#Serena Williams career

[binduspoint]

Empowering Role Models: Inspirational Figures to Guide Your Career Journey

Elon Musk – CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, known for his innovations in the electric car industry and space exploration. Oprah Winfrey – Media mogul, television host, producer, and philanthropist, recognized for her influential talk show and media empire. Cristiano Ronaldo – Professional soccer player, widely regarded as one of the greatest footballers of all time, with a massive global fan…

[astrogre]

Astro observations 2

Disclaimer: I would like to confirm that my observations are the niche ways in which a placement may manifest, it is the way I’ve noticed it in others, the people around me, celebrities, myself and in my studies. It is not the doctrine wide broad way the placement occurs for everyone.

Jupiter 7H can have a reputation of wanting EVERYONE. Anyone with a pulse, they like everyone, usually their dating history is so diverse that if you put all their love interests in a room together it would be the most strangest group of people. Drake has this placement and he is known for wanting, going on dates with or having a relationship with Nicki minaj, Ice Spice, Jorja smith, JLo, Kylie Jenner, Tyra Banks, Sza, Hailey Beiber, Serena Williams, literally everyone. Marilyn Monroe also has this placement and people would say the same about her. With this placement it can make the native have interest with a lot of people. You can have plenty of potential partners.

Having 12H placements Sun especially can make you feel like your gifts, talents, purpose or whatever planet topic is in it, was made for others. Like serving an ungrateful, complaining customer that ends up eating the entire plate anyway. You individually may not be selfless but it feels like the planet in the 12H benefits others and not you. It feels like a fire that burns to keep others warm.

Conjuncts to the MC (planets and asteroid) show what you are most known for in the workplace, what you’re like at your best self too. Any placements conjunct to MC show what you are like at the peak of your life and how you act in your career and what are known for in your career. That’s how MC can indicate what your career is because it focuses on who you are at your best and how others see you in the workplace and go off from there. Eg. Aquarius MC conjunct Uranus and Webb may indicate you being tech savvy at your best self so astrologers may assume you’re in tech industry or well known online, but you can still be for an example a doctor that aids in treatment with technology, your MC sign doesn’t mean you exclusively work in the industry the sign represents, it just shows you the way you work in the industry you pursue

Neptune 1st housers may look completely different to their parents. Like you can see a hint of their parents features on their face but they don’t look that much like them. They can be born with features that are contrary to their birth parents like red hair and blue eyes in an all brunette family. Or it can be a subtle difference like they appear as if they’re from a different country, people guess their ethnicity incorrectly like all the time.

With Neptune 1st house There is nothing particularly special about these natives physical appearance in particular, they MAKE themselves special. The way they carry their physical body and animate it, is what makes these people so different and admired. They’re like puppeteers for their physical bodies. This is a continuous pattern I’ve seen, like if you just saw these people on the street sure -you’d think they’re pretty.. but not necessarily “otherworldly”, what makes these individuals perceived as such is the way they control/express their behavior. I have noticed Neptune here makes people VERY controlling over their appearances, it does make me question if Neptune is a subtly secretly controlling planet, if it manipulates subconsciously, like a child conveniently stepping on other’s sandcastles when running on the beach so they don’t have to wait their turn for the buckets, these natives can accidentally bring about their ideal version of themselves to reality and everyone is like who is this??? It’s more so like they customised their avatar in their head and showed it to everyone here in the physical plane. It’s like they made themselves a game characters in a world full of civilian people, that’s why they’re so unique looking, it’s because they wrote themselves .

Unpopular opinion but Scorpio Venus isn’t a fun sexy placement that everyone hypes it up to be. It can make you constantly end up in relationships that have weird power dynamics and are just unhealthy. You may struggle to be in a soft loving relationship because it’s not intense enough but that just leads you/partners to manipulate and themes of control in your relationship. Sure, it may be considered“hot” but not healthy. Not love.

Also another thing I’ve realised with this placement, feminine natives attracted to men PLEASE don’t intentionally flirt with someone. You’re already so intense and magnetic without realising it that if you intentionally flirt with men it’s so extreme like a 0-100, that it can overwhelm/scare them because of how predatory it may feel 💀. If a man isn’t pursuing you, he’s not interested because your always appealing and screaming out a mating call even if your physically doing nothing.

Lilith opposite moon natives can have mothers who impose traditional lifestyle and beliefs on the native. For an example the mother may be controlling and imposing her ideas of humbleness, modesty, and traditional masculinity/femininity on the child. Defensive, like she is everything but a mother herself but subjects you to standards she cannot even amount to.

Uranus 2H feel like everything that makes them feel good and safe can be taken away in an instance. These people KNOW what it’s like to have the things they love abruptly taken from them over and over again by others or by nature, until they may even struggle to value the great things they have anymore. 2H rules your values and self worth, for these natives it gets to an extent where they don’t even value themselves because once they finally start to accept themselves they’re shown a perspective to them that they cannot accept.

It is said that the degree of a placement shows which age that planets energy starts to become active. Not sure how true that is but when you look at your natal chart, try keeping it in mind for yourself and look back to when you first had an experience under the themes of that planet. E.g for sun, when and what age did you feel seen, Venus who and how old were you for your first love or romantic partner

Sun conjunct Lilith. People with this placement may deal with their fathers highlighting the most non conforming features of themselves, the smallest of things you do will be escalated, this can manifest as slut shaming, being degraded for the way you are because you’re not “soft”, making you out to be like a chaotic mess, villainising you. Imagine having a loud snitch exposing your most “cancellable” traits. Britney Spears has this exact placement and I went to test if my hypothesis is true:

For Britney this placement is in the 3rd house which rules communication, hence why her father made comments about her like this, but say if it was in the 2nd house it could be done by a father providing less for his child because he deems them unworthy due to their non-traditional traits. This illumination of shame is done by the themes of the house this aspect is in.

