Hi everyone i hope you're all well so as i'm sure most of you know tennis star Naomi Osaka
made headlines last week with her sensational withdrawal from the french open citing mental
health concerns while i won't go into the house watson wise in too much detail since this has
been in the news for a little while now the withdrawal was the result of a week-long dance
with tournament officials see naomi released a statement on may 26th by twitter of course
announcing that while she would compete in the french open she would boycott her post-match
press conferences which are a contractual obligation for the players by the way to
protect her mental health her reasoning among other things was that she did not wish to
subject herself to people who would doubt her then after skipping her press conference after
her first round match and copying the fifteen thousand dollar fine that went along with it
she withdrew from the tournament completely in yet another statement delivered via twitter
she revealed she had suffered from deep bouts of depression since 2018 and that she felt it was
best for everyone if she took some time away from the court now we're all caught up get it caught up
hello that's not funny
anyway the reason that i am making this video is not to chew over the ins and outs of naomi's
reasons for withdrawing that's not actually what interested me about her statement or
the situation generally i think that naomi's withdrawal from the french open along with the
behavior of meghan markle and prince harry and the reams and reams of people gushing all over
them for being so hashtag stunning and brave could be the start of a dangerous new cultural trope
so what interested me about naomi osaka's statement of withdrawal from the french open
were not her claims of depression and anxiety i 100 believe that she has mental health concerns
professional athletes despite all of the glamour and the money are under excruciating pressure
physically and mentally especially tennis players i think because tennis is generally
such a solo game i'd imagine it can be incredibly lonely on the court in a really tight spot with
no teammates to rally around you it's a really tough gig without all of the world's media on
you let alone with i feel sorry for naomi osaka i am sure she's got a few problems and i think
the time away from the court will probably do her the world of good now i've got that out of the way
what interested me about her statement was this hey everyone this isn't a situation
i ever imagined or intended when i posted a few days ago i think now the best thing
for the tournament the other players and my well-being is that i withdraw so that everyone
can get back to focusing on the tennis going on in paris i never wanted to be a distraction
well to that i have only one thing to say
of course naomi osaka wanted to be a distraction that's what she does she has a history of being
a distraction at tennis tournaments largely to do with her activism last year for black lives matter
and her statement announcing that she wasn't going to do press at the french open was every bit
as distracting rather than simply an announcement it was appointed indictment of the international
tennis federation naomi likened press conferences to kicking a person while they are
down and admonished the itf for allegedly not paying enough attention to play his mental health
if the organizations think that they can just keep saying do press or you're going to get
fined and continue to ignore the mental health of the athletes that are at the centerpiece of their
cooperation then i just gotta laugh anyways i hope the considerable amount that i will get fined for
this will go towards a mental health charity and that right there is how we know that she was very
intent on being a distraction first of all she's presented an inaccurate depiction of the situation
the tennis organizations do not just ignore the mental health of players as the itf said in their
statement not only did they try unsuccessfully to get in contact with naomi after she emailed them
initially announcing she would not be doing press conferences they also provide ample resources for
players well-being in addition the women's tennis association pointed out that it has provided stuff
dedicated to the mental health of wta players for more than 20 years including a mental health care
provider in person at tournaments and telehealth sessions between tournaments upon request
the wta said it also provides resources and support across four primary areas of need
including mental health consultation support and referrals mental performance skills tour life
skills development and strategies and critical incident management slash safeguarding support
what more does naomi want i mean clearly tennis organizations are very aware of the mental health
of athletes and the pressure that they are under so simply put like any trendy public
figure who wants to make a statement and as she herself has done in the past naomi used
ill thought out hyperbole to make a point and gain some traction however unlike last
year when not only was she gushed over by fellow players she actually caused an entire
tournament to shut down play for a day because she boycotted her semi-final in the name of blm
she didn't receive the same glowing affirmation and she didn't manage to change anything
although some players supported her decision not to do press conferences a lot didn't including a
number of highly respected superstar top players like rafael nadal novak djokovic and ash bharti
add to that the fact that tournament officials of not just the french open but wimbledon as well
remained completely immovable in their stance on press commitments and you don't have a very happy
naomi now since this was not the reaction that she was used to she threw the baby out with the
bathwater and withdrew from the tournament what a shame and i do mean that sicily by the way she
is a fantastic player now like i said while i have absolutely no doubt that naomi osaka
