Texas A&M’s women’s basketball coach, Sydney Carter, responded to some of the criticism she received concerning her courtside outfits. She defended her ability to dress as she pleases – noting that she has always remained professional — and highlighted her confidence.
“People are not secure with their own confidence. My confidence offended people — I’m not sure why — but at the end of the day, I can’t worry about that. I wake up, and I’m happy with myself, and to this day, I’m not apologizing for who I am because I was raised this way,” she told Angela Yee in an interview last week.
“It surprised me because, at the end of the day, I was just doing my job. I can’t help that I’m curvy. I can’t help that I like to dress a certain way and I’ve never been inappropriate. So, of course, to me, that’s surprising because it’s like, ‘What did I do wrong?’” Carter added.
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For the past few years, Carter has been the target of comments concerning her appearance during games. She addressed them in 2022 after she received criticism for wearing patent pink patent leather pants and a turtleneck during one of her team’s games. Carter highlighted that the comments she received were made in reaction to seeing a Black woman like herself in a position of power.
“I just think that people are uncomfortable with a Black woman being in a power position,” she told Yahoo in February 2022. “When you see a Black woman who is actually confident and embracing herself, I think that that’s very intimidating.”
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“You hear so many times that people don’t want to watch women play basketball because there’s too many that look manly, or they play like a guy or don’t play enough like guys,” Carter added.
“Women can never satisfy anybody in any aspect of life. Just as a woman, it’s hard enough. It’s hard enough that we’re not paid the same or that people think that we can’t do some of the same things or something as well as men in a male-dominated industry.”
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At the time, Carter received support from both fans and A&M’s basketball team.
