Why do I know who Serena Williams is? I mean, I’ve never watched a tennis match of hers and yet you can whip out a picture of her and ask “Hey, who is this?” and I’ll be able to tell you: “That’s Serena Williams, Grand Slam champion.”
What’s a Grand Slam? I don’t even know. I don’t think it’s a tournament. Is it an amalgamation of tournaments? I don’t even know.
Anyway, the point here is that most people will recognize her.
Pull out a picture of Leon Trotsky. Or anyone, really. I’m not saying more people should be aware of key Menshevik leaders. And, I mean, Trotsky’s been dead for a really long time. But the thing is, why does anyone know who Serena Williams is? Because she’s good at hitting back balls?
I don’t mean to disrespect tennis or Williams or sports fans or fans of balls. (Dogs are fans of balls and I love dogs.) But it’s weird to me that sports stars have reached such a high level of image-saturation in our society that they can be used to market random drinks or shoes. This wouldn’t be the case if Nike or Coca-Cola weren’t absolutely sure they would get a return on their licensing of Williams’ image.
I guess what I’m saying is that we’d be better off if the people at the heights of academia had as high a position as sports stars and celebrities.
At least give Zizek a car ad placement.
