A Tennis Player Asked His Ball Girl To Peel His Banana. It Reeks Of Entitlement And Sexism. Do It Yourself!
I remember the first internship I took up when I was 18 years old and had just entered college. I was excited and motivated, with an unmatched zeal to prove myself and the opportunity to finally act like an adult, I was high on the idea of finally working. Except, that feeling did not last very long, especially since I found out what my profile as an intern was far from doing very important things at all. From coffee runs to making endless rounds of photocopy machine, it was a lot of clerical work, but with the occasional drop in of some relevant writing experience, which would justify everything else. And guess that is why we take up internships in the first place, the off chance that we might just be able to get some hands-on experience that is remotely related to what we want to do. But more often than not, all the experience that interns or freshers get is that of being exploited in the name of doing their job. As might have happened with a ball girl, when she was recently subjected to a rather awkward request by a tennis player.
The 21-year-old French Tennis player, Elliot Benchetrit was playing his match against Dmitry Popko, when during halftime, his ball girl offered him a banana, the food for energy. And as an entitled individual, he rather than taking it, asked her to peel it for him. And before you think, we’re overreacting with the speculation here, think about it again.
Also Read : 15 Awfully Sexist And Annoying Things We Don’t Want To Hear In 2020
As did the young ball girl, who was surprised by the uncalled for request herself. She turned to the umpire, John Blom, to ask for a way to handle it, and we are glad he did. Telling the player off and asking him to peel his own banana, the umpire was unimpressed by Elliot’s request asked the ball girl to not entertain this. Elliot, unperturbed by it, argued it was because he had bandages on his fingers and tried opening it with his teeth instead.
https://youtu.be/ntcrjpR6ZKk
An episode that is captured on camera and is now making rounds on social media, is but a clear example of both – subtle exploitation, and sexism if were being completely honest. Would he have asked his ball guy to open a banana for him? We might be entirely wrong here but we are guessing not. This felt like the tennis equivalent of asking a girl to make a sandwich. What is next, asking ball girls to feed them grapes while he rests on the stand? And come on, even to the audience, there was something mildly sexual to it.
Also, the “bandaged fingers” that stopped him from peeling the banana didn’t stop him from winning the game so we don’t think he was that hurt, after all.
So this is the moment where Elliot Benchetrit asks the ballkid to peel his banana. I’m glad the umpire (John Blom) stepped in and told him off. pic.twitter.com/TK1GET68pG
— Alex Theodoridis (@AlexTheodorid1s) January 19, 2020
And pilling of banana by a girl looks like a sexual abuse to me. This guy should be investigated,probably he might have a negative reason apart from treating her like his servant.
— dmj7273 (@Dmj7273Raheem) January 20, 2020
Wow, such entitlement.
— Scchi (@shari______) January 19, 2020
https://twitter.com/Rafalution19/status/1218968257777958912
There’s definitely entitlement in this move and there’s the sexism. But then the umpire put him in his place and for that, we are glad. Not only was his request unreasonable but borderline sexist, for we know how different things would’ve gone down had it been a boy.
Anyhow, we are glad this was taken care of and even called out, so that people realise where they need to draw the line and peel their own damned bananas.
