Wit & Attitude Quote by Anna Kournikova

Kournikova’s line lands like a feint: it starts inside the stereotype so it can pivot out of it. In the late-’90s and early-2000s spotlight, she wasn’t just a tennis player; she was a media object, packaged through hair color, camera angles, and a blunt hierarchy of “brains” versus “beauty.” By naming “the world” as the believer, she spreads the blame across tabloids, advertisers, locker-room chatter, and the audience itself. It’s a sly indictment disguised as small talk.

The structure matters. “The world believes” is sweeping on purpose, because the stereotype is sweeping: it’s not an individual insult, it’s a default setting. The binary “blondes are stupid and brunettes are smarter” exposes how arbitrary the logic is. Intelligence becomes a dye job, a cosmetic toggle. That’s the joke, and the sting: a culture so eager to rank women will do it with the laziest available signal.

Then she underplays the rebuttal: “Well, I disagree.” No manifesto, no data, no dramatic speech. The minimalism is strategic. It refuses the burden of proof that’s always placed on women who are stereotyped; she doesn’t audition for credibility on the stereotype’s terms. It also reads like an athlete’s mindset: you don’t argue in the press room, you compete on the court.

Subtext: she’s not only defending herself. She’s pointing out that the entire conversation is rigged, and that she knows exactly how she’s being read before she even speaks. The power move is making that reading visible.