In his weekly sports column for The Nation, David Zirin writes that many have dismissed the revelation of sexist practices at Wimbledon, and some sportswriters are even defending the practice. L.Z. Granderson, writing in his ESPN column, says that he "found the Wimbledon officials honesty quite refreshing," adding:

Organizers are trying to sell their sport and believe the casual, straight male fan is more apt to watch attractive women-because if they had a love of the game, they wouldn't be casual fans, would they? In a sport in which Anna Kournikova, a player without a singles title, can become the most popular on tour, no one should be surprised by any of this.

As mentioned earlier, Jason Whitlock of Fox Sports was similarly unfazed by the biased practices at Wimbledon. In fact, he argued that the only thing preventing Serena Williams from being as big as Michael Jordan is that she spends too much time whining about sexism in tennis. Instead, she should accept the fact that sex sells and focus on reducing the size of her butt to a more media-friendly size.

According to Zirin, research by University of Minnesota sports sociologist Dr. Mary Jo Kane shows that sexy images of female athletes may make that women bigger celebrities but they don't translate into a deeper interest in their sport. Kane showed men and women sexy images of female athletes and found that while they may sell magazines, they didn't make the viewer any more invested in women's sports, and may actually alienate existing fans.

But, Kane says the focus on a female players' looks actually goes much deeper than just selling sports with sex appeal:

"This is also about what runs in the bone marrow of women's sports, namely homophobia. They are very well-meaning but they also want to distance themselves from the lesbian label. How do you do that? You reassure the viewing audiences, the corporate sponsors, the TV networks, and the female athletes themselves, that, No, no, no- sports won't make your daughter gay. Women's sports will be more acceptable if you believe, even though it is stereotypical and inaccurate, that if you are pretty and feminine in a traditional sense then you are not gay."

So as women struggle to be taken seriously as athletes, not just sex symbols, on the court, they're actually trapped between sexism and homophobia. The two stereotypes are are present even in the "grunting" controversy, in which the sounds female players make have been described alternately as sexual or overly masculine in nature. While the conventionally pretty Michelle Larcher de Brito has been called "more of a shrieker," last night during an interview with Serena Williams (clip below), David Letterman described the sound Williams makes as "kind of noise you associate with mayhem, like cage fighting."

At the core of both stereotypes is the idea that athleticism is inherently masculine. While women's sports are supposed to be about greater equality and empowerment, female athletes are still expected to strike a balance between being too sexy and not attractive enough. Unfortunately, until Serena Williams grunting on the court and wearing a dress and pearls during an interview are seen as equally feminine, there won't be a level playing field for women in sports.

Sexism On Centre Court [The Nation]
Finding The Beauty In Ugly [ESPN]

Earlier: Foul Ball
In Defense Of Grunts
Female Tennis Players: Faking It Like Meg Ryan?
Grunting Controversy Continues On Wimbledon's Opening Day

[Wimbledon, England, July 4. Image via Getty.]

WIMBLEDON, ENGLAND - JULY 04: Venus Williams of USA (L) and Serena Williams of USA celebrate victory with their trophies after the women's doubles final match against Samantha Stosur of Australia and Rennae Stubbs of Australia on Day Twelve of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on July 4, 2009 in London, England. The Williams sisters won 7-6, 6-4. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

[London, July 1. Image via Getty]

[London, July 1. Image via Getty]

Spectators watch a match through the rails of a gate on Day 9 at the 2009 Wimbledon tennis championships at the All England Club on July 1, 2009. The event, the third Grand Slam tournament of 2009, runs from June 22 to July 5, 2009. AFP PHOTO / CARL DE SOUZA (Photo credit should read CARL DE SOUZA/AFP/Getty Images)

[London, June 29. Image via Getty]

[London, June 30. Image via Getty]

US tennis player Venus Williams plays against Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska in a Women's Quarter Final match of the 2009 Wimbledon Tennis Championships at the All England Tennis Club, in southwest London, on June 30, 2009. AFP PHOTO/CARL DE SOUZA (Photo credit should read CARL DE SOUZA/AFP/Getty Images)

[London, June 29. Image via Getty]

WIMBLEDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 29: A ball girl waits by the net on Day Seven of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on June 29, 2009 in London, England. (Photo by Ian Walton/Getty Images)

"I went out there and actually did really well just thinking she was any other player, and it was any other match and I was at any other tournament," Oudin tells the New York Times. Her strategy paid off: she'll now advance to the fourth round of the tournament alongside fellow Americans Venus and Serena Williams. [NYTimes]

[London, June 26. Image via Getty]

WIMBLEDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 26: A ball girl waits during the men's singles third round match between Roger Federer of Switzerland and Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany on Day Five of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on June 26, 2009 in London, England. (Photo by Paul Gilham/Getty Images)

[London, June 26. Image via Getty]

WIMBLEDON, ENGLAND - JUNE 26: Serena Williams of USA celebrates during the women's singles third round match against Roberta Vinci of Italy on Day Five of the Wimbledon Lawn Tennis Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club on June 26, 2009 in London, England. (Photo by Julian Finney/Getty Images)

[London, June 25. Image via Getty]

Ukraine's Kateryna Bondarenko returns a ball to US Venus Williams during their second round match in the 2009 Wimbledon tennis championships at the All England Club on June 25, 2009. The event, the third Grand Slam tournament of 2009, runs from June 22 to July 5, 2009. AFP PHOTO / ADRIAN DENNIS (Photo credit should read ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP/Getty Images)

[London, June 23. Image via Getty]

A girl wears Wimbledon stickers on her sunglasses on the second day of the Wimbledon Tennis Championships, west London on June 23, 2009. AFP PHOTO/Leon Neal (Photo credit should read Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images)

According to The Guardian, Larcher de Brito's grunting seemed "curiously subdued" and at a press conference after the match, she confirmed that Wimbledon officials told her she could be fined for making excessive noises. "I tried to quieten things down for you guys today," said Larcher de Brito, adding that she would rather take a fine than stop grunting completely. "If my body feels like it needs to grunt more, it grunts. If not, it stays quiet," she said.

Earlier in the day, in her first round victory over Viktoriya Kutuzova, Maria Sharapova refused to tone herself down. The Guardian reports:

As a side-show to the actual tennis, we have quite the grunting contest developing between Sharapova and Kutuzova on Court one. Kutuzova's is a little deeper - almost like she's trying to shout the word 'pow' each time she hits it, whereas Sharapova is getting a little hoarse.

Nick Bollettieri, who has coached many of tennis' greatest, and most notoriously noisy players, including Shrapova and Larcher de Brito weighed in on the controversy today in his daily Wimbledon column in The Independent. Bollettieri says that a series of graduating penalties ranging from the loss of a point to the loss of a match should be implemented to cut down on excessive grunting. However, he adds:

I have never taught anyone to grunt. It's just not part of the coaching regime at my academy.

Grunting on the courts may be a lot of things, including annoying, but it certainly isn't cheating, since it's been done under the watchful eyes (and ears) of umpires for decades with few complaints and fewer sanctions.

Three of the top female players of all time – Monica Seles, Serena Williams, and Maria Sharapova - have all been associated with making noise when making impact with the ball.

But to suggest that these women (all of whom, by the way, have trained at my academy) have cheated their way to 32 Grand Slam championships and more than 100 titles is offensive – and wrong.

On Saturday night, former Wimbledon champion Michael Stich, who is now a BBC Radio commenter, angered many people by claiming that the role of female tennis players is as much about "selling sex" as their physical ability, the Daily Mail reports. He suggested the best way to reduce the amount of grunting in women's tennis is to, "Just play it back to the women. It sounds disgusting, ugly, unsexy!"

According to the Mail:

When challenged that it was the women's role to play the best tennis they could, rather than look sexy, Stich stuck to his guns. ‘That's what they sell,' he told The Mail on Sunday.

‘They want to look good, they pay attention to their looks and everything.'

He then joked that the only way to make sure female players stop grunting is to "shoot them." Stich now claims that his comments were taken out of context.

Sexist comments aside, what may actually put an end to the grunting is a meeting of the Grand Slam Committee scheduled to take place at Wimbledon this week. An anonymous spokesman for the International Tennis Federation told Time that, "In light of the controversy at The French Open, the Grand Slam Committee will be meeting to see if anything can be done to make enforcement [of grunting] more official and explicit."

