#bjk

Karanlık aydınlıktan, yalan doğrudan kaçar.

Güneş yalnız da olsa, etrafa ışık saçar.

Üzülme, doğruların kaderidir yalnızlık.

Kargalar sürüyle, kartallar yalnız uçar. (ÖMER HAYYAM)

Siyah giyerim, beyaz severim.

Çünkü bu renkler süs değil, hayat tarzıdır.

Kazanınca şımarmam, kaybedince vazgeçmem.

Beşiktaşlı olmak........!!!!!!!Siyahın asaleti, beyazın onuru.

Taraf değilim, Beşiktaşlıyım. 🖤🤍

У меня есть еще зарисовки, но они не готовы( I have more sketches, but they are not ready(

BILLIE JEAN KING!

(Please be aware that this is a catch up post for missing a day, but I tried to still make it high quality! Thank you!)

Billie Jean King, born November 22, 1943, is not only a personal idol of mine, but a personal idol of millions. And she deserves to be! Ms. King is an American tennis player (still alive, she’s 82), and is the former Number 1. Tennis Player in the World. Having 39 Grand Slam titles under her name, a strong reputation of advocacy both gender and sexuality wise, it is safe to say she is an icon.

Ms. King was born in California, on Long Island. She originally played softball, but switched to tennis later when she was 11. She learned tennis is public courts and took free lessons there. 

This is where she faced early discrimination. She often was benched during tennis matches and wasn’t allowed to play or was excluded due to her tomboyish appearance, or just the fact that she was a girl at all.

Eventually, she started to promise people. She promised people that one day, she would be the number one tennis player in the world. And she had no intention of breaking that promise. She told her mother, she told her priest, she told everyone, essentially!

And then Ms. King started to gain attention.

Her and another woman, Karen Hantze, soon became the youngest pair to win the Wimbledon doubles title. She attended the California State University in LA, where she competed and worked as an instructor for tennis! 

In her later adult years, she became an absolute all star! To quote the National Women’s History Museum: 

“In 1966, she achieved her childhood dream when she became the #1-ranked women’s tennis player in the world. She claimed that title five more times in her career: 1967, 1968, 1971, 1972, and 1974. Between 1961-1979, playing both singles and doubles, King won Wimbledon a record 20 times and claimed 13 U.S. titles, four French titles, and two Australian titles.“ (National Women’s History Museum, ‘Billie Jean King’)

It’s safe to say she was on the rise and actively becoming her dream. Now let’s talk about her advocacy!

During the 60s and 70s, Ms. King began to speak out against the unfair wage gaps in tennis winnings that differed for the genders, and actively campaigned towards fixing it. You can find much more on this at billiejeanking.com!

Needless to say, Billie Jean King was a very much loud and unapologetic when it came to fighting for her rights! Her and her former husband also established the Women’s Sport Foundation, and the World TeamTennis both in 1974. The latter was also the first mixed gender professional sports league!

Now, I’d like to mention her most notable tennis fight. Maybe one of the most notable matches in tennis history:

The Battle of The Sexes.

If you don’t know, which is slightly surprising, The Battle of The Sexes was a tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs. Ms. King was 29 at the time, and Riggs was 55. Riggs had a history of being misogynistic and tried to prove that even an older man could beat the best female tennis player in the world.

Now, Riggs died in the 1990s, and I’m not sure if he still retained his misogynistic views, but I’ll have a neutral opinion on him.

The Battle of The Sexes was held in 1973, and 90 million people—yes, 90 MILLION—tuned in worldwide to watch the match.

King won in all three sets, cementing a legacy for her and women forever. It is also what she is most known for.

About Ms. King’s queer identity, she was outed as lesbian in 1981 and lost a lot of support and endorsement deals because of it. Despite that, she did not deny the claims, and publicly stated her relationship with Illana Kloss, another excellent tennis player.

Now, Ms. King officially retired from tennis in 1983, but only for competitions. King still continued coaching, becoming the coach for the U.S. Fed Cup team during the late 90s, and she lead them to victory many times. 

In 2006, former President Barack Obama himself gave Ms. King the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is the highest official honor a citizen can receive! This of course, for advocating for both the LGBTQ community and for women’s rights!

In conclusion, Billie Jean King was a large activist, excellent tennis player, and is still fighting to this day. I love her, and I know she’s inspired many people. She is very strong, and like most people we talk about on these posts, faced a shit ton of discrimination that never made her back down. Lg

Thank you, Billie Jean King!

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This post is a make up one for missing a day! I know I still owe you guys another day, and I will work on that!! Tomorrow I’ll post one like normal, don’t expect anything expect disappointment, really. I’m shit at deadlines.

(Konu forma değil/anlayabilene...)

Beşiktaş JK 🦅🖤🤍