Sheena
3 min readMar 14, 2022

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On Jane Campion’s Comment on Venus and Serena

A white woman will ALWAYS “white woman” eventually.

Last night when accepting her Critic’s Choice Award for Best Director, Jane Campion had this to say about Venus and Serena Williams: “Venus and Serena you’re marvels but you don’t have to compete against the men like I do.”

Firstly, Jane Campion is literally incorrect: both Venus and Serena have played mixed doubles in which they compete against and with men. Secondly, although Serena has more grand slam titles than any other active player, she has won less prize money than Rafael Nadal (21 grand slams) and Roger Federer and Novak Djokovic (20 grand slams each), so arguably, she is "competing" with men in terms of salary and losing.

This white woman won an award and instead of just thanking her team, she took the opportunity to disparage two Black women. Why? Because she was threatened by their brilliance. When she looks at them, her mediocrity stares back at her.

The racism and white supremacy in her comment is evident and she is not the first white woman to speak disparagingly about Venus and/or Serena. It is strange to me how so many white women seem to want to be even more oppressed than they are, that sexism and misogyny alone don’t seem to be enough for them.

To any white woman reading this, trust me, the combination of racism and…

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Sheena
Sheena

Written by Sheena

Black feminist. Lawyer. Writer. She/her/hers.

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