Happy but worried for Emma Raducanu

[JackieWeaverHandforthCouncil]

Maybe I’m getting old and jaded but although I’m so so happy for Emma I have a sinking feeling and worry for her.

She’s the nations darling today but my experience of the British press is that she should enjoy this phase while it lasts. The minute she falters, says anything socially positive a dodgy tweet the right wing press will call her ‘woke!’, there’ll be a ‘Twitter storm!’. She’ll suddenly no longer be British she’ll be Chinese, Canadian, Romanian.

On the Guardian side they will beat people over the head with articles about her being a minority and a woman.

All this alongside tabloids trying to get dodgy ‘Pwoar! Tennis beauty!’ shots. Digging up old boyfriends from school.

I have PMT which is probably why I’m feeling like this but her rise has been so quick and stratospheric and I don’t trust our media to treat her as the incredibly talented, professional and very young woman she is.

How about just focussing on her amazing achievement rather than dampening it down with your imagined doom and gloom scenario which I doubt you would have come up with if she were male?

Fgs she, s done amazing, typical mumsnet sucking the joy out of someone, s achievement 🙄

I don't see anything bizarre about the OP's post.

Observation of what has often happened in the past isn't in any way diminishing the huge pleasure in her success and admiration for her achievement.

I think she should enjoy her moments of fame! Good Grief ,the girl has won the American Open less than 24 hours ago ,and you are worrying what may or may not happen in the future? She seems to have her head screwed on and with a supportive family behind her I think she will be just fine!

People like you are the problem and dressing it up in faux concern. As for your ‘lived experience of the British press’ pmsl!

It won't be us or the op sucking the joy out of her success at such a young age , but she will receive a lot more hatred than somebody like Boris Becker who won a major grand slam aged 17, purely because she is female and mixed heritage.
Those are facts , sadly .
She did really well last night, but she did have a wobble at Wimbledon last year and that will also be remembered too by those who want to tear people down rather than embrace the good :(
We are aware of what the press have done to others in the past and even more recently to Meghan Markle too.
She seems level headed and I hope she can rise above any negativity

Why the need to dementor the crap out of everything?

Maybe focus on that first, OP?

In the build up to the final, someone mentioned that Emma had handed her phone to a member of her team so she would not be distracted by social media. Seems she has been head screwed on.

Typical MN post. Emma R has shown incredible strength to get over her Wimbledon disappointment to achieve a sporting feat that NO ONE has ever achieved before. I hope OP that she doesn't listen to miserable doom sayers like you.. She's an incredibly strong and focussed person.

Are you my mum? Seeking out the misery in every situation!

Let's just enjoy it with her!

It won't be us or the op sucking the joy out of her success at such a young age , but she will receive a lot more hatred than somebody like Boris Becker who won a major grand slam aged 17, purely because she is female and mixed heritage.
Those are facts , sadly

No, those aren't facts. Thos are your predictions/wishes which may or may not happen. When and if they do, then they will be facts.

Id never even heard of her till yesterday. She is a tennis player. Yes she did very well to win at such a young age. But my what ridiculous hype. I

Not sure how you can overhype what she’s achieved?

@ChardonnaysPetDragon

It won't be us or the op sucking the joy out of her success at such a young age , but she will receive a lot more hatred than somebody like Boris Becker who won a major grand slam aged 17, purely because she is female and mixed heritage. Those are facts , sadly

No, those aren't facts. Thos are your predictions/wishes which may or may not happen. When and if they do, then they will be facts.

You only have to look at how Meghan Markle was treated to know that some of what I wrote may well be the case ? I hope I'm wrong one hundred percent, but there will be trolls and jealousy and the internet which is a force of nature just on its own. I just hope she can rise above it all

I’m not ‘pretending’ to be worried about her at all. I have two children, one of the them a tween girl. She’s such a smart, talented, determined young child. However, I’ve wondered previously how it would be if she were to ever became famous and thought about all that would come with that.