All the Sagittarius influenced natives I meet always play a loud an instrument. I’ve seen it in Sagittarius suns especially and also in sag stelliums. I have no idea why, but they always do. They play things like drums, electric guitar. I’ve also seen that they can play piano and other instruments but it’s actually not their main instrument to play and if it’s not instruments they have an interest in LOUD hobbies, like cars.

Pluto in 11th house can have one of those character AI boyfriends, be in a relationship with their NPC rpg girlfriend/boyfriend, or they can just straight up play otome games and deeply feel like they have a connection to the character, these are the kind to marry their VR chat girlfriend and play mystic messenger.

Also Pluto 11Hs if your dreams and ambitions were to be vocalised to your peers, they may find you egotistical or someone to watch out for. You are a BIG dreamer. It’s giving Azula. I think Pluto 11H natives learn to keep their ideas to themselves if they want to be successful.

Natives with Aphrodite (1388) in 1st house, when describing you people may argue on the appearance or how you may present yourself as, or who they believe you are, alike to when the men witnessed Aphrodite in mythology, they would say “she had beautiful blonde hair and a soft voice” and another man would scream at him and say “nay, she was a red haired bold aggressive woman who goes for what she wants” this is because the men see what they want to see in her, they see their ideal beauty, but can both identify it’s the same person. When they see her in person at the same time they will only see what they think she is and will not be able to see her for herself. Could indicate in your reputation, you are idolised like Aphrodite but only being liked for your beauty/the persona they project on you.

Saturn 3rd house can make you have siblings that whip you up into shape, being a catalyst or aid to your best self, whether in a harsh way or a progressive way it depends on the sign. E.g Billie Eilish has this placement and her brother Finneas is a key aid to her success today by being the one who writes her music, and Kylie Jenner has this in Aries but her sister Kendall was her competition, worst critic, extremely condescending and critical of her body, her image, her skills even making fun of her for having lip injections in interviews etc which forced Kylie to feel insecure changing everything about herself but lead her to the popularity she has today.

Scorpio Mars isn’t a fun placement either, so many say that these natives are blessed, after all, Mars is in rulership, it gives them will power, survival instinct and makes them a shark. But people don’t discuss how being a Scorpio Mars can make you hurt others further than intended, it’s like tactically pulling the jenga block excited for your opponents next go but instead- you make the entire tower fall on your their face, they hurt themselves crying and the game ends bitterly. You won but at what cost? You can overestimate what people can take, and inevitably your loved ones may become the sorry victim of your sting. I think deep down Scorpio Mars natives know how much they hurt people and sometimes wish they weren’t so intense. I always think of Omni man from invincible having this placement.

Was working as an external motivational speaker for a school and this Gemini Sun teacher was so prim and proper, he’d sit crossing his legs and always be making sure students were extremely well behaved listening for anyone talking like this:

I’d say rather strict. He was timely, efficient hated tardiness and I knew he was a bloody mercurial with that prestige desk organisation and flick of fingers while typing (such sass),I thought he was a Virgo but, when I pried to get his birthday (which was very difficult as he was professional and loved etiquette). He was actually a Gemini Sun. Gemini suns you guys have the goofiest of smiles and energy but you can be scary to work under. It’s SO funny how differently Gemini suns treat those on the same authority standing as them compared to the ones they’re supposed to oversee. They’re like 👨‍⚖️🔎⏰ as a boss, but personally like: 🌸😃🌈 to their colleagues. You guys also have very snappy and sassy comebacks to disrespect it’s hilarious to watch outside looking in how you even come up with such remarks. I’ve also noticed you guys can be sucky and adoring towards your bosses, but strangely it works.

Capricorn MC, how does it feel to live my dream?? People with this placement are the most high earning, most dominant or the most respected and well known person in their field. Whether it be politics, modelling, office, technology, teaching, literally everything.. if you have Capricorn MC the way you handle your work is with an extreme amount of meticulous efforts. You go through the small print terms and conditions, execute the process with full clarity which is what makes you guys so successful. You don’t fuck around, Examples of people with this placement are Martin Luther King, David Beckham, Kendall Jenner, Rihanna, Mariah Carey, Heath Ledger, Nikola Tesla, Jeff Bezos, Alexander the Great. Notice how they’re all contenders for the title “Greatest of all time” in the fields they’re in. When they say that Saturns influence makes you established and remembered throughout history, it’s true. With Capricorn MC, you’re probably the first to set a record in the work you do and will be remembered as one of the foundations of the future.

I don’t want to reinforce stereotypes about Pisces moon. However, I’ve noticed that you really shouldn’t jokingly insult these guys. I think it’s because of their inclination to read between the lines and the underlying meaning of words that are said. They really don’t take criticism very well because they pick up the hidden meanings, e.g I once lived with one and he jokingly told me he’s going to lock me out of his room so that I don’t rob him and then I asked in all seriousness“why would I rob you?” And he was hurt and explained it’s because my question suggested that i thought he didn’t have nice clothes. (Which is true, im not interested in menswear nor his style). Perhaps this is a me thing though because im rather forthright with what I say. Maybe Pisces moons aren’t so sensitive, maybe we’re just cruel to them.

