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For most of the history of women’s tennis, the “dress” — once upon a time a long skirt, now more of a wisp of an idea — has symbolized the feminine side of the game in its most retrograde sense, and been used as a means of gender stereotype, self-expression, and eyeball-attracting marketing. It has flirted with the tropes of fashion-as-decoration, and fashion as an extension of a personal brand, but only within well-behaved bounds.
Finally, however, in the hands of Serena Williams, it has become a political tool: an unabashed statement of female empowerment and independence not just for herself, but for all.