Tiger's Joke Wasn't Funny.

Apparently. A few words on Context, Intent and Wokeness

We live in an age when all of us love to be outraged by everything all the time, so let’s get this out there first thing:

Tiger Woods made a dumb joke.

It’s not supposed to be funny to surreptitiously slide a tampon into the hand of a playing partner, after you’ve out-driven him, thereby suggesting he hits the golf ball like a girl. Or whatever it was Woods was trying to suggest.

It’s not supposed to be cute to jock with a good friend, Justin Thomas, in that fashion. We will tell you what’s supposed to be funny, and what most certainly is not, and god help you if you don’t color within those lines.

“Basic misogyny to insult his good friend Thomas,’’ wrote Christine Brennan. Brennan, a sports columnist at USA Today, is a veteran arbiter of proper behavior and a practiced Outrage-ist from way back. This was low-hanging fruit for her.

Here’s the problem with being the Person Who Cries Outrage: At some point, people stop listening to you. When you have something important to say, your words lose their punch. Outrage is best served selectively.

If I ripped, say, Phil Castellini every day for a month, at some point, you’d stop paying attention. There goes Doc again.

More Brennan:

Does hearing about Tiger’s tampon trick mean a young female athlete coming out of college won’t try golf? When the biggest name in the sport’s history is giddily spreading misogyny down the fairway, it might just confirm a woman’s suspicions about golf and send her to any one of the scores of other sports she can play.

To that, I offer this:

When Brennan suggests an aspiring female golfer might give up the game due to Woods’ Cro Magnon tampon joke, well, that’s more insulting than anything Woods could have done in the moment.

Does Christine Brennan actually believe female athletes are that delicate? Does she assume they’re so fragile that the stunt Woods pulled would devastate a young woman to the extent she’d give up a dream?

Who’s condescending to whom here?

Brennan twice used the word “misogyny’’ in her column. Misogyny is defined as a “hatred of women’’. By extension, any male who so much as chuckled at Woods’ knuckleheaded prank hates women. I’m sure all the world’s women will find that knowledge helpful.

It wasn’t just Brennan. Hordes of my former colleagues couldn’t wait to jump on the Outrage train. Writing knee-jerk, PC columns is easy to do. I’ve done more than a few myself. They’re not especially helpful or memorable. Most of them just reinforce the conventional public wisdom that journalists are a bunch of self-righteous know-it-alls.

For what it’s worth, I’m not unfamiliar with harmful words and gestures. If you’re a parent of a child with a disability, it comes with the territory. What I’ve learned over Jillian Daugherty’s 33 years is to gauge Context and Intent before setting Outrage records.

What was this person’s intent when referring to someone with Down syndrome as a “retard’’? What was the context?

Thirty years ago, it was probably simple ignorance. We had a friend who habitually referred to folks born with DS as “Mongoloid.’’ When I finally suggested that descriptive was as offensive to some as the N-word was to others, she fell over backwards apologizing. I accepted. Life goes on.

What was Woods’ intent? It was not to “insult’’ Justin Thomas. It was to have a little frat-house fun at Thomas’ expense. That was the context in which the incident should have been framed. Not that Tiger hates women.

I’m aware of the power of words and gestures. They create perceptions. Too often, perceptions become realities.

Two summers ago, I was “canceled’’ all over the world, for asking the tennis player Naomi Osaka how she squared her desire for privacy with her wish to advance social causes and prop Luis Vuitton, Nike, Body Armor etc. I was labeled a “bully’’ by her agent and received a couple thousand hate e-mails from all over the globe. Incredibly angry, uninformed, lacking context and pointless.

Gave “woke’’ a bad name.

Tiger Woods made a joke lots of people found offensive. He apologized. He knows, too, that if he says no more on the incident, the incident will fade quickly. The Outraged will find new outrage soon enough. That’s how the world works in 2023.