GQ Magazine Slammed for Serena Williams ‘Woman of The Year’ Cover

Sports

Critics took issue with the magazine’s decision to put “woman” in quotation marks

Serena Williams
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GQ is facing heat for their “Woman of the Year” cover with Serena Williams after the magazine decided to put the word woman in quotation marks. Critics online said the decision was a swipe at Williams’ gender.

“They really put ‘Woman’ in quotes in reference to Serena and no one at the table thought it was a bad idea,” said one critic. “I’m speechless.”

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It also probably didn’t help that the tennis star was the only woman selected by the magazine, which also chose to honor Michael B. Jordan,  Jonah Hill and Henry Golding as their “Man of the Year” — without quotation marks.

Reps for GQ did not immediately respond to request for comment from TheWrap. Some unofficial explanation for the cover was provided by GQ “research manager” Mick Rouse.

“It was handwritten by Virgil Abloh of Off-White, who has styled everything in quotation marks as of late (see Serena’s U.S. Open apparel that he designed),” said Rouse. “It quite literally has tags/quotations around it because that’s Virgil’s own style/branding, including in his partnership with Nike and Serena herself. That’s the only ‘message’ behind it.”

Reps for Williams did not immediately respond to request for comment from TheWrap.

But, others on Twitter weren’t buying it, taking the opportunity to vent their frustrations on the latest outrage.

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