Serena Williams is being celebrated as , but her turn on the cover is attracting attention for all the wrong reasons, with female fans blasting the design.
The 37-year-old features on the magazine cover in a black leotard with a gold Chanel chain belt. The word "man" is slashed, with "woman" in quotation marks hand-written above it.
The Serena cover is one of four that were released for GQ's annual Men (and Woman) of the Year celebration including Michael Jordan, Jonah Hill and Henry Golding.
Serena Williams. Source: serena
Fans on Twitter questioned the cover design, arguing the design of quotation marks was a poor choice, considering the history of racialised criticism of the tennis legend's physique.
"Please explain to me why GQ Magazine’s Editorial Team felt that quote marks were necessary on the Serena Williams’ Woman of the Year Cover. I Really Really Need to Know. I’m Expecting an Answer," one social media user tweeted.
GQ research manager Mick Rouse, defended the cover explaining it was designed by Louis Vuitton’s artistic designer Virgil Abloh. Abloh's signature involves featuring words on products in quotation marks.
He said Abloh has previously designed the tennis star's clothing, including her “Logo” tutu dress that she wore to the US Open.
"It was handwritten by Virgil Abloh of Off-White, who has styled everything in quotation marks as of late (see Serena’ US Open apparel that he designed),” Rouse tweeted in response to criticism.
The explanation did not wash with fans who pointed out a similar cover with Israeli actress Gal Gadot, who starred as Wonder Woman in the film of the same name without such an embellishment. Others warned against seeing offense in a cover likely to be approved by the tennis star herself.
Some commentators pointed out the style, despite being well-intentioned, was a poor choice in the context of Williams' own comments on painful criticism of her femininity and physique.
"It’s definitely off putting especially for an athlete who has been critiqued for not being womanly/not a real woman in all sorts of racist and problematic ways," one user tweeted.
"GQ is banking on mostly women buying this issue in stores. For that reason, it's a poor choice, but also given jokes ppl made about her femininity, it was a poor choice," one user tweeted.
In an open on reddit last year, Williams hit back at criticism of her body by critics seeking to undercut her sporting achievements.
"It has been said I don't belong in Women's sports -- that I belong in Men's -- because I look stronger than many other women do. (No, I just work hard and I was born with this badass body and proud of it)."
"But mom, I'm not sure how you did not go off on every single reporter, person, announcer and quite frankly, hater, who was too ignorant to understand the power of a black woman."
"I am proud we were able to show them what some women look like. We don't all look the same. We are curvy, strong, muscular, tall, small, just to name a few, and all the same: we are women and proud!"
That's something no graphic design flourish can take away from Williams - who holds the record of winning the most grand slams in tennis history, trailing only Margaret Court.
