The Passion of Tiger Woods

by Starn, Orin

• ISBN13: 9780822352105
• ISBN10: 0822352109
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2011-12-12
• Publisher: Duke Univ Pr

Summary

Perhaps the best golfer ever, Tiger Woods rocketed to the top of a once whites-only sport. Endorsements made him a global brand and the world's richest athlete. The child of a multiracial marriage-with a father of white, black, and Native American descent and a mother who is part Dutch, as well as Chinese and Thai-Woods and his blond, blue-eyed wife, Elin Nordegren, seemed to represent a new postracial America. Then, in late 2009, Woods became embroiled in a sex scandal, as more than a dozen women recounted trysts with the married superstar. The anthropologist Orin Starn considers Tigergate in relation to the usual narrative of celebrity scandals, those ritualized, media-driven dramas that open with the first breathless reporting of celebrity transgression and end with a solemn public apology from the politician, entertainer, or athlete accused of wrongdoing. Each scandal has its own twists. Before Tigergate, scrutiny of Woods's mixed-race heritage had seemed to wane with each major tournament victory. The revelations of his infidelities renewed attention to his skin color. The Passion of Tiger Woodsoffers new perspectives on race and sex, scandal and betrayal, Woods and the mythology surrounding him, and golf and its place in U.S. society. It is required reading for all those interested in the high-stakes world of professional sports and the celebrity-obsessed, media-saturated culture of early-twenty-first-century America.