We live in an age of nomenclature nonsense, where leftists think that the solution to so many problems is to just rename things. Take the “ball boys” and “ball girls” at tennis tournaments, for example. Those terms are passé because they’re gender-specific, which we all know just won’t do in our enlightened world.
The Australian Open and French Open have taken to calling their ball boys and ball girls “ball kids,” which is a stupid moniker. The U.S. Open refers to its ball boys and ball girls as the “ball crew,” which isn’t quite as bad.
Granted, they’re mostly teenagers, but these boys and girls undergo rigorous training to retrieve balls from the tennis courts and otherwise stay out of the way. The ball boys and ball girls at this year’s upcoming Wimbledon tournament are no exception.
“Wimbledon prides itself on having what it sees as the best in the business, with ball boys first introduced in 1920,” reports the Daily Mail. “They go the extra mile to ensure things run smoothly and do not have an easy job. In the past, they have been berated by players, hit in the head by loose strikes from the likes of Roger Federer, and fainted in the heat.”
The All England Club, which hosts Wimbledon, has also decided not to play the gender-neutral games and is sticking to ball boys and ball girls. Pardon the mixed sport jargon, but it’s par for the course at a tournament that prides itself on long-standing tradition.
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“The slogan for this year’s Wimbledon is ‘Always like never before,’ a nod to the All England Club’s annual balancing act in modernising while maintaining some of the traditions it holds so proud,” writes Simon Cambers at The Guardian. “But while the club and the tournament are expanding all the time, with the proposed development on the grounds of the old golf club across the road expected to be approved later this summer, some things stay the same.”
All England and Wimbledon have been slow to embrace change, although the club and the tournament have adapted to the times. All England has modernized its facilities, including adding roofs to the two courts where the main action takes place.
However, Wimbledon’s biggest cultural changes have stemmed from criticism. In 2007, after Venus Williams wrote, “The message I like to convey to women and girls across the globe is that there is no glass ceiling. My fear is that Wimbledon is loudly and clearly sending the opposite message,” Wimbledon began awarding equal prize money to its gentlemen’s and ladies’ champions.
A New York Times piece criticizing Wimbledon’s use of “Mr.,” “Miss,” and “Mrs.” before competitors’ names prompted All England to end that practice. It’s a shame because I always thought it lent Wimbledon an extra air of class.
Thankfully, Wimbledon isn’t changing its language to mollify the gender police, at least for now. That might be a non-negotiable rule for the tournament, much like the rule that competitors wear “almost entirely white” clothing — although Wimbledon did allow women to wear colored undergarments beginning last year.
In some ways, it's sad when adherence to tradition comes across as refreshing, but what Wimbledon is doing by sticking to tradition should give us hope that not everybody is caving in. And by doing so, it makes Wimbledon that much more special.
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