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Tennis superstar and mental health advocate Naomi Osaka covered the cover of Sports Illustrated 2021 on Monday, alongside Megan Thee Stallion, who made history as the magazine’s first female rapper. , and Leyla Bloom, her first trans model. Osaka herself is also the first Haitian and Japanese woman on a blanket.
As widely celebrated as this year’s covers were, Tory political commentator Megyn Kelly had a couple of unsolicited thoughts to share. The former Fox News host, known for her previous shots like Santa’s Necessity to be White, slammed Osaka for making the cover of a magazine despite his much-publicized departure from Roland Garros there. is two months old so that she can refrain from the media demands of the competition due to her mental health.
“Let’s not forget the cover of (& interview in) Vogue Japan and Time Mag!” Kelly said in a smug tweet ignorantly accusing Osaka of hypocrisy. The unnecessary quarrel initiated by Kelly intervenes in particular a few weeks before the broadcast of the talk show “The Megyn Kelly Show” on Sirius XM. It would be his first full-time journalistic job since leaving NBC in 2019, Insider reports.
In a now deleted tweet, Osaka responded by setting the record straight – and pretty much proving that she knows more about journalism than a “reporter” like Kelly. “Since you are a journalist, I would have assumed that you would take the time to research the magazine publication deadlines. If you had, you would have found out that I had turned all of my covers last year. Instead your first reaction is to come up here and spit out negativity, do better Megan [sic]”Osaka wrote.
As Osaka points out, media appearances like cover shoots, or collaborations like Barbie doll Naomi Osaka, are planned and created months, if not over a year, in advance before they go public. The covers of Osaka’s Sports Illustrated, the Netflix documentary series and the Barbie doll – all of which have drawn the heat of most conservative critics – were created long before her recent mental health issues that kept her from filling in the books. media requirements of Roland Garros and to participate in the tournament itself.
That said, Kelly’s critical Osaka tweets are hardly the slam dunk she seems to think, given that Osaka has never said she never intended to participate in or work with the media. journalists. On the contrary, in her statement at the end of May, she mentioned her desire to “to make things better for the players, the press and the fans.”
Of course, not one to hint at, Kelly felt the need to continue the feud she started, even after Osaka took the high road and deleted her tweet and blocked Kelly. “Poor @naomiosaka blocked me by shooting me (guess she’s only tough on the courts),” Kelly wrote. She apparently maintains that she turned her many b / 4 covers, publicly claiming that she was too socially anxious to deal with the press. The truth is, she just doesn’t like questions that she can’t. not control. Admit it. “
Kelly, of course, isn’t the only media personality who has felt the urge to laugh at and belittle someone with mental illness. English TV personality Piers Morgan tweeted about the Sports Illustrated cover of Osaka: “ANOTHER magazine cover for the courageous and inspiring Naomi! No wonder she didn’t have time for lectures from bestial press! ” Following Kelly’s pretentious announcement that she had been blocked by Osaka, Morgan intervened via tweet: “Yes, and she just blocked me too. The only media Ms. Osaka wants to tolerate are sycophantic magazine editors telling her how perfect she is.”
Morgan and Kelly were just two of many middle-aged, mostly white, right-wing media figures who felt pressured to dunk a 23-year-old black and Japanese athlete for a magazine photoshoot she took. taken months ago. It’s unclear what point, if any, they were trying to argue here. Rather than making a point, Kelly and Morgan’s tweets present themselves as a desperate and racist ploy to gain attention by demolishing a trailblazing black woman, who has courageously been open about her struggles with anxiety and depression. If Kelly is so desperate to speak out about the “truth,” it’s as simple as this: Kelly is a right-wing “reporter” who was fired from NBC three years ago after championing blackface as appropriate for Halloween, and Morgan himself left ITV’s “Good Morning Britain” after the backlash for his racist harassment against Meghan Markle, another black woman who has openly battled with mental health and suicidal ideation. Unlike those two, Osaka is one of the most decorated and talented athletes in the world.
Where Kelly and Morgan share a long history of demolishing women of color, and especially black women, and generally spewing out racist conspiracy theories and interweb gossip, Osaka has paved the way for other non-athletes. only because of his brilliant tennis skills, but also his defense of the importance of putting mental health first. The mainstream sports culture has long benefited from the work of athletes and gave the media and fans a full and unfiltered right of access to athletes. By challenging this culture, Osaka inspires athletes around the world and all people with mental health issues not to apologize for doing what they need to do to take care of themselves and not to have afraid to ask for what they need.
As cruel and heinous as Kelly’s attacks on a woman who has openly spoken about her mental illness may be, its ultimate insignificance can be summed up in Osaka’s offhand spelling mistake of Kelly’s name. “Do better Megan”, indeed.
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