Also these natives are incredibly intelligent in terms of understanding emotions. I’ve noticed that they can easily grasp why certain people do certain things which is what makes them known to be “empathetic or forgiving” but it’s really because the concept of deep and complex emotions isn’t difficult for them to grasp. They’re like the Einsteins of human nature. And when I speak of empathy, that doesn’t mean they they can do no wrong, that’s a common misconception about Pisces moon, there are bad people within every placement but strangely Pisces moons if they are “bad” end up being forgiven for it because they garner sympathy from others. E.g Kim Jong-un, Edgar Allen Poe, Kesha, Coco Chanel, Kendrick Lamar, Vanessa Hudgens, Hilary Clinton, Elvis Presley, Michael Jackson, Kanye West, Michelle Obama.

Fama (408) conjunct Mercury can indicate being well known for your ideas and thoughts, they can stand out or perhaps the way you communicate them does. You have an attractive mind that garners attention from many, people love to hear what you have to say, it’s like being lady wistledown from bridgerton. Ben Shapiro is an example of someone with this placement. He speaks very fast and is a famous conservative speaker engaging in debates with political royalty.

Ascendant conjunct Chiron forever being attacked for their appearance really saddens me. These natives can be treated normally but then once they do something that others don’t like, their appearance will be promptly targeted. E.g Margot Robbie (brutally called mid because male viewers didn’t appreciate her in the Barbie movie), Peter Dinklage (think he complained about dwarfism being represented in cinema but I can imagine he must have also grown up with a lot of unkind words), Priyanka Chopra (people coming for her when she married a Jonas brother), Selena Gomez (I don’t even know why but people attack her for her body apparently), Abraham Lincoln (this man wanted to free slaves I bet they made caricatures of him during the 1800s).

Venus in 10H, why is your relationship a Google search away. Everything we know about your love life is against our will. I know you love your partner but please. These natives can end up telling on themselves about the nature of their relationships. Examples: Jayda Smith (red table), Johnny Depp ( his released audio recordings), Billie Eilish (made a whole documentary about her relationship to her ex boyfriend) David Bowie (spoke pleasantly of his wife Iman any chance he got in many interviews), Kristen Stewart (cheating at award ceremonies).

Aries Mercury people are extremely motivational, they really know how to make others do something simply by their words, it can be for the bad or for the good E.g The rock (Dwayne Johnson) , Adolf Hitler, Albert Einstein, Queen Elizabeth II, Amber Heard, Mark Zuckerberg, Al Pacino, William Shakespeare. These natives can make an understaffed workforce win the battle because they remembered what you said, they’re usually quoted and the people with this placement can have really empowering but simple one liners that make you want to beat on your chest like King Kong and seize the day. Very influential and honestly the best people to have a pep talk from.

[joannechocolat]

Two Boxers Walk Into the Ring...

No-one can have missed the absolute scenes on social media, both before and after the boxing match between Imane Khelife and Angela Carini, from which Carini withdrew after just 46 seconds, having received a blow to the face.

Social media had already been abuzz with unfounded claims that Khelife was a man, largely based on her athletic (and to Westerners, “masculine”) body type. (The same rumours had also been spread about Taiwanese boxer Lin Yu-Ting; also a woman, assigned female at birth, who got into boxing to protect her mother from domestic violence.) From this explosion of misinformation came increasingly wild claims from all the usual suspects: that she was trans (in spite of coming from a Muslim country where transitioning isn’t allowed); that she had “self-identified” as a woman in order to win (again, not possible in Algeria) plus some quite ghoulish speculation about her sex organs, her medical history and the type of puberty she might have undergone.

But here’s the thing.

Khelife is not trans. There is one trans boxer at the Olympics, a trans man called Hergie Bacyadan, who for some reason has gone almost unnoticed in this desperate attempt to prove a conspiracy that just isn’t happening. Imane Khelife was assigned female at birth, has a passport confirming it, and has spent her life as a woman, fighting against her country’s patriarchal ideas of what women are supposed to do. Not only this, but she is an ambassador for women and girls, who originally took up boxing to protect herself from those who disapproved of her interest in sports.

She was disqualified from the 2023 women’s world championships because (according to a Russian source that becomes less and less trustworthy the more you look into it) tests apparently showed some kind of unspecified anomaly, which may have been either elevated testosterone (quite possible in a woman) or the presence of XY chromosomes, once more altogether possible for a cis woman.

Nor does her condition (if she even has one) mean she is automatically likely to win against her opponents. In 2020, she made it to the quarter-finals of the Olympics, where she was defeated by Kellie Harrington, and she has been boxing on the international circuit for years without any of her wins or defeats gaining much attention.

Until now.

But her fight against Angela Carini on Thursday made her a magnet for some truly disgusting hate, largely, it seems, from the kind of men who enjoy threatening women, whatever the reason or excuse. In fact, there were distinct parallels with this and the recent anti-Muslim riots in Southport after the murderer of three little girls was falsely rumoured by agents of the far-right to be a Muslim immigrant.

Let’s be clear. Even if the attacker had been a Muslim immigrant, this violence would have been completely unacceptable. But the mob just wanted the opportunity to scapegoat and attack a community, in exactly the same way that the people attacking, threatening and objectifying Imane Khelife wanted the chance to attack a woman for not conforming to their idea of what a woman should be like.

In this context, it’s hard to see the rage and violence levelled against her for this victory as anything other than misogynistic - and racist.

It’s also hard to understand why in a sport like boxing – where the whole point is to hit your opponent – a person should be criticized for following the rules of the sport. It’s almost as if excellence is allowed in men’s sports, but in women’s sports, it’s automatically viewed as suspicious. And Imane Khelife isn’t the only athlete of colour accused of “being a man” because she defeated a white woman. Serena Williams has spent her career fending off accusations that she “was born a man” both because of her muscular physique and her excellence in her field. Caster Semenya, who has naturally elevated levels of testosterone, has been likewise demonized. It’s almost as if the people driving this toxic narrative believe that only men can excel in sport.   

