When Serena Williams stepped onto the red carpet of the ESPY Awards in a sleek black and gold Armani gown and a shoulder-grazing wavy blonde bob that matched the gown’s sparkling décolletage, Black women were ready with their critiques.
“Yes, she got the assignment right!” wrote one commenter in response to a Facebook post showcasing the look. Others posted memes and GIFs proclaiming “FINALLY!,” “It’s about time,” and “continuous improvement.”
Another simply conceded, “This is the OK-ish I seen her in a while…”
Williams’ famous friends may have been full of compliments as the sports phenom prepared to host ESPN’s annual awards ceremony on Thursday night (where she donned an array of other looks), but intensive discourse over her beauty and fashion choices is ongoing. In recent months, there has been an uptick in criticism from TikTok fashion pundits and commenters, largely disparaging the tennis legend’s personal style. Everything from her glam squad to ignorance of what works for her body or skin tone has been under indictment, with some even suggesting she is emulating a white woman. That these critiques have come almost exclusively from Black women adds a striking and nuanced layer to the conversation.
“…[Me] saying that she looks a goddamn mess is not rooted in colorism and misogyny,” stated TikTok user @themedusashow in a May 7 post. “While it may not be constructive, it is a valid critique.”
Fellow influencer @politicsandfashion immediately cosigned the sentiment, saying, “[@themedusashow] just said the thing that a lot of us have been thinking and we have been unwilling to say.
“At the risk of sounding like it’s coming from a place of internalized misogynoir, I don’t think that we hold people accountable for the teams that they have around them, because at this point, Serena Williams, you’re choosing violence,” she continued. “At this point, you are too wealthy to be choosing to look like that. I don’t think I know a celebrity whose glam is always off like that.”
As these posts and others have garnered mass consensus, it’s fair to say the critiques struck a chord. But while the instinct may be rooted in wanting the best for our good sis Serena, is the criticism as constructive as it claims to be?
“It is 100% constructive criticism from within the black female community that is coming from a good place,” wrote a commenter in defense of @politicsandfashion’s post. “They’re not saying ‘You look awful, haha’, it’s more ‘You deserve and have earned to look your most beautiful, and the team you have surrounded yourself with is letting you down’.”
Whether or not Williams was listening has become the latest topic of conversation, as her recent appearances at this year’s Essence Fest — and now, the ESPYS — have been met with a far more affirmative response.
Serena Williams attends the 2024 ESPY Awards at Dolby Theatre on July 11, 2024, in Hollywood, California. (Photo by Amy Sussman/WireImage)
“It says she don’t want to hear y’all talk about her no more…” sang TikTokker @nowletsbeforreal on Monday against a collage of Williams’ festival looks. “We gotta give it to her, y’all,” said TikTokker @amanduuuhplease in a post titled “This is how Serena Williams always should’ve been styled.” “[Williams] went back to the drawing board, she took our notes…and she showed us.”
On the surface, it’s cute and clickable content — but good or bad, is it really anyone’s place to publicly police Williams’ fashion choices or looks? As this for-Black-women-by-Black-women discourse has dominated our timelines in recent days, the Black women of theGrio’s Lifestyle team weighed in with some critiques of our own.
Haniyah Philogene, Staff Writer
One of the best yet often unspoken norms of womanhood is fixing another woman’s hair if it’s out of place — or signaling her to adjust her dress because her bra strap is showing. It’s representative of what social media calls a “girl’s girl”; in other words, a woman who looks out for and supports other women.
So, when it comes to the discourse surrounding Serena Williams, part of me believes these creators who so readily offer their critiques think they are simply looking out for Williams. Maybe the possibility of the tennis star or a member of her glam team seeing their videos and implementing some of these changes fueled them to start these discussions — or maybe they are simply baiting the hook to see if anyone else shares their sentiments. Regardless of their intentions, these videos nevertheless feed into the unfortunate scrutiny Black women en masse face surrounding their appearance.
Being a Black woman can often feel like you’re living under a microscope; if we’re not being judged about our hair, we’re being judged about our bodies, and the list goes on. Bearing that constant criticism, paired with an ever-changing landscape of trends and what’s deemed “acceptable,” it’s almost as if Black women are constantly expected to keep up in a never-ending race. But unfortunately, keeping up with norms leaves little room to step out of the box.