suffers from depression and anxiety it is possible remember for two things to be true at once it is
true that naomi osaka struggles with her mental health it is also possible for it to be true that
she was intent on making a statement thought the assertion of her mental health struggles
would insulate her from criticism freaked out when it didn't had a bit of a sook and withdrew
now this is the evidence i think of the growing cultural trope i mentioned earlier earlier
i am increasingly seeing claims of mental health problems however true being used as a
way to insulate oneself from criticism in short i have mental health concerns is becoming the
new i'm offended which is also a phrase that has that same purpose of deflecting critique
however claims of mental health concerns are much more powerful not only do they insulate you from
critique they also get you out of doing difficult things like fronting up at a meeting at work or
giving a presentation at university or doing press conferences at a major tennis tournament
that is on clay which is your weakest surface and therefore where you are most likely to get
critical press oh dear i said it oh no she didn't oh yes she did the other thing that makes claims
of mental health concern such an effective insulator is that they can have real world
consequences laughing at somebody because they say they're offended by literally everything carries
no consequences other than perhaps some hurt feelings laughing at someone who claims they have
mental health problems because you don't know for sure if they are telling the truth or not carries
potentially fatal consequences if you know what i mean nobody wants to risk that and before anyone
accuses me of trivializing mental health concerns wash your mouth out with soap and warm water it
is because i am acutely aware of the devastating nature of mental illness that i am making this
video i have seen what severe depression anxiety ocd and anorexia can do to a person mental illness
can be completely and permanently debilitating it ruins lives not just that of the person suffering
from mental illness but the lives of everyone else around them as well mental illness is devastating
and i would not wish it upon my worst enemy what i am concerned about is that thanks to people like
naomi osaka and for the record meghan markle and prince harry who however truthfully claim
they have mental health concerns but provide no clinical proof or medical diagnosis and whose
advice is to simply stop doing anything that could possibly be difficult rather than you know telling
people to engage in some coping strategies other than expensive therapy sessions that most people
can't afford will desensitize people to mental health concerns generally just as a few years ago
the constant cries of i'm offended desensitized us to things that can actually be offensive
and in the age of covert which has caused so much mental illness that is not what we want as a
society and before you feel too sorry for naomi osaka for having to do sometimes tricky press
conferences after a less than good performance on court bear in mind that press conferences
are a contractual obligation for a reason press conferences are essential to marketing which is
essential to ticket sales which is essential to the tournament's functioning and needless to say
essential to the prize money pool they are also essential to players gaining sponsors since they
provide positive publicity and can get players in front of nike adidas etc naomi osaka is not
wanting in either prize money or sponsors in fact she was just declared the highest earning female
athlete not just tennis player athlete ever she earned 60 million us dollars in the last 12
months 55 million which were from endorsements and sponsors more money than both rafael nadal
and novak djokovic made in 2020 she is the most marketable female athlete on the planet
ever and according to forbes she is the the 12th highest paid athlete overall and in
terms of purely endorsement money she is topped only by roger federer tom brady and tiger woods
so what all this means is that she is in a position of unfathomable privilege
in the fact that she doesn't need to do press conferences because she doesn't need the publicity
and she can easily afford the fines she's already got the sponsors and given the reaction of a few
of them after this french open episode of hers she's endeared herself to them even further
lower ranked players on the other hand do not have that unfathomable privilege not even close
contrary to popular belief it's actually not easy to make a living as a lower ranked tennis player
you can only do certain much smaller tournaments and the prize pool is comparatively
tiny as such a lower ranked player who's been lucky enough to play through the qualifying
rounds of a grand slam and look maybe has a breakthrough tournament in the main draw
desperately needs those high-profile presses to get some good traction and potentially get those
coveted sponsorships so even if they're terribly disappointed after a loss or have dreadful anxiety
about public speaking or have suffered bouts of depression or are in terrible physical pain
or have been wretching in the toilet just down the corridor from the press room whatever they have to
pull themselves together smile sit themselves down in that press conference and get on with
it lest they miss the golden opportunity that could properly launch their careers
i'm going to reiterate for the umpteenth time i'm not denying that naomi osaka is struggling
with her mental health who isn't really in the age of covert but if we just keep taking these kinds
of claims at face value and venerating anyone who makes them as stunning and brave and then publicly
degrade anyone who even raises an eyebrow at them people are simply going to stop taking mental
health seriously which is the worst possible thing that could happen in the wake of this pandemic
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