I look at Emma and she’s amazing and I think of my own child and I worry as it’s happened so fast. I think of what happened to the poor teens that missed penalties in the Euros, what happened to David Beckham where they printed dartboards with his face when he made an error in the World Cup. Heroes to villains in seconds. How to you prepare/protect people young or old from that?

Every single time someone does well, they are eventually torn apart. Me stating this will not be the cause of that. I’m certain that The Sun and Daily Mail columnists plus online trolls aren’t waiting for some random middle aged woman on MN’s go ahead to start their bullshit.

Of course I’m celebrating her success but I’d be naive to think the media has suddenly changed. Maybe me stating this will actually help people to notice as soon as this starts happening and be even more vocal in their support on and offline.

@Viviennemary

Id never even heard of her till yesterday. She is a tennis player. Yes she did very well to win at such a young age. But my what ridiculous hype. I

Really?? Shes just wonthe American open the first british women to do so in 44 years, she has also basically come from no where to achieve this im not a huge tennis fan, but can totally appreciate the hype around it

She has done fabulously well, but I do remember how (mainly men) went after Beth Tweddle on social media and it is a worry. Some of the comments were absolutely bloody shocking.
I hope she is well protected from all that.

@the80sweregreat

It won't be us or the op sucking the joy out of her success at such a young age , but she will receive a lot more hatred than somebody like Boris Becker who won a major grand slam aged 17, purely because she is female and mixed heritage. Those are facts , sadly . She did really well last night, but she did have a wobble at Wimbledon last year and that will also be remembered too by those who want to tear people down rather than embrace the good :( We are aware of what the press have done to others in the past and even more recently to Meghan Markle too. She seems level headed and I hope she can rise above any negativity

You totally killed any argument you had by bringing Meghan Markle into it. A young sportswoman who got there on her merit through hard work and a mature head vs a woman who is famous for marrying a prince.

YANBU

It's what the press loves.
They like to build up people and then kick then if they put a foot wrong.

Well said
You totally killed any argument you had by bringing Meghan Markle into it. A young sportswoman who got there on her merit through hard work and a mature head vs a woman who is famous for marrying a prince.

YABU and need to chill.

Also, “woke” is code for “socially positive”? No dear 😂

Could you not just share her joy?

Both finalists have grown up in a more media savvy era. Came through juniors together and are fucking excellent players.

If you want to borrow trouble try to do it in a way that doesn't add to the easily searchable media scrum, positive and negative, about her. You become part of the problem you decry!

I watched a very interesting documentary about the media’s mistreatment of young women. It seems a thing to build a young lady up and then dissect her and tear her down and gleefully watch her fall apart.

I hope that this isn’t the case with her, but interesting case studies from young female actresses and athletes (Marilyn Monroe, Judy Garland, to Naomi Osaka) were mentioned. Most of it coming from middle age men of course.. what stuck me was that they seemed to build the women up and then systematically take them down. All the hype and then to dissect their entire life isn’t right.

But I hope she will be treated with some kindness. And she is entitled to a private life. All the trash articles about her private life we really don’t need. I definitely hope she will be allowed to grow and learn as a young woman without heavy scrutiny.

I think that’s a totally valid fear. There’s no way to be a sufficiently ‘perfect’ woman in the U.K. to avoid horrendous, sexist press and people using you to push their own agenda.

She seems like a really switched on young woman with good family support, so hopefully she can weather it with her mental well-being intact. But I totally understand why you are worried for her.

Why the need to dementor the crap out of everything?

Yeah. It's much more comfortable to pretend that the jealousy, racism and misogyny she's going to need to contend with don't really exist, stick our heads in the sand and get a bit of a kick out of being proud of a complete stranger winning a tennis tournament because she has lived in the UK for a few years.

We have no idea how vulnerable she will be to it. Getting good A'Levels isn't a particularly accurate indicator of mental health.

I hope everyone slating the OP for bringing this subject up will be protesting loudly and robustly against those who get their kicks from trying to bring Emma Raducanu down in the coming months.

We should be talking about the damage done to these young people, how the media builds them up and knocks them down for profit, and what we, as individuals, can do to avoid supporting the perpetrators.