And as for the argument that claims that elevated natural testosterone levels in a woman is “an unfair advantage,” don’t all elite athletes have some kind of physical advantage? Do we dismiss basketball players for being unusually tall, or weight-lifters for being unusually muscular, or runners for being lean and light? Why do we celebrate Michael Phelps for his genetic advantage, but penalize Caster Semenya for hers? Women have fought so very hard for the chance to participate in sports that were once seen as the sole province of men. Now, when they dare to excel in them, they are accused of secretly being men, or of not being “proper women.”

This isn’t any kind of feminism I recognize. The feminism I believe in is about breaking down barriers, not setting them. I personally dislike boxing (both for men and for women), but I respect any individual’s choice to compete. And attacking a woman boxer for winning a boxing match is as misogynistic as claiming to “defend” her opponent by painting her as a victim. Both athletes chose to compete. Both accepted the risks. Both have had their Olympic moment ruined by people who don’t care about sports, or the facts, or even women. This isn’t feminism. This is the worst and most patronizing kind of prejudice, and it actively hurts women – all women, but especially women of colour and those who do not conform to traditional ideas of what a woman should look like, what sports she should enjoy, or how she should behave.

Women fought for years for the right to make their own choices, to have their own identities outside of the stereotypes set by the patriarchy. Questioning those choices - those identities - isn’t progress.

 Supporting women doesn’t mean protecting them from themselves.

It means not setting limits on who a woman wants to be.

[hussyknee]

I think the way people are defending Imane Khelif is as bad as the way she's being attacked. Because of:

The erasure of interphobia and racism in the charge against her, instead framing Khelif as a victim of indirect transmisogyny. As though transmisogyny isn't an outgrowth of the historical white supremacist Othering and dehumanizing of intersex and BIPOC bodies, especially of Black women. This is the legacy of race science, people.

The interphobic and transphobic language used to defend Imane, like "born a female", "biological female", and joining TERFs in scrutinizing Imane's sex characteristics to prove they fall within perinormative and cisnormative standards.

I also saw someone sneer that Angela Carini "looked more like a man than Imane" does so I wish everyone would just log off at this point because they're all terrible.

Can people at least keep focus on the fact that this is the same interphobia and racism that ungendered and dehumanized Serena Williams and Caster Semenya their whole careers that's only amplified by the anti trans rhetoric? Yes, these are all interlocking oppressions inextricable from each other because they're rooted in white supremacist control of reproductive politics. Which is why you need to name them all and stop erasing the oppressions rooted in the victims identities.

[astrobiscuits]

Astro observations part 2

Hii, how are you? I hope you're doing well ^^

Without further do, here are more astro observations yaaaaay

🌷 Neptune dominant individuals have tried drugs atleast once in their life. They're also prone to doing drugs long-term.

🌷 Also, Neptune dominant individuals have got an excellent intuition that smells lies from a mile away lol

🌷 Don't make a Taurus Moon angry. They'll end up being passive-agressive with you

🌷 Virgo Suns...yes i'm looking at you. Idk what's wrong with you, but y'all are dry texters

🌷 I noticed that the most famous tennis players are either Gemini Suns or Libra Suns

Novak Đoković, Gemini Sun Rafael Nadal, Gemini Sun

Serena Williams, Libra Sun Naomi Osaka, Libra Sun

🌷 Mars square Jupiter points to somebody who's always busy (this is literally me, please take a rest)

🌷 Saturn in 5th house individuals take dating seriously. They might also have children later in life (middle-late 30s)

🌷 But as for Uranus in 5th house, let's just say that their love life can change overnight...i wouldn't be surprised if they end up with an unplanned pregnancy😳

🌷 Capricorn Sun, Gemini Moon peeps are likely to pursue an academic career

🌷 If asteroid Cardano (11421) conjuncts one of the angles or personal planets in your birth chart, you're most likely a polymath

[elwenyere]

*chin hands*

Tell me about TASHI DUNCAN

TASHI DUNCAN a character of all time!!! Thank you so much for this ask, Anon. Here is a non-exhaustive list of things I love about Tashi:

How canny she is, so young, about the racism and misogynoir of the world she moves through. She knows how angry white women are to lose to her, and she knows how prone the men and boys around her are to projecting their unmet needs onto her (savior, mommy, trophy, etc.). That's all part of why her career-ending injury is so thoroughly unmaking, because losing tennis makes her touchable again. There's a section in Claudia Rankine's Citizen about Serena Williams reacting to an unjust fault call, and I think about that section when I think about Tashi.

The unhinged lengths she will go to in order to avoid any repeat experience of vulnerability. On the worst day of her life, Patrick wasn't there, and Art was, and I really think a not-insignificant part of the rest of film for Tashi is driven by her need to avoid betraying any hint of disappointment or regret or doubt or hurt in front of either of them ever again. She's built so much of her life around never letting anyone see her as injured or defeated that she cannot accommodate Art's ennui or forgive Patrick's dilettantism.

Speaking of which, I've seen posts that suggest Tashi is angry at Patrick and cold toward Art, and I don't think either of those things is incorrect, but I also think stopping there would mean drawing a very incomplete portrait of a character who has just as much skin in the emotional game as the boys. It's true that she has a kind of ruthlessness both Art and Patrick lack early on - an intense self-competitiveness that allows her to disappear inside tennis - but at the root her drive is toward connection, not self-aggrandizement. Adding the "s" to revise "Game Changer" to "Game Changers" is about insisting on her place in Art's career, sure, but it's also about recognizing the collective nature of tennis's battle with the self. "It's like we were in love," she says of her juniors win. "Or like we didn't exist. We went somewhere really beautiful together": Tashi understands that self-transcendence is not a solo act.

