Titles and Towels at Wimbledon

Fiend at Court Unplugged

In 2019 Wimbledon announced that female players would no longer be referred to by titles that reflected their marital status when announcing the score during matches. The change to “move with the times” was a result over controversy at the tournament the previous year when “Mrs. Serena Williams” was used after she was married. Since she did not take the name of her husband, it would have been incorrect to refer to her as Mrs. Alexis Ohanian.

During her playing days, Billie Jean King was asked what she thought about being listed as “Mrs. L. W. King” at a Wimbledon press conference. Her reply was that “feminists get hung up on too many trivial things.” In her iconic book about the early days of the professional women’s tour, Grace Lichtenstein relayed that Billie Jean regarded the use of marital titles as indicative of unliberated gender attitudes. What was needed was a transformation those attitudes rather than quibbling over the language.

Another difference in how each gender is treated at Wimbledon was erased for the first time this year. When walking onto the court, players are handed two official tournament towels. Until this year, the men were always given the “Championship” green and purple towels while the women received two “Seasonal” towels with a rotating color scheme. This year all players are provided with one Championship and one Seasonal towel.

I struggle to classify this as a gender inequity. It is really just a… difference. Nevertheless, a distinction that I wasn’t consciously aware existed until this week. It may have been the last remaining vestige of gender differentiation at Wimbledon.