Tiger Woods. Mega-celeb-silver-spoon-athlete-commercial-endorsement-filthy-rich-mogul-with-sex-drive-addiction-issues. Cheats on wife, rather flamboyantly. Divorce. Huge settlement. Totally predictable course of events, and I don't really care.
Ah, but then we have
Facebook.
So here's what happened. A friend posts fairly neutral, "Tiger pays $750 million in divorce settlement...wow."
Comments start flying in.
Content of comments get my attention. Suggesting she should be killed? Really?
If anyone really thinks that there are not still deep,
patriarchal, dominant-culture,
oppressive attitudes that keep women (and countless other groups) down in this country, I have more evidence to the contrary (not that there isn't
tons and
tons documented out there) and these attitudes aren't coming from some of the
usual suspects...they are coming from people I went to high school with - a young, sub/urban hip and
supposedly enlightened group of Gen
Xers - diverse in gender, ethnicity, color, and class.
Holy crap we are screwed. Here's a few:
From a woman:
That's why they say "its cheaper to keep her"!!
From a man:
You know all your lady friends on facebook are gonna like this lol
From a man:
QUITE SURE HE COULD GET HER "ORENTHAL JAMES-ED" FOR ABOUT $75OO FROM SOMEONE IN THE SOUTH BRONX...
Same guy:
...THAT BROAD AIN'T DID SHIT TO BE PUTTIN HER LIPS TOGETHER TO ASK FOR NO F****N $750 MIL!!! GET D FUCKATTA HERE!!!!!!!!!! SHE USED TO BE A NANNY DOG, C'MON SON!!!!
From a woman:
...she should not be allowed to get nearly as much as she is, he got where he is because of him, she didnt help him get that money, poor guy. i understand he cheated but thats insane to have to give her all that money, stingy bitch. lol
Instead of people reacting to this disturbing sum, like, "wow that dude is rich" because he is able to pay this enormous amount as part of a settlement with little trouble, people jump on the chance to ridicule, blame, and judge the female player in all this.
This is sexism at some of its simplest, and some of it is disturbingly pro-violence and
victim-blaming. against women (the one guy alludes, tactlessly, to an OJ-scenario!)
Back to the female player - the wife. That he had children with. That entered into a 'deal' with him. He messed up the deal really badly and pretty much made a fool of himself, not to mention the risks he put his wife at with his wandering wang. He pays. Simple. Why should anyone care where she came from, what she did.
It's gross to imagine this scenario with the gender reversed. If Tiger were female, and she, as a top-grossing famous athlete that cheated on her hubby, agreed to pay out to her ex-husband, in a highly publicized scandalous divorce settlement, people would be happy for the husband and call her the bitch, and say it's just, that he deserves every penny.
So why, then, isn't Tiger getting this response? Because he's got a penis. And his behavior is expected and excused, because 'it's what men do'. And even when women are the victims of men's stupid behavior, they get to be called bitches, stingy, and basically worthless.
Awesome.
