The Assault That Dare Not Speak Its Name

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I don’t follow golf much; good lord, who cares?  I mean, if I played, it’d be one thing – I am my family’s only male non-golfer, so far – but I don’t. And so while I know Tiger Woods is the shiznit when it comes to golfers, I can’t say as I much care. 

And so my reactions to his domestic travails ranged from “gee, a superstar with no sense of consequences, how friggin’ shocking” to “Oh, no, crazy billionaires with cars”.

But there was one other angle; the bit about Elin Nordegren allegedly attacking Woods, and eventually beating his car with a golf club.

No news flash here; domestic abuse is a bad thing…

…unless it’s aimed at a guy, when it apparently turns into comedy gold:

On Saturday night’s episode, the NBC sketch comedy show made light of Tiger Woods’ scandalous week, satirizing reports – denied by the golfer – that his wife, Elin Nordegren, attacked him prior to his early-morning car accident on November 27 with a sketch featuring Keenan Thomson and host Blake Lively.

So what was the controversy? 

However, the show’s musical guest was Rihanna – a victim of domestic violence earlier this year from then-boyfriend Chris Brown — prompting concerns from several media outlets that the show’s humor was insensitive from some corners.

Insensitive to Rihanna?  Perhaps – although the incident opened a can of legal whoopass on Brown that his career might not survive, not that that’ll make anyone but Brown especially upset.

But what about Woods? 

“It was another sketch that gave us pause,” noted PopEater in an article titled “‘SNL’ Lampoons Alleged Violence in Tiger Woods’ Marriage,” on Sunday. “We think, had the genders been reversed, ‘SNL’ wouldn’t make light of the potentially violent situation.”

Er, d’ya think?

Society observes a cancerous double standard; domestic violence against women is a serious crime – while violence against men is treated with all the solemnity of Ma Kettle whacking Pa Kettle with a rolling pin. If Nordegren had, for whatever reason, had an affair – or even alleged affairs with (ahem) six people, it would have been equally narcissistic – and if Woods had scratched up her ace, or attacked her car with a golf club, that would have been the story, and everyone from the local cops to all the morning zoo idiots around the country who’ve been tittering at Woods’ predicament (and social life) would be singing a much more serious tune.  Saturday Night Live would find nothing funny about a putter bent around Elin Nordegren’s head.

It’s politically incorrect to observe that women are just as violent as men are – but it’s the truth:

Several studies of domestic violence have suggested that males and females in relationships have an equal likelihood of acting out physical aggression, although differing in tactics and potential for causing injury (e.g., women assailants will more likely throw something, slap, kick, bite, or punch their partner, or hit them with an object, while males will more likely beat up their partners, and choke or strangle them).

Of course, men are considered guilty until proven innocent when it comes to domestic violence – and while I don’t know whether there are grounds to accuse Elin Nordegren of violence, it wouldn’t matter; violence against men is devalued so systematically as to be a freebie.

13 thoughts on “The Assault That Dare Not Speak Its Name”

  1. Women keep using that word, “equality.”

    I do not think it means what they think it means.

    .

  2. If it’s wrong to encourage domestic violence against the perpetrator of adultery, I don’t want to be right. Hopefully the perception that she beat the **** out of him–whether or not it’s actually true–gets some religion into other celebrities who think that the availability of groupies means they should access them. (we forget too quickly that adultery is historically a capital crime, or at least justification for divorce)

    And I don’t make light of domestic violence; I’ve seen it up close, and it’s devastating. In cases like this….

  3. Personally, as an unreconstructed sexist pig, I’m kind of pleased to see any vestige of the double standard still in force.

  4. Silly Berg. Next thing you’ll be saying that children of divorce shouldn’t automatically be given to the mother.

  5. Haha! Mitch thinks it’s all serious when some athlete gets his ass kicked by a lady. Substitute soccer for golf, and Tiger’s just a living Andy Capp cartoon. To Angryclown, that’s a laff riot.

    Next he’ll want to send Leroy Lockhorn to one of them dude encounter groups where they sit around banging drums and talking about their feelings.

  9. Mitch, I completely agree with you that domestic violence against men is just as wrong and bad and illegal as domestic violence against women. Men are in the doubly unfair situation that they get hurt if they don’t defend themselves, and they are acused of violence if they do something in their own defense.

    Men tend to have greater physical strength, especially upper body strength, and also men have statistically done more of the battering of women. But who knows how many men really are attacked by a spouse or partner; I doubt that many men are willing to come forward to report it. Heck, we know that often women don’t report it either.

    Making fun of the situation will more likely discourage either gender from doing something about abuse.

    The SNL bit was in bad taste and offensive.

    There are legal remedies for dealing with adultry, and last I heard, Mrs. Woods was using this as an opportunity to renegotiate the prenup as a condition of not divorcing him. Which is likely to cost Woods dearly, and hurt him more and forlonger in his bank account than any damage she could do with a 3 iron or a driver.

    (I don’t enjoy playing golf either, LOL.)

  10. In the years of bad taste humor, only after SNL starts poking the left’s guy, President Obama, do folks start considering SNL going too far.

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