To wit: Tashi's day-to-day is continuously shaped by family ties, while both Patrick and Art are conspicuously unparented and largely unparenting. Again, it could be easy to read Tashi as the most self-interested or self-contained of the three, but I think the film uses family (her nods to what her parents wanted for her, her sharing of care duties with her mother, her rituals with Lily) to show that in many ways Tashi's life actually involves more mutuality, on a structural level, than either Art or Patrick.

Which reminds me of Tashi's LILY bracelet: one of the pieces of jewelry she gradually acquires in the course of the film (including the crucifix necklace she starts with, the Cartier trinity pendant she adds later, and Art's grandmother's ring). I think Tashi's accessories offer a very interesting way of reading her orientation toward the sedimentary, sometimes competing attachments she's formed - especially when compared to Art's name-brand-corporate-sponsored everything and Patrick's affectedly dirtbag aesthetic. They're all trying to understand the relationship between who they are and who they were when they met, and the costuming telegraphs their different strategies.

Thank you again for this ask, Anon!!! I have a lot of feels about Tashi, and I wrote some of them into a little character study, Rally Point (1.7k, E).

[aishabellasbigblogofeverything]

The masculinisation of black women is nothing new. Take well-decorated tennis player Serena Williams. Accusations of her inherent ‘manliness’ have hounded her career, only fuelled by the angry black woman trope. Black woman are expected to be demure, obedient; they are put into a box and must accept it. When Megan accused Tory Lanez of shooting her, she was treated as not a victim, but a scapegoat. Called a deceiver, an aggressor. Inundated with discussions of her overly critical stance despite her suffering.

So hot girl summer may be in full swing – but no longer has it become a safe space for black women, but rather, one marred with misogynoir. Something appropriated by white men who try to define who ‘can’ and ‘can’t’ identify with the term. Truth being – it’s not their decision. Because black women’s femininity should never be up for debate.

[dailyniallnews]

SINGER NIALL HORAN INVESTS IN FENWAY SPORTS, MCILROY TGL TEAM

Singer-songwriter Niall Horan will tee it up as the latest investor in TGL, the tech-infused team golf league backed by Tiger Woods and Rory McIlroy. Horan, who first gained fame as a member of boy band One Direction, invested in Boston Common Golf through his investment vehicle Greenbridge Ventures.

Boston Common Golf is one of the six inaugural TGL teams and owned by Fenway Sports Group and McIlroy’s investment firm, Symphony Ventures.

McIlroy and Horan both hail from Ireland and have been longtime friends. “Golf has been a lifelong passion of mine,” Horan said in a statement. “Being able to combine my love for the game and my friendship with Rory into a relationship that helps launch a new concept in golf is truly special.”

TGL teams will each feature four golfers hitting shots into a golf simulator screen until they are within 50 yards of the hole and the action transfers to a short game area that transforms between holes. The season includes 15 matches, plus playoffs.

Horan will also serve as an ambassador for Boston Common Golf, which will benefit from his massive social media following, which includes 72 million combined followers on Instagram and Twitter—Woods has 10 million and McIlroy 6 million.

In 2015, Horan launched a sports agency focused on golf, Modest! Golf Management, with his business partner, Mark McDonnell. Their clients include Tyrrell Hatton, who has won six European Tour events and one on the PGA Tour. That same year, Horan served as McIlroy’s caddie in the Masters’ annual Par 3 Contest.

In addition to his singing career, Horan was a coach the past year on The Voice and coached the winner in back-to-back seasons. He is currently on the North American leg of his global tour.

TGL was slated to start play this January, but delayed its inaugural season to begin Jan. 7, 2025 after a power failure caused the dome of the SoFi Center in Palm Beach Gardens to deflate. The required repairs led the TGL to delay a year. Last month, Horan visited TGL’s performance lab to preview the technology that will be used in the competition.

The SoFi Center will boast a 3,000-square-foot simulator screen and a 22,475-square-foot customizable short game area. TGL rules also include a shot clock, and the league plans for players to be mic’d up during the action. A seating area for 1,500 has been designed around the playing zone.

Matches will be broadcast on ESPN and ESPN+.

The six, location-tied teams for TGL’s inaugural season: Atlanta Drive GC, Boston, Jupiter Links GC, Los Angeles Golf Club, New York Golf Club and the Bay Golf Club, have attracted heavy hitters in the sports space, including Arthur Blank, Steve Cohen, Alexis Ohanian and Marc Lasry, as well as athletes Serena Williams, Stephen Curry and Giannis Antetokounmpo. Woods partnered with David Blitzer for the Jupiter franchise.

[tani-b-art]

The Venus/Serena/Beyoncé Impact.

Sports fans champion dominant players but not when those dominant players are Black women.

A’ja is experiencing the VSB impact for the first time in her young career and more than likely (and absolutely unfortunately) will probably face this several more times in her career. Because the fact that anyone this 2024 season has even inserted any other WNBA player into MVP talks with A’ja is downright ridiculous. Unjustified. This woman has dominated the entire first half of the season by miles and is doing the same the second half yet some people are still talking about it shouldn’t be unanimous?! With anyone else doing what she’s done all season…there would be no doubt whatsoever.

It’s the Venus/Serena/Beyoncé impact —where Black women are punished for their dominance and excellence. The last Grammy voters said that Beyoncé always wins or has already won several and that was their decision to not cast their vote to her for AOTY. Just watched the series “In The Arena: Serena Williams” and there was one episode (above clip) where they spoke on Venus & Serena’s reign for grand slam finals matchups and some of their peers and some tennis spectators were literally saying they were “bored” of them — that they didn’t want to see the same duo anymore in finals appearances. Simone Biles faces this too.

