Serena Williams builds her legacy in rebellion. Why lend it to Ozes Culture? |Serena Williams

wHen Serena Williams featured In the story of People Magazine Discussing her 31-pound weight loss Thursday morning, all logos of the promotional ads are covered in a thin veil exclusive to the full hat.

Vogue’s social channels have been enlarged Their own visitNBC’s performance today Give her a one-on-one part Published with Elle Carefully packaged interview Williams announced that she wanted to break the stigma of weight loss drugs, everyone locked in, and it seemed like a 9 a.m. news embargo. This year Jill Smoller Quadrafecta is not a spontaneous regret. It’s a coordinated media blitz We’re publicThe tentpole event of American tennis kicked off Sunday.

Yet, despite this, it is undoubtedly an ad. The product is not only Williams’ delicate physique, but it has been the subject of months of speculation among her 32 million followers on social media. It’s a telehealth service called RO – a company whose husband Alexis Ohanian sits conveniently, at least a press release Courtesy includes In footnotes – Promoted access to GLP-1 weight loss medications such as Ozempic, Wegovy, and Zepbough.

Williams is more than just a one-off Spon Con. Her partnership with RO is a multi-year event between billboards, digital platforms and TV attractions. In their first she Looking at the camera And said: “Kids, this is the medicine my body needs.” RO CEO Zach Reitano made clear why she was selected: precisely because some people would say she doesn’t need GLP-1. “That’s why she’s perfect for it,” he explained. In other words, the purpose of putting Williams in the ad was to normalize weight loss medications into lifestyle products for people with atypical patients.

Today, Williams showed his outer corner. “As an athlete and someone who does everything, I can’t lower my weight to where I need to be in a healthy place, and trust me, I don’t take shortcuts,” she said. She recalled having a daughter after running and walking for a few hours, but at the same scale. Elle’s interview further enhances the story: Williams talks about 30,000 steps, four hours of summer training, while her coach raises concerns about her weight in the HBO documentary series Serena. “I need to try something different,” she said. “Sometimes people will definitely do everything and it won’t work.” Her message is clear: she’s done the job and the drug is just missing works.

Generally, the public responses to tennis Twitter and entertainment blogs are allocated. Some fans said they resigned: If the greatest athletes of her generation all need medication to lose weight, what opportunities do others have? Others are angry, a global sports idol once Known for defying toxic beauty standardslend her name to pharmaceutical fashion that has been criticized for being overprescription. Then some shrugged, thinking that Williams has always represented the family business. Just like Taylor Swift Appear on Travis Kelce’s podcast Williams’ collaboration with RO is not just accidental, not personal health, but #COUPLEGOALS on the macro level.

Many people think Thursday’s collective news is not frank, but ads: personal struggles as invisible marketing. In an era where audiences were used to weave mental health confessions or fitness “travels” into commercial transactions, Williams’ campaign was interpreted as openness rather than strategy. Adhering to GLP-1 is not a “simple way out” without too many silent critics, but emphasizes a broader concern: Even people who have been disciplined like Williams need medication help to be seen as “healthy” and rely on The very thin culture she once resisted. For many of her admirers, it was more than a sponsorship agreement—it felt like a reduction in her sporting legacy, It is recommended that in a society where appearance outweighs achievements, all titles and training are not enough.

This contrast is shocking because Williams’s career is built on rebellion and becoming the ultimate outsider. She was a black Jehovah’s Witness from Compton who kicked the door to a country club sport with beaded braids and an indomitable game that endured only years of suspicion, mockery and downright racism. However, she used these pressures to dominate, winning 23 Grand Slam singles titles, redefining the power, athleticism and ruthlessness of women’s tennis. For millions of fans, she proved that success doesn’t need to be in line with the ideal of beauty or femininity. She bent over a sport and industry for her will, embodying the strength and resilience of generations of black women who saw an embodiment of possibility in her.

By keeping in line with RO, Williams has gone from embodying resistance to mainstream in the industry built on shrinking body. The woman who once made a superpower from a double burden – Born women, born black In the United States – choose to strengthen trying to eliminate her culture. Critics believe that this is especially disharmonious given her own history of almost twice- From pulmonary embolism Once after shattering the glass Recovering from a traumatic caesarean section – Exposed the experience of failure of the American health care structure, Especially black women. If someone can reliably use her platform to call for system reform, it is her. Instead, she lends her name to a for-profit business that pushes weight loss drugs to people who already afford concierge drugs.

There is no doubt that this is part of the greater driving force. According to Pricewaterhousecooper, 8% to 10% of Americans are now taking GLP-1. RO has already conducted a controversial subway event showing the injection of the abdomen and signed former NBA star Charles Barkley to inject himself into the camera. Competitor Hims & Hers splashed the Super Bowl ad. All of them have been slammed: politicians complaining about skipping side effects disclosures, activists from activists who have seen propaganda for fake bodies and doctors worried about malnutrition. Unlike traditional pharmaceuticals, telemedicine companies in the United States do not have to read out risks for a long time. They can present drugs like lifestyle accessories. Now they have The real American hero As the face of their easiest market share in the gold rush.

Williams is not alone. She joins a growing roster of celebrities who have revealed the use of GLP-1, including Oprah Winfrey, Whoopi Goldberg, Meghan Trainor and Amy Schumer. But if others develop curiosity, Serena brings legitimacy. Few recognitions can make it clearer that weight loss pills have moved from Hollywood whispers to smooth mainstream.

Money issues are uncomfortable. Williams is not a retired athlete, striving for relevance. She married a wealthy tech founder of Uber and accumulated her generational wealth, but in recent years she has gained more recognition, with the affluent aesthetics of Silicon Valley and the aesthetics of well-planned trade and trade families, a shocking change in the people once defined by rebellion.

As a black woman in the eyes of the public, Williams has been facing scrutiny of her body, her muscles, her bending, her clothing choices-the white peers who review her rarely endure in volume and scale. Chris Evert wrote her An open letter to visit Doubt about her promise. Cash shot Announced that she was washed (In 2007!).

That grim history helps explain why many of her fans are in a friendly space Shadow Room Review With a compassionate response, acknowledging the hormonal struggles she described and the impossible double bonds she lived in: instantly a legend who redefines beauty and strength, and a woman who relentlessly regulates her body to make her great. But there are others who lament the disappearance of the muscle body she once defended and suspect that she is reinventing herself and her brand to fit into traditional molds.

For obese or diabetics, GLP-1 drugs may change lives. But they also emphasize weird inequality. Wealthy Americans spend thousands of stop snacks a month. But pharmacy supplies and insurance companies refuse coverage. For critics, the charm of the practice that Williams once refuted about the lives of these hierarchies only deepens inequality. Williams’ greatness in court is any reliable dispute. But her embrace of GLP-1 culture reminds you that even the most unshakable legend There is a choice, and in a society obsessed with shrinking, even our icons are gone.