Is This Societal Evolution?

It Takes Two To Play


I have been watching the whole Tiger Woods drama with a mixture of humor and apathy over the last two weeks. I really don't feel for the guy, nor do I think all of the media hype surrounding him is all that justified. It appears to be more of a feeding frenzy by the media and the public to get a bird's eye view of how the mighty have fallen.

One of the issues that has kept bugging me about this whole sordid affair is that most women who have made comments regarding the actions of Mr. Woods seem to state that he got what was coming to him, and that he deserves to be dragged through the mud. While I am not here to defend Tiger in any way shape or form (I blogged my views about him a week ago). There does seem to be a bit of a lop-sided media slant to this whole story.

As of this writing, there are 10 to 11 women that have come forward and laid claim to having bedded down Mr. Woods. Everyone from bar hostesses, to escorts, to reality TV stars to porn stars have raised their hand and screamed into a microphone, "I was one!".

Yet there appears to be no media attention directed toward 'their' indiscretions. These women knew he was married and also knew he had children and they also KNEW he had gobs and gobs of money. I don't think any of them have come forward with the lame story of, "I thought he was going to leave his wife and marry me!". They knew what they were doing, and they knew it was immoral. But they had no reservations about tempting him, seducing him and then bragging about it in the media.

But these women are left unscathed, and the public is 'instructed' to scold Mr. Woods for his inability to control his libido.

It takes two people to have an affair and there should be blame on both for not knowing or caring about the situation of the other.

My wife and I have been engrossed in the AMC television series "Mad Men" for the past couple of months. The series is set in the early 1960s in New York City. One of the reasons I find the show fascinating is the spot-on set design and social behavior of the period that the producers of the show strive for. Having grown up in the 60s, I recall all of this.

In the early 1960s, men were EXPECTED to have affairs and it was considered the job of the women to be the first line of defense in shaming other 'loose' women from seducing the hapless men in the world.

John F. Kennedy had numerous affairs, but it was the women that he dallied with who were scorned, shunned and silenced (some say Marilyn Monroe was even killed), because they soiled the reputation of 'good' women by sleeping with JFK. In essence, to be a woman was to be pure and forthright, and loose women dragged society into the gutter. Those men...well, they just can't help themselves.

I don't seem to recall anyone tearing down Wilt Chamberlain in the 1970s when it became known that he had slept with over 10,000 women during his NBA career and fathered countless illegitimate children.

But now, the pendulem has swung the other way and the women are almost held up on pedestals as having been 'victims' of Mr. Woods, when in reality they are loose, immoral, gold-diggers looking for a big paycheck. What I would like to see, is each one of these media 'whores' go on camera and apologize to Elin Woods for having seduced and screwed her husband and shamed their children.....but I doubt that is going to happen.

If blame is to be shared equally here, Tiger only has 1/12 of it to bare. Am I the only one that sees it this way or do I just live on a different planet?