In her column in the Süddeutsche Zeitung Andrea Petkovic spoke about the image of women as tennis professionals and gave deep insights into her dealings with social media. The 30-year-old noticed, for example, impersonating another person on Instagram to live up to the ideals of beauty in society.
“My photographs are in fact nothing more than a miserable attempt at self-expression – born of inferiority complexes and posted in the hope of regaining sovereignty over my public (body) image,” Petkovic wrote. “It has become my daily routine to adapt my physical identity to the expectations of others.”
She is increasingly trying to showcase her professional career as a tennis player only sporadically on social networks, as this does not correspond to the preferences of the users. You won’t find photos of matches on their profiles.
“When I first saw pictures of myself in the newspaper that had been taken in the middle of the blow,” Petkovic wrote, “when all my muscles were tense to tearing, my face ugly distorted with effort, unfavorable from head to toe – that’s when I started to question myself”.
Diverse statements and comments have contributed to her wanting to follow a standardised image of women. “Suddenly I preferred T-shirts and longsleeves to sleeveless tops. “I banned high heels from my wardrobe so that I wasn’t any taller than the men and didn’t emphasize my muscular legs.”
Petkovic also stated that she had never had such thoughts in her youth. Only the age, in which social media are more and more widespread, has brought them to a rethink. “Sure, I noticed I was taller than most guys in my class, and I can’t say it was a pleasant feeling. But that’s when the complexes stopped,” Petkovic wrote.
At the WTA tournament in Prague on Monday, Petkovic failed in round one due to local hero Katerina Siniakova. Petkovic has won six WTA tournaments in her career, most recently in Antwerp, Belgium, in February 2015. Click here for the complete SZ column by Andrea Petkovic.