Georgie Bingham: Tiger and tampongate. Storm in a teacup or an affront to women?
Tiger Woods of the United States prepares to present the trophy to Jon Rahm of Spain after putting in to win The Genesis Invitational at Riviera Country Club on February 19, 2023 in Pacific Palisades, California. (Photo by Michael Owens/Getty Images).
Now I know what you’re thinking - us women get upset by everything these days. Men can’t have fun at all; boys can’t be boys, what is the world coming to? When I heard about Tiger, JT and the tampon I sighed - how immature.
How stupid. My first thought was haven’t we got bigger things to be up in arms about? When it comes to the belittling of women, I’m more worried about my sisters in Iran, leading the fight against an authoritarian regime, the women left behind under a brutal Taliban regime in Afghanistan, the trafficking of women and girls, the glorification of violence toward and the subservience of women by dickheads like Andrew Tate - THESE are big issues for women these days.
“This joke done in private would make anyone cringe, yet, here he is, sharing a private moment of disrespect to women publicly. Very very poor taste. Not funny, effing infuriating.”
But the longer I thought the more sad I became about this, because I don’t want to be mad at Tiger Woods; I love Tiger Woods. But his little gag with his good mate JT is a real wrong ‘un, and here’s why; actually there’s a number of reasons. The biggest is that his little joke reflects badly on him and his attitude towards women. He hasn’t learned. Anyone who’s been done in the court of public opinion for disrespecting their wife OR exhibiting a super casual attitude toward women that’s not considered respectful (OR BOTH) should be humble, learn about everyday AND incidental sexism and try really hard to understand why it’s important and then never exhibit that attitude again. This joke done in private would make anyone cringe, yet, here he is, sharing a private moment of disrespect to women publicly. Very very poor taste. Not funny, effing infuriating.
Secondly - the Teflon Tiger thing. Too many people willing to simply sweep this under the carpet because it’s Tiger and we love him. Golf needs Tiger. The “oh it’s just a joke, cmon” and “god you need to lighten up” is facilitating a form of misogny that says, even on the jokiest level that being a woman is a weakness. All bullshit should be called out. I call bullshit on people who think this isn’t worth discussing.
“ I call bullshit on people who think this isn’t worth discussing.”
Finally - the irony of this - a tampon - as a sign of weakness. Women bleed once a month and yet we don’t just survive, we thrive. We are incredible creatures; because we bleed we are capable of creating a perfect environment for a foetus to grow and to bring life into the world and you know why ALL OF THESE THINGS FALL TO US? Because men were given penises which makes them incapable of growing up. GROW UP.
