New GQ Cover Featuring Serena Williams Has Ignited Controversy For Its Typography—But There's An Explanation

American fashion designer Virgil Abloh "loves" to put random words in quotes. It's sort of his "thing". This time it didn't work out so well.

Tennis great Serena Williams appeared on the cover of GQ Magazine as part of a series of three other covers showcasing Jonah Hill, Henry Golding, and Michael B. Jordan for GQ's "Man of the Year" awards. For the Williams cover, they crossed out the word man and added woman. Nothing wrong with that, except woman is "woman" and that has some folks questioning the use of quotation marks.

GQ

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GQ

And then for Willams this—

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Some felt the quotes around woman are problematic considering the targeted abuse and body shaming both Serena and her sister Venus Williams have endured over the years.

Some felt there was a reasonable explanation.

Here are some examples of the quote usage.

Okay, that makes more sense.

But still...

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GQ

Then things got deep.

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Hey, GQ, you may want to hire this guy.

Ultimately, though people just love Serena and feel protective of her.

Just don't mess with Serena and all will be fine.

H/T: Twitter Moment, GQ