Whether social media has deemed a specific look a victory or a loss, Williams has already said she’s loved all of her fashion choices over the years because they represent her self-expression.
“I think being on worst-dressed lists is important,” she said, per People magazine. “Fashion is a way to express yourself and express your personality and…who you are and what you are — and sometimes it’s the only way the world can see you is through your style. And so for me, whether it’s the best list or the worst-dressed list, it’s all kind of cool.”
Ultimately, like most people, Williams is experimenting with different styles and looks. She just happens to be an award-winning athlete doing it in front of millions of people who feel entitled to broadcast their opinions about her looks. While this discourse may be intended to be constructive criticism offered with love from one Black woman to another, using a public platform to garner online consensus about another Black woman’s looks risks doing more harm than good.
Kay Wicker, Staff Writer
Whether you loved her Essence Fest looks and her ESPYS glam or not, to say Williams has had consistent issues with her style is disingenuous. If you Google “Serena Williams’ style,” you will find that since the start of her tennis career, she has been equally known for boundary-pushing glam on and off the court. She had all the girls wanting to put beads back in their braids in the ‘90s. She rocked glorious weaves in the early aughts. She had a buss-down wavy ombre brown ponytail with her edges laid in the 2010s. In competition, she would dazzle the crowds at match after match with sleek, coordinated kits.
Alongside her sister Venus, Serena’s athletic prowess and penchant for style have earned her clothing and beauty lines, fashion campaigns and magazine covers. If not walking the runway for shows like Vogue World, the red carpet to accept a CFDA Fashion Icon Award, or co-chairing the Met Gala, she can be found in the front row during Fashion Week. This is clearly an arena she enjoys.
Regardless of all of that, if you think someone consistently shows up one way, you are seeing a chosen aesthetic. Some recent critics have been correct in noting that, as a multimillionaire, Williams has access to top fashion and glam squads. So, that should then lead most to assume she is making deliberate choices — and whether or not you like them, she does. It’s also possible some of her detractors are working through their own limited imaginations about what a Black woman’s fashion and style could and should look like. While it’s true that fashion and personal style can be powerful tools when wielded correctly, ultimately, beauty is in the eye of the beholder — or in this case, the wearer.
Why should we expect all the world’s Black notable women to dress exactly the same, with their hair exactly the same and their glam exactly the same? While Williams may be expected to represent Black women of her complexion or with athletic body types, she shouldn’t really have to. No one sees Reese Witherspoon and thinks, “She has got to show up better for blonde white women!” Let white people think a few famous Black people represent us. Let’s just let famous Black women live.
Maiysha Kai, Lifestyle Editor
There’s not much to say that my colleagues haven’t already, except if you’re old enough to remember the genesis of the Williams sisters’ careers, you no doubt also recall that they have never lived up to anyone’s expectations. They defied them. And after nearly 30 years of scrutiny and insults — including being compared to men and monkeys — that has largely had nothing to do with the paradigm-shifting talent she brought to the game of tennis, the truth is, Serena Williams owes us nothing. That so many of us want her to represent the way we think she should, only to critique any and every effort she makes to define her own aesthetic, ironically flies in the face of what she does represent: unparalleled greatness most of us can only dream about.
As Black women, we are not obligated or entitled to like Serena’s personal style — or even to champion her latest endeavors in the beauty and fashion industries. As the saying goes, everything ain’t for everybody; similarly, every celebrity line ain’t a winner (ahem, House of Deréon). While we can claim to have the best of intentions, when we engage in this specific discourse, what we largely ignore is that, beyond personal preferences and aesthetics, we’re participating in a larger narrative that insists Black women can’t afford to get it wrong. We can’t afford to experiment or to play, or to straight up screw up sometimes. (Never mind the fact if any of us were to review a montage of our looks from the last 20 or even two years, we might find there were more misses than hits.)
But if anyone can afford to take those risks, even if they do get it “wrong” by someone else’s measure, isn’t it someone who has already defied the odds? Has Serena not already given us enough inspo for a lifetime?
Is Serena Williams my personal fashion icon? No. She doesn’t need to be. But just like so many of us were rooting for her on every court she stepped onto, maybe we can just support her right to play, win or lose.