I don’t know if there’s an actual term for this type of reverse empowerment but it always happens.

Penalized for greatness — which is wild because isn’t that what sports (especially) and entertainment is about?! To be the best and the best is what is praised & hyped and awarded? Or don’t be a Black woman and be the best and dominate. [And I’ll go a step further and say when certain Black women are the best because there can also be two Black women (or a Black woman & a woman of color) going head-to-head and one gets favored over the next by way of respectability politics, colorism, featurism etc.]

We’d never hear this said against The Manning brothers if they had ever faced one another in the Super Bowl multiple, consecutive times. We don’t hear this said towards athletes who aren’t Black. Because they prefer they be the ones dominating. And we definitely don’t hear this said towards female athletes who aren’t Black. We never say this about any male athletes. Jordan never heard “he’s dominating too much” and we absolutely never heard this said about Tom Brady.

The curse of Black women athletes dominating. When misogyny and sports mix. Misogynoir.

With A’ja getting that 4th place vote last season, that ignited a fire in her. And not that she had to prove herself to anyone to disprove that 4th place vote but this season has been her simply outshining herself and wanting to be a better player by always improving her game. That’s the purpose of an athlete—being better than your last season self. This season is her season to show there won’t be any doubt.

Also, being an athlete on a team sport means you have to do as an individual and you have to do as part of a team for the collective. Both individual and team effort comes into play with the team sport known as basketball. She’s doing both.

It’s just expected for Black women athletes to be faced with this at some point in our (I experienced this too) sports careers — an unrequested rite of passage.

[[and the bit of the reporter saying a whole former opponent whined the Williams sisters hit the ball too hard…we all know what that is about—different topic]]

[sussex-newswire]

"The harsh criticism the Suits actor has faced ever since her foray into the royal family has long been understood as a by-product of racial discrimination that many Black women face simply by existing in spaces traditionally reserved for white people. And yet, with every new venture since the UK media began to heap their critiques on her, [Meghan] has been subjected to the same bitter onslaught of criticism, even before her work is fully realized. It happened again with the launch of "American Riviera Orchard," which was subject to immediate backlash online when she created an enigmatic Instagram page for the home and lifestyle brand.

"Dating and eventually marrying Prince Harry had a marked impact on [Meghan]'s career, as the family even began to intervene in her work as an actress. Her popular self-published lifestyle blog "The Tig" ran for three years before it was shuttered as she pursued life with the royal family in the UK. The site was a curated window into [Meghan]'s Southern California lifestyle and her travel adventures abroad. But it wasn't just travel, recipes, and beauty tips on the site, as it also featured brief "Tig Talk" questionnaires answered by a variety of successful individuals throughout the years, including Emmy Rossum, Serena Williams, and Priyanka Chopra, as well as other in-depth interviews. With Markle's projects, there is always significant substance behind the curated joy.

"[Meghan]'s new series shares a showrunner with Selena Gomez's reality TV venture Selena + Chef, where the singer/actress invites celebrity chefs to teach her how to prepare some of their favorite dishes. The Max series has remarkable production value, considering it is filmed in Gomez's home, and there is coziness lent to the series by this "filmed at home" aspect. It is already clear from the trailer that [Meghan]'s series will have a similar production value and flow that is found in Gomez's successful series.

"The trailer for With love, Meghan also has excellent production value, as should be expected, since Michael Steed, producer and director of the beloved Anthony Bourdain: Parts Unknown docu-series, was behind the camera for all eight episodes. There are also several celebrity guest visitors and professional experts booked, each of whom add value to the program in their own right. By all appearances, the show has everything one would expect from an elevated lifestyle series, spearheaded by someone who has a professional background curating lifestyle advice.

"...[T]he criticism [Meghan] is already facing online seems colored by racial discrimination, since it frequently boils down to outrage at the Duchess having the audacity to assert her right to claim space in the lifestyle field dominated by white women like Martha Stewart, Gwyneth Paltrow and Kourtney Kardashian. Considering the lifestyle space is inherently pretentious, the attacks seem to be more personal than professional in nature."

[woso-dreamzzz]

Are there any fans of menor that are athletes?

If we're talking in tennis, Sabalenka is a fan of Menor until they face each other

Obviously, Alexia and her teams are all big fans but Serena Williams is watching Menor's career very closely

[mindibindi]

Sometimes Things Just Work Out

Re-watching season 24 of SVU and some shippy themes emerged post-"Blood Out" that I haven't seen commented on, at least on here. So as we all know, Blood Out (24.12) gives us this telling moment:

The VERY NEXT EPISODE, "Intersection" (24.13) opens with a pretty extended proposal scene for what is just the teaser. The couple is played by two very appealing actors who get to establish their history and exchange cute banter, and there are some definite Bensler undertones:

New York is also Elliot and Olivia's city, bringing them together the first time around to fight crime and reuniting them more recently. Their entire relationship has taken place within the city limits. Without it, Elliot might still be back in Italy (or Queens) with Kathy and Olivia would be a single mom with a solid career and 5-star therapy routine. You might think the comparison is a stretch....UNTIL Josh with the cute topknot turns to his wisecracking gf and says she taught him the most important lesson of his life, which is:

Josh proposes, Emma joyfully accepts. But in the car ride home, there is a touch of sadness to their happy moment as Emma invokes her recently deceased sister. In EO terms, this loss could be said to reflect the shadow of Serena Benson, who never got to watch her daughter marry, settle down and have a family with the love of her life. Emma also worries about losing her engagement ring, which she of course does, when disaster quite literally hits them.

