by Furry Girl
02.19.10
"What is most shocking to people is not that a man, a ridiculously rich celebrity, cheated on his wife, it's that he had at least 13 mistresses! Two of these women were porn actresses, one of whom, Joslyn James, claims to have had a 3 year love affair with Tiger and two pregnancies. Directly after the Tiger Woods press conference, she and lawyer Gloria Allred pointed out that Tiger's apology -- to wife, friends, family, business partners, and fans -- was incomplete. What about the women he used and threw to the curb? Tiger demanded that James give up her career in adult entertainment because he couldn't stand the thought of her with another man. He pursued this woman, manipulated her to give up her independent income to be solely his for three years, promising her all kinds of things, including his love. Many on the blogs are making out that this porn star, Allred, and the other women are the real exploiters. I disagree. Tiger's privilege as an elite male allows him a legitimacy that these women do not have. As sex workers and mistresses they are cast as deviants, while he just made some bad mistakes. He is able to use the proper womanhood of his married wife to further stigmatize the women he cheated with (Elin is a victim and these women were just asking for trouble), and to hide behind some ridiculous claim that he is sick -- with a sex addiction -- and therefore is a victim of his own behavior as well. We should all feel sorry. I dont."
-- Mireille Miller-Young, quoted Abiola Abrams' Tiger Woods' apology statement and video: 25 Top sex and relationship writers and performers react.
I live under a rock when it comes to celebrity stuff, so this was the first full article I've read about the Tiger Woods scandal. I hadn't been aware that sex workers were among his mistresses. Woods is hardly alone in having pressured a woman to quit sex work for him out of jealousy, but, I suppose, is now one of the most famous to pull that old douchebag move.
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Furry Girl: a good time not yet had by all.
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Yeah, it's wrong to push people to do what they don't want to do. But is pushing someone to quit sex work worse than, say, pushing someone to have a kid they don't want? Worse than pushing someone to take on a bigger mortgage so Junior can go to a better school? Worse than pushing someone to lose weight when they don't want to lose weight?
People weigh their options and do what they think is best. When they have limited options, they do the same. Whether it's blowing the President, making a bad movie so you can make a good movie afterwards, marrying a guy you disrespect to get his money, or acting in a porn film because it's better than the alternatives, people make their cost-benefit analyses and act accordingly.
When people don't think they're getting enough in return for acceding to someone's "pressure," they walk.
Being unfairly disrespected because you're a sex worker doesn't automatically make you a victim.
Comment by marty klein — February 19, 2010 @ 11:30 pm