Tiger Woods’s Tampon Prank Was No Laughing Matter

Everybody loves a joke, but a joke shouldn’t energize sexism that has haunted women for generations.

As a man seasoned in the banter of the all-male worlds of sports locker rooms, barbershops and men’s grills, I know what happens when men tease each other in the comfort of their own cocoons. The jokes can sometimes be tasteless, offensive, racist and sexist.

Tiger Woods is comfortable in this world. On Friday, the 15-time major champion offered an explanation as to why he slipped a tampon to Justin Thomas after outdriving him during the first round of the Genesis Invitational. In doing so, he displayed little of the self-awareness expected of a person who has experienced his personal journey and achieved such lofty stature.

“If I offended anyone in any shape or form, I’m sorry, he said. “It was friends having fun. We play pranks on one another all the time.”

Seldom, if ever, have tampons been used as a prop to demonstrate a golfer’s dominance over another player in driving distance. Yet props can be used as powerful symbols of oppression, and they have been very important in promulgating racism and sexism in both American history and Woods’s golf career.

At the 1997 Masters, Fuzzy Zoeller saddled Woods with images of fried chicken and collard greens. Zoeller thought he was having fun with friends, blurting a joke that he’d probably repeated many times before. Then there was the time in 2008 when Woods was dominating golf and Kelly Tilghman, the former Golf Channel commentator, suggested that his competitors lynch him in a back alley to stop his reign of dominance. For many, Tilghman’s statements evoked a period at the beginning of the 20th Century when Black men were often lynched daily for no other crime than the color of their skin.

A tampon is a very useful low cost and portable prop to exploit many stereotypes about women. Woods seemed to give Thomas the tampon because his driving performance was reminiscent of the weaker sex. In his mind, he is more of a man than his 29-year-old protégé from Kentucky because he was the longer hitter. Playful or not, this is the kind of mindset that once limited women’s rights to participate in certain roles in the military and in organized sports. For generations, menstrual cycles have been a source of shame and discrimination for women in the workplace.

Woods doesn’t need a women’s studies class at Stanford to know what he did was wrong. He has a 15-year-old daughter. There are many women who work in his businesses. He likely knows hundreds of women who have regular periods and use tampons. As a Black man in America, he understands how people can form opinions about him that are mostly based on stereotypes and racism. To give him a pass now simply because he says he meant no harm is inconsiderate to the generations of women who fought for equal rights in this country.

Just as importantly, Woods has to know the power of his words and actions. Two years ago, Thomas lost a lucrative deal with Ralph Lauren for using an anti-gay slur during a tournament. Woods has to be a role model for Thomas and future generations of players, on and off the course. The way he socializes with his golf buddies is his business. Everybody loves a joke, but the jokes shouldn’t energize sexism that has suppressed the ambitions of millions of women.