Serena Williams is too busy winning to care what people say about her body.
Tennis star Serena Williams has endured people questioning her femininity and shaming her body throughout her career. This week, on ABC's "Good Morning America," she had a response for those people.
Images from "Good Morning America."
Serena Williams is, by far, the #1 female tennis player in the world and absolutely an all-time great. This is not debatable.
Despite this, Williams can't seem to escape petty gossip and criticism.
People say she's "built like a man." They hint that her muscular build may be a sign of steroids. They criticize the size of her butt (seriously).
Or worse.
In a world where the first question asked of accomplished actresses on the red carpet is "Who are you wearing?" it's not surprising that Serena's feats of greatness on the court often get swept under the rug so we can talk about whether she looks good in a dress. But it sure is disappointing.
When GMA's Robin Roberts asked her about her critics, Williams had this to say:
"It's me, and I love me. I learned to love me. I've been like this my whole life, and I embrace me. I love how I look. I love that I'm a full woman and I'm strong and I'm powerful and I'm beautiful at the same time. There's nothing wrong with that. "
— Serena Williams
As if one of our generation's greatest athletes cares about trolls.
For good measure, she added:
"I don't have time to be brought down. I have too many things to do. I have Grand Slams to win. I have people to inspire, and that's what I'm here for."
And that fast, Williams and Roberts turned to another topic.
Guess you could say Williams' haters just got "served."
It's so admirable that Williams has been able to tune out the noise. Some of her peers haven't.
The New York Times ran a story this summer about top female tennis players struggling to maintain their feminine image — how training for speed, strength, and endurance can sometimes be at odds with sculpting the so-called "ideal" physique for a woman.
It's ridiculous that any athlete would have to feel conflicted about whether to be good at their job or "beautiful." Certain members of the sports media certainly don't help when they reduce female athletes to a number on the hotness scale.
ESPN's Darren Rovell recently put his foot in his mouth on Twitter when he tried to justify why it's easier to market Maria Sharapova (who is white, blonde, and routinely shows up on those “hottest athlete" lists) than Williams (who is a much better and more accomplished tennis player). According to Rovell, that sort of thinking doesn't necessarily indicate an underlying problem.
Russian-born Maria Sharapova. Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images.
Sure it does, Darren. It's one thing to discuss an athlete's physique ( "Did Lebron James lose weight?") and another to assign them value based on whether people think they're physically attractive.
Until that changes, we definitely have a problem.
By the way, while we're discussing this, Serena is gearing up to defend her U.S. Open title, which could potentially be her fourth consecutive major win as a singles player. It would also make her only the fourth woman in history to complete a Grand Slam (sweeping all four majors in the same year), not to mention the first African-American woman to do it ... ever.
She's making history. And she doesn't give a damn what we think of how she looks doing it.
You can watch the full interview below:
A Generation Jones teenager poses in her room.Image via Wikmedia Commons
An office kitchen.via 
An angry man eating spaghetti.via 
An Irish woman went to the doctor for a routine eye exam. She left with bright neon green eyes.
It's not easy seeing green.
Did she get superpowers?
Going to the eye doctor can be a hassle and a pain. It's not just the routine issues and inconveniences that come along when making a doctor appointment, but sometimes the various devices being used to check your eyes' health feel invasive and uncomfortable. But at least at the end of the appointment, most of us don't look like we're turning into The Incredible Hulk. That wasn't the case for one Irish woman.
Photographer Margerita B. Wargola was just going in for a routine eye exam at the hospital but ended up leaving with her eyes a shocking, bright neon green.
At the doctor's office, the nurse practitioner was prepping Wargola for a test with a machine that Wargola had experienced before. Before the test started, Wargola presumed the nurse had dropped some saline into her eyes, as they were feeling dry. After she blinked, everything went yellow.
Wargola and the nurse initially panicked. Neither knew what was going on as Wargola suddenly had yellow vision and radioactive-looking green eyes. After the initial shock, both realized the issue: the nurse forgot to ask Wargola to remove her contact lenses before putting contrast drops in her eyes for the exam. Wargola and the nurse quickly removed the lenses from her eyes and washed them thoroughly with saline. Fortunately, Wargola's eyes were unharmed. Unfortunately, her contacts were permanently stained and she didn't bring a spare pair.
- YouTube youtube.com
Since she has poor vision, Wargola was forced to drive herself home after the eye exam wearing the neon-green contact lenses that make her look like a member of the Green Lantern Corps. She couldn't help but laugh at her predicament and recorded a video explaining it all on social media. Since then, her video has sparked a couple Reddit threads and collected a bunch of comments on Instagram:
“But the REAL question is: do you now have X-Ray vision?”
“You can just say you're a superhero.”
“I would make a few stops on the way home just to freak some people out!”
“I would have lived it up! Grab a coffee, do grocery shopping, walk around a shopping center.”
“This one would pair well with that girl who ate something with turmeric with her invisalign on and walked around Paris smiling at people with seemingly BRIGHT YELLOW TEETH.”
“I would save those for fancy special occasions! WOW!”
“Every time I'd stop I'd turn slowly and stare at the person in the car next to me.”
“Keep them. Tell people what to do. They’ll do your bidding.”
In a follow-up Instagram video, Wargola showed her followers that she was safe at home with normal eyes, showing that the damaged contact lenses were so stained that they turned the saline solution in her contacts case into a bright Gatorade yellow. She wasn't mad at the nurse and, in fact, plans on keeping the lenses to wear on St. Patrick's Day or some other special occasion.
While no harm was done and a good laugh was had, it's still best for doctors, nurses, and patients alike to double-check and ask or tell if contact lenses are being worn before each eye test. If not, there might be more than ultra-green eyes to worry about.