“It is this dichotomy — being so intensely competitive while at the same time supporting each other so completely — that showcases just how amazing women’s sports can be. Women’s sports offer a space for women to be unabashedly competitive, to ignore a society that tells women to be meek or mild or accommodating. And women’s sports are also a place where women can stand together and support one another even as they compete, to ignore a society that tells us that women are catty or petty or jealous or otherwise unable to get along. At its best — like, say, on a day Venus and Serena are playing — the world of women’s athletics is able to be a space for both of these possibilities, and to showcase the message that despite all the social pressures to the contrary, both are possible.”
