Analysis Of Rankine s Profile Of Serena Williams

Rankine’s profile of Serena Williams describes her as someone that breaks away from the feminine stereotype that Devor has described. Rankine s has described Williams as what she is; an athlete. Williams s athleticism challenges gender roles, as woman are stereotypically viewed as passive and submissive. Any successful female athlete must break away from this preordained notion of femininity as it contradicts the very nature of a successful athlete, which is to be dominant, aggressive, and assertive. Thus Williams challenges and defies the very nature of gender roles by being a successful female athlete, rather than being a passive 1960s house mom. Serena Williams, as a female athlete, challenges the gender roles set by Devor, as she is an aggressive and assertive player. This contradicts with Devor s statement on femininity which says, Femininity, according to this traditional formulation, would result in warm and continued relationships with men, a sense of maternity, inter est in caring for children, and the capacity to work productively and continuously in female occupations. This recipe translates into a vast number of proscriptions and prescriptions. Warm and continued relations with men and an interest in maternity require that females be heterosexually oriented. A heterosexual orientation requires women to dress, move, speak, and act in ways that men will find attractive. As patriarchy has reserved active expressions of power as a masculine attribute,