Since the committee, which sets the rules for tennis' four major events, releases a new rulebook annually, any restriction on grunting wouldn't come into effect until 2010.

Wimbledon 2009 — Day One Live! [The Guardian]
Coaching Report: Grunting [The Independent]
Wimbledon Girls Are "Just There To Sell Sex", Says BBC Pundit Michael Stich [The Daily Mail]
Ex-Wimbeldon Champion Says Players Are Just "Selling Sex" [Bild.com]
Quiet, Please: Tennis Pros May Have To Give Up The Grunt [Time]

Earlier: Female Tennis Players Faking It Like Meg Ryan

[London, June 22. Image via Getty]

Tennis fans gather on Court 18 to watch Spain's Feliciano Lopez against Slovakia's Karol Beck on the first day of the 2009 Wimbledon Tennis Championships at the All England Club in southwest London, on June 22, 2009. AFP PHOTO/ADRIAN DENNIS (Photo credit should read ADRIAN DENNIS/AFP/Getty Images)

• "Experts" claim that U.S. society has more sympathy and interest in female fugitives after they compare a boring male fugitive with a drug-selling female fugitive. • Barbara Morgan, a female astronaut who has logged 305 hours in space, will leave NASA to become an educator at Boise State University. • If Aunt Flo keeps visiting you more often (less than 21 days since her last sojurn) then you might be in the early stages of "the change"! • A rival HPV vaccine similar to Gardasil faces further delays for FDA approval. • A Chinese woman has rescued 100 stray and injured pup-pups after the earthquake (with slideshow!). • An animal study suggests that a diet of junkfood for pregnant and breastfeeding women is bad for the child. Did we really need animal testing to tell us the obvious? • A woman plows into a convenience store and tries to buy a six-pack of beer in Norwalk, CA. • A woman kidnaps and murders a pregnant woman, cut baby from her womb, and tried to pass off the child as her own. • Elizabeth, Illinois tries to gather the greatest number of Lizes, creating a world record with about 400 'Beths. • Meet Purimopueru, a Japanese toy that is meant to substitute a grandchild (or, sometimes child) for older women as birthrates drop in Japan.

Some would say Wimbledon's all-white dress code encourages this kind of experimentation. Others would argue that it's part of a dangerous trivialization of one of the few sports in which women rule. "Only in this climate could it be written - as it was at the French Open - that the American Ashley Harkleroad had "upstaged" Serena Williams because she had decided to pose for Playboy," writes Marina Harker in The Guardian. "Williams had just crushed her in two sets, but whatever. Harkleroad's first-round draw here is Amélie Mauresmo, in a match swiftly billed by some commentators as the clash between the lesbian and the Playboy model."

Yes, this is appalling, and there is no question that the deification of a "celebrity" like Anna Kournikova at the expense of more accomplished athletes is bad for sports, society, girls and fashion alike. But I'm inclined to take a more relaxed approach. First of all, however trivial - and besides the point - these athletes' fashion choices might be, they are still drawing attention to genuine athletic accomplishment. (And all the players singled out for sartorial acclaim are actually world-class tennis players.) And is critiquing sportswear any worse than critiquing red carpet fashions, especially when the practictioners throw themselves into the fray with red-carpet-like zeal? At the end of the day, if focusing on fashion is trivializing the hard work of these women, it is also glamorizing it - and we could do worse than to glamorize hard-working athletes who, not incidentally, sport these clothes on toned and healthy-looking (read, well-fed) bodies. And, if nothing else, the dandyism is unilateral - Roger Federer can only grasp at the sex appeal generated by stars like Sharapova. And judging by the reaction to that cardigan, he's not doing very well.

Shorts and Sweet[Vogue UK]
Game, Set and Style [Vogue UK]
A trouser-rubbing timewarp that needs no new balls[The Guardian]
Trenchcoats up the Wimbledon fashion stakes[Reuters]

Earlier: Girly Fashions At The Australian Open: Game, Set, Matching Headbands
The Men Of The Australian Open Serve Good 'Sex Face'