I won't go into the crime, which is horrific, but Emma and Josh's reactions are also reflective of Olivia and Elliot. Olivia meets with Emma a couple of times, noting that they seem to love each other very much and assuring Emma that she and Josh will get through this trauma. At their second meet, they discuss the fact that Josh has ghosted Emma and SVU, which...I dunno about anyone else, but that sounds pretty fucking Elliot Stabler to me. Speaking about the loss of Emma's sister, Olivia fills in the blanks with this:

...which is interesting. It implies that Olivia has used that enormous, unhealed wound of Elliot's departure to dwarf and diminish subsequent traumas and, in particular, her assault at the hands of William Lewis. Much like she used her mother's neglect and ultimate abandonment to shield her from feeling the impact of the many professional and personal wounds she experienced during her tenure as Elliot's partner. By using these deep personal wounds, inflicted by the two people most important to her, most loved and formative, she can shield herself from incoming hurts that are less personal, less predictable and less familiar. If so, if holding onto those familiar, formative wounds acts for Olivia as some kind of strange protection, that simultaneously honours those she loves most, then that would explain her resistance to letting go of the hurt Elliot caused when he walked away. Hence, her not being ready for a relationship after two plus decades.

While Emma refuses to give in to the trauma of her attack, Josh, much like Elliot falls into self-pity and self-blame, distancing himself from his fiance:

This whole ep gives "Paternity" vibes, since the couple are hit in much the same way that Olivia and Kathy were, triggering Elliot's chronic catholic guilt. And as the case continues, there's a whole web of marital affairs, because we're working on a theme here. Another EO parallel emerges with Bruno's marriage breakup. After visiting his ex, it's revealed that he drunk-dialled her, only not really cos he wasn't drunk. You know, kind of like Elliot showing up drugged to Olivia's apartment to spill his long withheld, deeply smitten guts. Bruno knows the fault is his and holds out hope for a reconciliation, to which, Liv gives a qualified maybe:

So...Olivia believes in love when it's new and fresh, even believes love can survive massive trauma. Buuuuut she isn't quite so sure of how to change directions on a love that has been heading in one direction for a long time.

The case concludes with a tense confrontation between a cheating wife and her rapist husband: bitter accusations and droll comments ensue. But the happy couple from the beginning survive their trauma and vow to protect one another from then on. The lost engagement ring is returned to Emma (analogous perhaps to the compass necklace that will no doubt return to Olivia at some meaningful point in time). It is at this point that Liv tells them:

Well. That's quite the pivot.

Oh, but wait, Benson ain't done being hopeful about mending fractured relationships yet. Because then she turns to Bruno, who admits that (like Elliot) he wasn't unfaithful (to Olivia). He was just unreachable, unavailable, avoidant. It wasn't a lack of feeling. It was just a lack of action, a lack of courage. Olivia's reply echoes the hope Bruno expressed earlier:

All of this is highly suggestive of Liv either consciously or unconsciously working through what happened at the end of "Blood Out" with Elliot, her questioning her words to him and mulling over his reply. It reflects EO's recent history of fracture and hesitant attempts at mending, despite their counter-productive coping strategies. That last line certainly suggests that she wants to be won back by the love of her life, even if she isn't too sure how to let go of the hurt she's used as a shield for ten plus years. Her changing comments throughout the episode suggest she does believe in love, she believes it can survive the worst traumas imaginable. She has absolute conviction in the possibility, the right even, of victims, survivors and even detectives she barely knows to pursue love and healing, reconciliation and fulfillment. The question is whether she believes in that possibility as strongly for herself and Elliot Stabler.

[the-empress-7]

"Can someone explain to me why Serena Williams, a married 42 year old mother, is rebranding into a thot instead of parlaying a highly remarkable career into something more respectable?"

Because Serena - despite being a bona fide sports superstar and athletic icon - has always longed, instead, to be something she will never be: a willowy fashionista supermodel. Same for Venus. For example, at the Espys her awkward on-stage arm gestures and hand positioning while posing for pics were obviously rehearsed, unsuccessfully. Her strong muscular body instinctively knows how to excel at tennis. She should embrace that unique gift, but the grass is always greener on the other side. As for the thotness of it all, imho Serena doesn't intend to come off as a thot, it just that money doesn't buy class or taste. Same for Meghan.

[destinyc1020]

Federer posting Z is funny because the writer of Challengers has mentioned that the Federers were his inspiration for the Donaldsons. Federer met his wife Mirka while they were both young professional tennis players, shortly thereafter she had a career ending injury and then she became a central part of his team. He has said he wouldn't have been able to win anything without her

https://www.thewrap.com/challengers-real-tennis-couple-roger-federer-mirka-serena-williams/

That's hilarious Anon lol 😆

How very interesting...

[eternal-echoes]

“But is there an objective athletic advantage to being male? Yes. Men, on average, have 36 percent more muscle mass than women.(8) They also have greater aerobic and anaerobic capacity, slow and fast twitch muscle fibers, and a larger heart.(9) Their bones are shaped differently and are stronger than women's.(10) Because of women's decreased ligament strength in comparison to males, females are five times more likely to rupture their ACL.(11) Studies of grip strength also show that 95 percent of men produce greater force than 90 percent of females.(12)

Many of these advantages are because the adult male body has been marinated for decades in levels of testosterone that are approximately ten times higher than a woman's.(13) In order to attempt to offset this advantage, the International Olympic Committee required that male athletes who identify as women take testosterone-suppressing drugs to bring their levels down to 10 nano-moles of testosterone per liter of blood for at least a year prior to competition. But since the average woman has between 0.5 to 2.4 nanomoles per liter, a male's level of testosterone after suppression is still between four and twenty times higher! Even after a year of testosterone suppression, the typical male athlete only loses about 5 percent of lean body mass, muscle area, and strength.(14)

This also does not account for the fact that testosterone levels fluctuate. Prior to competition, a man's testosterone levels will spike in a manner that is more pronounced than in female athletes.(15) Regardless of an athlete's testosterone level on the day of competition, the physiological superiority of the male is largely due to the impact of experiencing puberty as a male, which cannot be reversed.

