Our Insatiable Appetite for Celebrity “Transgressions”

The Tiger Woods fiasco is literally getting worse by the minute.  The tally keeps rising and now golf is left without its superstar “indefinitely.”  It’s without a doubt a tragedy for all involved.  But what bothers me more than Tiger’s “transgressions” is our insatiable thirst for them; our collective salivation triggered by celebrity suffering.

Yes, it’s certainly very hard to sympathize with Tiger in light of what he’s done.  His current predicament is a self-inflicted wound.  But why is this anybody’s business?  We often forget that celebrities and their families are real people that face many of the same hardships as everyone else.  I don’t think what Woods and his family are going through is any less painful just because of who they are.  The difference between someone like Tiger and someone like me is only relative.  I highly doubt that, in the midst of all of this, Tiger is thinking to himself, “Well, at least I’m still Tiger Woods.”

The lack of privacy here is stunning.  It can’t be justifiable just because Tiger is who he is and did what he did – I’m not sure that Tiger’s wife is any less humiliated by all of the coverage than Tiger himself.  Not to mention that he does have children who will be old enough one day to understand all of this.  And let me be clear: it makes little sense to blame the media entirely, although it’s inevitable that Tiger and others will.  The media only provides what’s in demand.  If people turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to these types of stories, then coverage of them would dwindle.  But considering the sheer magnitude of the coverage of this story, I suppose this appetite is human nature.