In case you haven’t heard, women’s tennis superstar Naomi Osaka has already said she won’t deal with the media at the French Open because her “mental health” is adversely affected by questions from the press. (Not that we haven’t some sympathy if you’ve ever heard some of the inane and asinine questions asked by the press, who aren’t any smarter than Osaka is). Yeah, that’s right, she’s bigger than the French Open and the sport of tennis at the ripe age of 23. Bad enough that she renounced her American citizenship yet still pretends to be American and live here and instruct the rest of us on our social justice obligations. But she has a heart, she wants the fines she will have to pay to go to mental health charities. Seriously. Talk about lunatics running the asylum…
But why then, is she even allowed to participate? Even if the French Open wants to wait at least to see if she actually follows through, why should she not be kicked out the first time she fails to comply? In case she hasn’t heard, participation in all these sporting events brings with it a requirement to deal with the press . If you don’t intent to comply with the rules going in, then why do you get to even go in? And why should she be allowed, effectively, to simply buy her way out of it? What about the poor tennis players who aren’t superstars and need the money, which is most of them, and can’t afford to protect their “mental health?”
Poor, poor, little girl. At least she gets to exert her “wealth privilege” and simply buy her way out of something she doesn’t want to do. But we hope her mental health – which would be composed of at least narcissism, with egomania, arrogance and selfishness mixed in – improves. Maybe by Wimbledon she’ll feel better able to deal with the world.
Bon chance, ma cherie.