Faced with criticism for eyelashes and nails, black basketball players focus on self-expression

Jordan Walker grew up with Skylar Diggins-Smith in Notre Dame.

Diggins-Smith, a two-time First Team All-American, was one of the first prominent college basketball players to make it a point to look feminine on the court. Seeing a black woman do this on the national stage had a lasting impact on Walker as a young black player.

“She’s so pretty and she carries herself so nicely and she looks so classy, ​​but she does the same thing on the court,” recalled the Tennessee guard Lady Vols. “She still looks classy, ​​looks put together, but she’s a beast, you know? She can parry shots, play defense, all of that.”

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Chicago sky point guard Dana Evans said Diggins-Smith, now a six-time WNBA All-Star, marked the beginning of the new generation of players — a generation of Black women choosing to authentically be themselves on the court.

“I think she really changed things, where you look girly, you can show different things on the court,” Evans said. “I think she was one of the players that started it and I think a lot of players fed off of that.”

But this shift did not come without resistance from outside. Players who look feminine in basketball have also been criticized for their looks, including Tennessee’s Tamari Key this season.

“It hurt my heart to see that”

After the lackluster start to the season in Tennessee A faction of fans attacked Key on social media for wearing eyelash extensions and nails, although she also wore them in what was her best junior season of her career.

Some have accused Key of caring more about her looks than winning, or claimed she plays badly because of her nails and lashes. Key declined to comment on this story.

The story goes on

The allegations highlighted how women’s basketball still deals with racism and misogyny.

“When I saw these comments, my heart sank because no one deserves to deal with this,” said South Carolina guard Brea Beal. “When I saw this, my heart broke because I was seeing these comments for myself and my teammates or people I’m friends with in the basketball community. It’s not a good feeling to have to deal with, and it’s kinda heavy to remember that people blame my looks for how I play. For some people it starts to confuse them.

Walker is one of several Lady Vols to wear eyelash extensions and said there was a lack of understanding behind the criticism. Whenever she gets her lashes done, it’s after all of her basketball commitments are done.

“They just have their opinions on it and it’s like, ‘Oh, she missed that shot because she can’t see because of her eyelashes,’ but no, I can see perfectly. I just missed the shot,” Walker said. “I feel like a lot of the comments are like that, but only because they really don’t understand and don’t know. And so I think the recon piece is the best part.”

The racism behind the criticism

When Evans was in Louisville, people nicknamed her “Lashes.”

Some fans even got sunglasses with eyelashes on them. Evans, a two-time ACC Player of the Year, has worn eyelash extensions since high school, but they became part of her brand in Louisville. Now she has a partnership with OpulenceMD Beauty, which promotes safe eye beauty for all women — and that includes an eyelash machine in Louisville.

The only way Beal could express herself on the court was by painting her nails pink. But by the time she got into college, she found confidence wearing eyelash extensions, nails, and different hairstyles.

How Beal, Walker, Evans and other players express themselves on the pitch is part of their identity. Evans said it was clear that comments like those directed at Key were racist, and people know it.

“It’s not fair to us, and as a fan, I feel like — you have a lot of black women expressing themselves. Why are you trying to demote her?” Evans said. “Why are you trying to make them feel less than themselves when you should be supporting them when they play for your team?”

Although there are non-black players who wear eyelashes, black women are being targeted.

“I think they just have to accept it because the majority of women are black players. I mean, you can even look it up in the WNBA, the majority of players are black,” Evans said. “They have to adjust to the fact that black women can express themselves and they have to live with that. You just have to accept it because we are here to stay.”

How gamers feel empowered and market themselves

With the new generation of players, a new era of college sports began.

There is more at stake for players when it comes to how they present themselves on the pitch and on social media, as there are opportunities for name, picture and likeness deals.

“I definitely think black women in any sport need to do the extra things to get ingested or be broadcast more compared to other athletes,” Beal said. “So I feel like, as bad as it sounds, people are putting black athletes in this box and they have to do crazy things or stand out to actually be talked about or noticed.”

WNBA players don’t make millions of dollars like NBA players do, and Evans said they constantly have to market themselves and find other ways to make money.

“We have to show how marketable we are,” Evans said, “and that we’re also a basketball player — but we can also model, we can be pretty, we can do other things.”

But it’s also about inspiring the next generation of gamers, just like Diggins-Smith inspired Evans and Walker.

“It’s so many girls who are nervous about just being themselves at times,” Evans said. “But I think as a WNBA player, we’re setting a standard and letting them know it’s okay to be you. It’s ok if you want to wear suits if you want to wear heels. I think we set that standard to be and let people know they can just be themselves.”

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Black Women’s College Basketball Players Control Appearance Criticism