Derek27 wrote: ↑Wed Jun 02, 2021 1:43 am
It's quite outrageous at a time when people are encouraged to talk about mental health problems that she can be treated so harshly. Tennis should be about playing tennis, not public interviews.
When I suffered from severe depression, I personally didn't give a fuck about anyone who doubted it or told me it's a figment of my imagination, but it does cause a lot of extra and unnecessary distress to many people. You can't get inside the mind of another human being, so if somebody claims to be depressed or suicidal, give them some benefit of doubt.
I think there's a few sides to this though, not just mental health. It's not that I don't think she might have mental health issues but she's using it to boost her 'brand' imo. Clay courts are her weakest surface so by releasing this statement she basically pre-empted a loss. She's saying I don't want to do a presser after the match because 'when' I lose it will be too hard to sit there answering questions. She also essentially blamed the journalists for her issues because they ask the same questions again and again. No tennis player wants to do pressers when they lose unless they're a masochist but they're contractually obliged to do so. If she felt this way going into the French Open and didn't believe she could win it then why enter it in the first place? Wouldn't it make more sense to go away and work on your issues and not expose yourself to that kind of stress? She didn't do any of that because the slams are what gives the top players the most visibility so for me the whole episode was used for maximum effect to boost her profile . Even when asked about the fine for not doing press after her first match she was combative, she basically said f#$k the organisers, they can fine me all they want. If I had mental health issues around anxiety I don't think I'd want to expose myself to any more agg in that way. She's now the poster girl for mental health and getting pats on the back all over the media in the UK and the US but nobody is raising any of the points I've just made. At the very least her whole approach to this is disingenuous.
What annoys me more than anything is we now live in a world where you can't criticise anybody unless they're a straight white male. If you criticise Osaka you're automatically dismissive of mental health issues, a nailed on sexist and probably a bit of a racist too (I'm sure that will raise its head in the coming weeks). Criticise a female football pundit and you're sexist (even though most of them are as crap as the blokes), criticise a black pundit and you're racist ( I love watching Micah Richards, but he's a crap pundit). TV companies are constantly saying give us your thoughts using the hashtag xxx but when anybody criticise a pundit its ignored.
We essentially now live in a CNN world. Every time you turn on the tv you're being lectured to on how to talk to people, constantly being told that treating people with respect is no longer enough. You have to do this, you need to do that... People have stuff going on in their own lives, not everyone has the time to go on marches or to spend hours on Twitter giving half baked opinions on stuff they think they understand because they read an article on it once or because their favourite artist wrote a song about it.
I probably should have put this in the rant corner!
I'll end on a positive note though! I watched the Indy500 on Sunday, it was on Sky and the host broadcaster I think was NBC. At the end of the race the winning driver was been congratulated by other drivers and there were f-bombs being dropped everywhere! The NBC comms didn't even acknowledge it let alone trot out the 'apologies if anyone was offended crap'. Of course as soon as it got back to the Sky studio the apologies started to fly!