If testosterone alone could mitigate the differences between male and female athletes, women who identify as males would be flooding into male-dominated sports by taking testosterone supplements. But regardless of how much testosterone is injected into a woman, she will typically be unable to compete with male athletes at the same division. However, when a woman takes testosterone while transitioning, she becomes more likely to defeat the other female athletes.(16)

The objective biological differences between men and women explain why in 2017, nearly 800 high school boys beat the women's world record in the 100-meter sprint, and why the woman's world record 400-meter race is bested more than 15,000 times per year by men and boys.(17) It explains why Serena and Venus Williams were surprised, when they claimed that no man ranked outside of the top 200 in the world could defeat them, and an unknown but cocky, cigarette-smoking German tennis player who was nearing retirement volunteered for the challenge. Karsten Braasch said he prepared for the match with a few cocktails and a round of golf, and then defeated Serena 6-1 and Venus, 6-2. Serena remarked, "I didn't know it would be that difficult. I played shots that would have been winners on the women's circuit and he got to them very easily."(18)

Nonetheless, as the Williams sisters demonstrate, women are capable of extraordinary athletic feats. However, women can't display their talents if they're being beaten by average male athletes. There's no need to think any less of their accomplishments because they're not competing against males, though. This would be like devaluing the career of an undefeated boxer because he never fought an opponent who weighed ten pounds more than he did.

Although the debate over sports and gender identity is often framed around the subject of "trans athletes," this isn't the real issue. The issue is men competing in women's sports. During competition, athletes do not compete against the internal sense of identity of the other person, but against the other person's body. Therefore, in the spirit of true sportsmanship, one must admit that at least in the world of athletics, being female matters more than feeling female.”

-Jason Evert, Male, Female, or Other: A Catholic Guide to Understanding Gender

—

Work cited:

8) Cf. I. Janssen et al., "Skeletal Muscle Mass and Distribution in 468 Men and Women Aged 18-88 Yr," Journal of Applied Physiology 89 (2000), 81-88.

9) Cf. A. Miller et al., "Gender Differences in Strength and Muscle Fiber Characteristics," European Journal of Applied Physiology and Occupational Physiology 66:3 (1993), 254-262; C. Harms, "Does Gender Affect Pulmonary Function and Exercise Capacity?" Respiratory Physiology e Neurobiology 151:2-3 (April 18, 2006): 124-131; Hanjabam Barun Sharma and Jyotsna Kailashiya, "Gender Difference in Aerobic Capacity and the Contribution by Body Composition and Haemoglobin Concentration: A Study in Young Indian National Hockey Players," Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research 10:11 (November 1, 2016), CC09-CC13.

10) Cf. V. Naganathan and P. Sambrook, "Gender differences in Volumetric Bone Density: A Study of Opposite-Sex Twins,” Osteoporosis International 14:7 (July 2003), 564-569.

11) Cf. Michael Sokolove, "The Uneven Playing Field," New York Times Magazine (May 11, 2008); Michael Sokolove, Warrior Girls: Protecting Our Daughters Against the Injury Epidemic in Women's Sports (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2008); S. Magnusson et al., "The Adaptability of Tendon to Loading Differs in Men and Women," International Journal of Experimental Pathology 88:4 (2007), 237-240.

12) Cf. D. Leyk et al., "Hand-Grip Strength of Young Men, Women and Highly Trained Female Athletes," European Journal of Applied Physiology 99 (2007), 415-241.

13) Cf. Mayo Clinic, "Testosterone, Total, Bioavailable, and Free, Serum," Mayo Medical Laboratories, https://www.mayomedicallaboratories.com/test-catalog/Clinical+and+Interpretive/83686.

14) Cf. E. Hilton and T. Lundberg, "Transgender Women in the Female Category of Sport: Perspectives on Testosterone Suppression and Performance Advantage," Sports Medicine 51:2 (February 2021), 199-214; D. Handelsman et al., "Circulating Testosterone as the Hormonal Basis of Sex Differences in Athletic Performance," Endocrine Reviews 39:5 (2018), 803-829.

15) Cf. K. Kivlighan et al., "Gender Differences in Testosterone and Cortisol Response to Competition," Psychoneuroendocrinology 30:1 (2005), 58-71; J. Carré et al., "Changes in Testosterone Mediate the Effect of Winning on Subsequent Aggressive Behaviour," Psychoneuroendocrinology 38:10 (2013), 2034-2041; S. White et al., "Putting the Flight in 'Fight-or-Flight: Testosterone Reactivity to Skydiving Is Modulated by Autonomic Activation," Biological Psychology 143 (April 2019), 93-102.

16) Cf. Associated Press, "Transgender Boy Wins Texas Girls' Wrestling Title," New York Times, February 25, 2017.

17) Doriane Lambelet Coleman and Wickliffe Shreve, "Comparing Athletic Performances: The Best Elite Women to Boys and Men," Duke Law: Center for Sports Law and Policy; Emma Hilton, "Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger: Why We Must Protect Female Sports," https://fondofbeetles.wordpress.com/2018/10/01/harder-better-faster-stronger-why-we-must-protect-female-sports/.

18) "Karsten Braasch: The Smoker Who Ridiculed the Williams Sisters," So Press, April 9, 2013.

—

For more recommended resources on gender dysphoria, click here.