By Andrea Scarpino
Los Angeles
I want to start with a disclaimer: I don’t know anything about Tiger Woods. I don’t own a television and am pretty sure I’ve never watched a golf game in my life. I barely understand the rules of miniature golf. Before the events of the past couple weeks, I’m not sure I would have recognized Tiger Woods if he were standing next to me at the grocery store. But when a series of white women start appearing on the news saying they’ve had an affair with a man of Color, I start to get suspicious.
Woods has, of course, admitted to infidelity, and for that fact, I feel very bad for his wife.
But I also wonder why woman after woman has come forward in this public way, at this moment in time. Since some of the alleged liaisons go back years, clearly at least some of the women with whom Woods had affairs could have said something publicly much earlier than the previous three weeks. So why now, all of a sudden, hire an attorney and start making public statements to gossip magazines? Why now, disclose text messages and other sordid details of your affair? There’s something in this public outing for each woman, or they wouldn’t be coming forward in this way. Is it just the prospect of fame or financial gain, a book deal down the road or television appearances?
That may be part of it, but I wonder if it also doesn’t have something to do with Woods’ race. White America likes to see a Black man falter, after all, and the fact that his alleged mistresses to date have all been white weighs heavily on the complex and conflicted history white women and Black men have shared in the United States for hundreds of years. Black men have been lynched, remember, for even being suspected of wanting a relationship with a white woman. White women have felt betrayed as Black men were granted access to the patriarchy. I can’t help but wonder how this long and fraught history is playing out in the public’s fascination of Wood’s downfall, or how it may be weighing somewhere deep in the minds of the women who are coming forward.
Are these women excited by the possibility of being involved in this taking-down of a successful and wealthy man of Color? Americans like to watch a Black man “put in his place.” Especially by a white woman. Especially through sex. Are his former mistresses playing into that? Do they see this moment as their opportunity to wield one of the only powers they have, the power of their sexuality?
Again, I don’t know anything at all about Tiger Woods or his wife or what may or have happened in their relationship. But I hope that we’re interested because of something far less sinister than our historically fraught race relations—love of gossip, maybe, love of seeing our heroes fail, demonstrate their weaknesses. And I would like to believe the women coming forward now are only doing so out of a desire for fame or financial gain. But in the United States, doesn’t race inform everything? Even the moments we choose to remain silent and the moments we choose publicity? Even infidelity?
Andrea Scarpino is the west coast Bureau Chief for POTB. You can visit her at:
While I don't know these women, and there are so many, I think they had many different motives. Some probably want their 15 minutes of fame. Some were outed by others and want to set the record straight. I think a big part of most is that he seemed to be telling each one of them that they were the only one, he married his wife for public image, it wasn't a real relationship. Basically a variation of "my wife doesn't understand me". So I think many of them were angry to find out they weren't the only one and he was lying to them too. Being the woman scorned is a powerful motive. I think their motives were more personal than racist.
Posted by: laura | December 21, 2009 at 09:09 AM