MV. Whoa. Dam.”

“Queens supporting queens. Thats it perioddt.”

“She must keep a journal of all this stuff. I would have never put this together.”

“I mean, not really a Swiftie or something, but RESPECT!!!”

“This fucking scene.”

“I can’t even begin to describe how MUCH OF GENIUS TAYLOR ALISON SWIFT IS.”

“Just wow I was thinking about the same thing rn like my life would be a way better if I was a guy who does whatever he wants whenever he wants and no one can ever criticize him, dude it’s sad.”

“I have no choice but to stan.”

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Which side of the fence do you stand on? Let us know in the comments below.