Being one of the greatest athletes in all of recorded human history is hard work.
Photo by Mike Stobe/Getty Images for the USTA.
For Serena Williams, the job description is simple: Win all the time.
Photo by Jewel Samad/Getty Images.
Transforming into a pretty, smiling princess on command isn't really a part of it.
Photo via iStock.
So when a reporter asked her why she wasn't smiling after defeating her sister Venus in the U.S. Open quarterfinals, Serena told him straight up that it's because she was bored with him.
And it was glorious.
There's a video of the exchange (h/t Clutch), but for quickness' sake, here's the transcript.
Women: They don't have to smile!
Photo via iStock.
You'd think that would be ... relatively obvious.
And yet, for some reason, lots of men have a weird interest in making sure women smile constantly.
They're so invested that some feel the need to yell at random women on the street to make sure they're smiling to their satisfaction.
They're so invested that Apple caused a minor controversy this week for digitally altering a woman's face so that she was smiling in a demo ad for the new iPad.
Weirdly enough, women actually have the complete range of human emotions!
Happy, sad, tired, angry, bored, annoyed, hyphy, that thing you feel when the airline rep tells you your carry-on is too big even though it easily fit in overhead bin on the way here...
And not all of those emotions involve smiling.
Bottom line: The question that reporter asked Serena would probably never be posed to a similarly all-time-great male athlete.
Yo, LeBron, you're so jacked, why don't you smile? A man as swole as you should smile more! Photo by Ty Wright/Getty Images.
Major props to Serena for not laughing it off and telling that reporter exactly how she really felt instead.
Even for a world-famous sports icon, that took guts.
Here's hoping that, after Saturday's finals, she'll have a real, trophy-induced reason to smile.
Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images.
