The
infidelity of Tiger: After giving golf tips to a president,
his
fall from grace is as Shakespearian as it is American.
Rue 89, France
Tiger Woods' Fall
from Grace: Only in America
"There
is something very American about this psychodrama in which a private matter
brings down an icon who has done nothing to discredit himself in the domain
that made him famous: golf. … Sport loses, but morality doesn't really gain."
Rachel Uchitel, one of the thirteen women who are now thought to have had adulterous affairs with Tiger Woods, has gone public, along with a number of others.
It is the fall of an icon,
and, more surprising to the French side of the Atlantic, the end of an immense
sporting career because of conjugal infidelities (with a capital “I”). It's Tiger
Woods, the ideal Black-American son-in-law before the sudden emergence of
Barack Obama, the greatest professional golfer in history and also the richest
(he's the first billionaire in sport, according to Forbes Magazine), who
has announced that he's suspending his career indefinitely, after a cascade of
revelations about his personal life.
The affair goes well beyond
the celebrity headlines of American newspapers, because Tiger Woods, propelled to the rank of “role model,” was offered as an example of success to the world's
young people - a man of African, Asiatic, Native American and European origins
who is a success in a "White" sport. Everything positive that has
ever been put forward about Obama had already been said about Tiger Woods!
THOSE WHO PRAISED WOODS TEAR HIM DOWN
His fall has all the hallmarks
of a TV series: an accident in luxury car in the middle of a November night in
a posh Florida neighborhood - and everything follows from there. The private
life of the golfer, married to Swedish model Elin Nordegren with whom he has had
two children, has been exposed: mistresses at every stop of the professional
golf circuit, eleven by the last count of the American press …
And, as always, those who lionized
the athlete at the height of his glory are piling on now that he's down. Tiger
Woods is the object of lowbrow jokes on TV talk shows and American Web sites,
or even morality lessons by popular editorialists.
For Slate.com, not exactly a conservative Web site,
Tiger Woods is “the bastard of the year,” while the Huffington Post is
trying assiduously to explain the violence that ripped the spirit of the
golfer’s wife, when she realized that her fairy tale was a tragic farce.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
The
infidelity of Tiger Woods: Now immortalized in games,
videos
and publications of all kinds.
There's already a video game [screen
grab above] depicting his wife, the pursuer, with golf club in hand - an
allusion to what might have happened the night of the accident, when his wife
is suspected of having wanted to strike him with a golf club when she
discovered his unfaithfulness. Cyber-surfers assume the role of Tiger Woods.
AN AMERICAN PHENOMENON?
There is certainly something
very American about this psychodrama, in which a private matter brings down
from his pedestal an icon who, nonetheless, has done nothing to discredit
himself in the domain that made him famous: golf. In just a single blow, a lie
to his wife becomes a lie to all of his fans, his public, and his worshipers,
who are no longer willing to tolerate the slightest flaw in the perfect statue
that had been shaped by the communicators, by the sponsors, by the media.
And it was without the least
bit of reticence that Tiger Woods, on his official Web site, announced that
from now, he will devote himself to being “a better husband, a better father, a
better person.” That's touching, but how does this concern us? Why tell the
entire world?
Americans are fascinated by
the ease with which, on this side of the Atlantic, we so easily close our eyes
to accommodations with established morality - from the “two wives” of Francois
Mitterand, both present at his funeral, to the adulterous affairs of the
current president, and of course, without forgetting those of IMF chief
Dominique Strauss-Kahn, who felt the wind of the American Puritan cannonball
pass very close last year. If Tiger Woods had been a Frenchman, he would have
made the headlines of Voici, but
would probably not have suspended his golfing career.
Posted by WORLDMEETS.US
But in truth, the suspension
of Tiger Woods’ career owes little to morality and almost everything to reluctance
of his sponsors, who were beginning to distance themselves this figure who
yesterday was praised to the skies, and today is sulphurous. Sport loses, but
morality doesn't really gain.
