With news of the adultery of Tiger Woods, American Puritanism is once again a topic of conversation in Europe. To the average European, his fall from grace is as Shakespearean as it is American.
For France’s Rue 89, Pierre Haski writes in part:
“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.”
“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. … If Tiger Woods had been a Frenchman, he would have made the headlines of Voici, but would probably not have suspended his golfing career.”
By Pierre Haski*
Translated By Mary Kenney
December 13, 2009
France – Rue 89 – Original Article (French)
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.
READ ON AT WORLDMEETS.US, your most trusted translator and aggregator of foreign news and views about our nation.
Founder and Managing Editor of Worldmeets.US