You might have noticed that Tiger Woods has been actively trying to rehabilitate his reputation. He used to be an advertising money-machine, but that was before he became the marketing equivalent of radio-active waste. Even so, lots of people have a vested financial interest in Tiger Woods. The PGA wants to market him again - since he is the only media-relevant golfer on the Tour. Advertisers remember the market footprint that Tiger once possessed. But his negatives are extraordinary. What is Tiger to do?
To begin with, he presents himself in a stable relationship with a new girlfriend in a carefully staged media campaign. Call this the campaign to recapture female trust. No more bad Tiger chasing anything with female genitalia. He has learned the lesson of faithfulness. Or so the story goes. This is interesting in itself because there are two contradictory thoughts about the ongoing consequences of the scandal that are commonly expressed by Tiger's self-proclaimed apologists. "He has suffered enough" quickly followed by "It's a private matter."
But mostly we are supposed to see Tiger winning - under the theory that "Winning takes care of everything." This is the "Forget the Sex scandal and focus on how great I am" campaign. This allows Tiger to change the subject. Instead of talking about his latest golf failure and the causal relationship of that failure to Tiger's sex scandal, we can talk about his latest 30-foot putt for Birdie to win. That was supposed to be the case tonight. We were supposed to be hearing claims that "Tiger is back!" But he lost at Augusta. Good. I hope he keeps losing.
The problem with Tiger's rehabilitation is that it is intended to address only the consequences that he himself suffered. His exposure. His humiliation. His damaged reputation. His financial loss. More than anything, his collapsed golf game. It's more an exercise in reclamation than rehabilitation. But it doesn't address the cost he inflicted on those whom he betrayed and humiliated - his ex-wife and children. What is he doing to provide restitution to them? He inflicted permanent cost by virtue of his behavior. He is attempting to escape permanent consequence by saying "Enough time has passed. Let me be restored." If it's only about him, then it is nothing but a self-interested attempt to restore himself to his previous position.
Tiger has become the self-proclaimed poster boy for the trivialization of adultery and sexual betrayal. It's supposed to be a private matter now. People are just supposed to 'get over it.' And if you tell this to one of Tiger's apologists, he will quickly point out that Tiger's ex-wife is doing quite well, thank you. But not everyone who is so betrayed is so fortunate. Many are humiliated and abandoned and remaindered to a life of loneliness and isolation and financial deprivation. They have no advocate. They have no court of justice. There is no one to vindicate the wrong that has been inflicted upon them. It's a private matter now. They are just told to 'get over it.' Every woman so treated looks at Tiger as the icon of the man who betrayed her. And they want him to suffer as they have suffered. But now we are poised to re-admit him to the world of responsible money-making adulthood. We are poised to bury the betrayal in an unmarked grave. And what does that say to the betrayed?
Anyways, he won't be re-admitted tonight. He lost again.
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