French Open Won't Let Serena Williams Wear Her Sick Black Catsuit: 'It Will No Longer Be Accepted'

The French Tennis Federation has announced that they’re instituting new rules regarding players uniforms for the 2019 French Open. President Bernard Giudicelli told Tennis Magazine that he thinks that “sometimes we’ve gone too far.” And what exactly is too far? Apparently it’s the black cat-suit Serena Williams for last year’s French Open.

“Serena’s outfit this year, for example, would no longer be accepted,” Giudicelli said, though the extent of the rules and changes have not been issued. “You have to respect the game and the place.”

Hmm, sort of sounds like the French Tennis Federation is body-shaming Serena. It’s hard to see why a suit with this much coverage would not be “respectful” of the game, especially as other female players wear skirts. If you don’t want to see women’s bodies moving, then maybe you shouldn’t be watching tennis, just my two cents!

Aside from the fact that Williams has previously said the catsuit made her feel like a superhero a la Black Panther and a “warrior,” Williams wore the suit to due to the highly publicized medical complications with her pregnancy. “I had a lot of problems with my blood clots, and, God, I don’t know how many I have had in the past 12 months,” she told Reuters. “So it is definitely a little functionality to it. I have been wearing pants in general a lot when I play so I can keep, you know, the blood circulation going.”