Venus Williams is an inspiring female athlete who first got national praise for her skills on the tennis court in 1991. After becoming the first black woman to be ranked first in the women’s tennis tour in 2002, Williams continues to inspire women to be their own best advocates for success. While Williams is a proponent for women’s success, Williams notes that she doesn’t consider herself a feminist, and she explains why.
According to E! News, the famous tennis player said she doesn’t identify with feminism, because she doesn’t like labels. Honestly, that makes complete sense.
During an interview for the upcoming June issue of Elle U.K., Williams adds that she believes that present-day women are more powerful than ever. “Though I do think as women we have much more power and opportunities in our hands than ever before, we truly don’t know how powerful we are. There’s nothing like a powerful woman walking into a room; her presence is like nothing else,” Williams tells Elle.
Pretend you believe in yourself until you actually do. @venuseswilliams pic.twitter.com/tyNV8DbUhD
— DDP YOGA (@DDPYoga) May 8, 2018
TBH, we couldn’t agree more, because powerful women are a force to be reckoned with, and also the number one source of my happy tears. Although Williams’ reference to women being “more powerful than ever” might seem dismissive to the feminist movement, they aren’t.
After all, we can all recognize how far women have come and continue to support our fellow women.
Daily Mail reports that Williams also said, “There are so many emerging forces; there’s been so much growth for women in sports. It’s very exciting. You have to be able to stand up for what you believe in and I think I’ve done a good job. I guess I don’t have too many regrets.”
Because standing up for what you believe in (as well as what’s right) should be a priority for everyone’s life agenda.
“Unfortunately, people have the tendency to want to dominate one another, but fortunately, there are people who want to build other women up. It’s up to those people who want to build to hopefully eliminate all that negativity,” Williams added in her interview with Elle.
Regardless of what the labels, or lack thereof, Venus Williams will surely continue to be an inspiration for young women for generations to come—especially since labels are meaningless in comparison to actual ideologies.