Buy Or Don’t Buy

(I’m probably going to sound like one of those lame men’s rights groups in this post, but try to imagine me looking more like (:-/ and less like >:-o when you picture me reading it aloud.)

I’m going to assume that everyone knows the Tiger Woods story right now. If you don’t, read this right here. If you do, skip ahead and read this right here.

The interesting thing about this story (unless it turns out that Elin Nordegren really did rescue her husband from a deadly fire hydrant in the most stupendous way possible, in which case I apologize) is that it’s a good test case for how the media treats (again, alleged) instances of female-on-male domestic violence. How did they step up? Let’s see:

From The Daily Mirror:

It’s rumoured the club [Elin] had in her hand was a 9-iron - now she’ll be looking for a wedge.

Tiger is just 6-4 with Paddy Power to have separated from Elin by this time next year, 5-1 to be divorced, and 20-1 to be married to someone else.

It’s 1-2 for the medical report to show Tiger’s injuries were consistent with assault and 6-4 for a road traffic accident to be listed as the cause.

You can get 11-10 that no charges are pressed, and 1-100 that none of Tiger’s trousers are pressed.

And The Huffington Post’s headline to this story:

TEXTS HAVE TIGER BY THE TAIL

And Metro had this handy sidebar:

FOR THE WIVES:

So the man in your life has been chasing the wrong kind of birdies and a smack around the chops with a golf club is just what the doctor ordered. But, which club to use? Here’s Metro’s handy guide:

1-Wood: There are some lovely drivers out there with a massive sweet spot. You can hardly miss his two-timing carcass with this, but be warned — it’ll do some damage. Just remember to stay in bounds.

3-Iron: Only advanced wives should use this. A badly swung 3-iron can cause a nasty slice on a ball. And nobody likes to see that.

Pitching wedge: A sharper-angled club face delivers subtlety and spin. Maximum damage, minimum effort.

Putter: Lethal from short range. Bawling “In The Hole!” as you take aim makes it even more fun.

Classy!

Obviously this was not the same reaction people had when Chris Brown beat up Rihanna. You can point to the infidelity angle being a part of that, but only to a point: Even if Rihanna had been cheating on Brown with Taj Mowry, no one in their right mind would have ever considered printing an article suggesting the best ways to assault a woman while you’re driving.

It’s no secret that people treat violence against men differently than they do violence against women. But the sheer amount of glee at what happened to Tiger Woods, frankly, shocks and surprises me.

My stance is: It shouldn’t matter if the victim is a man or a woman, or if they were faithful or not. Domestic violence is domestic violence. Fellow BODBers, please feel free to disagree and call me a thin-skinned whiner in the comments. In the meantime, I will put on my funny-person hat and think of other things to write.