Monday, December 21, 2009

What's Long and Thin and Curves to the Right?

I don't follow golf. I don't know anything about Tiger Woods. I get all my news online and I haven't once clicked on a story about his Grand Debacle. That makes me qualified to comment on it, no?

I've heard people say that they feel betrayed by Mr. Woods because he said that family was most important to him, and his numerous extramarital affairs proved that to be a farce.

But is it? He might have slept around, but he didn't give up his marriage easily. When his wife found out about his girlfriends and hit him in the face with a golf club, he tried to blame it on a car accident. He gave her $5M to stay in the marriage. Surely he is just as concerned about his marriage as he always seemed to be.

Okay, he slept around. There seem to be two types of men: those who get caught and those who don't get caught. Don't hit the keys too fast: I'm joking. And women commit infidelities too. But come on: studies have shown that over half the population does it. Mr. Woods spent a lot of time on the road; he's movie star handsome, adorable and rich; celebrity is a powerful incitement to narcissism: it's not surprising that he got more than your average shmo.

What bugs me is the hypocricy of it all. While Bill Clinton was being impeached over a blow job it was widely known that his predecessor, George Bush Sr., was in a long-term relationship with a woman other than his wife. There wasn't any interest in ensuring that politicians keep it in their pants. All the interest was in finding out where he put the cigar.

No, there seem to be two things going on. One is voyeurism: when someone gets caught there's an opportunity to dig into their privates. Second, it's like those guys who are homophobic because they can't come to terms with their own interest in men (I don't know if these guys exist but they show up in movies quite a bit). You get to condemn the sinner, secure in the knowledge that everyone's attention is on the celebrity sinner, and nobody's looking at you.

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6 comments:

Jim Parrett said...

Can't say I feel sorry for anyone in the Tiger affair. I should I suppose something for the wife but it's all about the money for everyone, especially the media. It lets them pretend they have morals and ethics. They do not. Neither does Tiger nor his mistresses. The only people making money off this thing are the mistresses and Tiger's wife But mostly the media. Everybody cheats, despite what the media tells us. The biggest cheaters are those in the media.

Anonymous said...

What's Long and Thin and Curves to the Right? A dingle?

Yappa said...

The answer of course is the 401 between Toronto and Montreal. ;-)

Bert said...

OK, I'll bite. Where did you hear that George Bush Sr. had an affair ?. I googled a bit and the first hit was The Democratic Underground. The next was a gossip site, and the next was a quaint site called The Uncyclopedia. Give me something concrete like CNN or ABC or something, but not any of those that I've mentioned.

Yappa said...

Re GB Sr, I haven't looked it up recently, but it wasn't Democratic dirt. It was just the opposite: the Democrats knew about it but chose not to make a scandal out of it. As they should.

Bert said...

If GB Sr. did have an affair, they I agree. It should have been brought out into the open. Affairs are wrong. Period.

I think making statements like that (it was widely known that his predecessor, George Bush Sr., was in a long-term relationship with a woman other than his wife) without collaborating evidence, isn't right, on BOTH sides of the political spectrum.