What is it with celebrities - or for that matter anyone - and their incessant need to commit "transgressions" (in the words of Tigers Woods) upon their respective spouses and/or boyfriends and girlfriends?
Is is really a need as opposed to simply "I don't give a fuck I can do whatever I want because I am so-and-so?" Or is it just another way of bolstering their own unconscious (flagging?) self-esteem to ensure oneself that EVERYONE LOVES ME or EVERYBODY WANTS ME?
Tiger Woods, perhaps golf's greatest athlete or the world's greatest athlete period has been thrust into the spotlight the last week-plus because of allegations that he cheated on his wife. And this is a surprise to anyone why? Obviously, it's not enough that he's a gazillionaire, it's not enough that he's won major golf tournaments that golfers can only salivate about and it's not enough that he's graced the covers of countless magazines and has enough endorsements to line the course at the Masters.
It's never enough for these celebrities. But for all their athleticism, for all their pleadings for privacy, blah blah blah, they still (a) are photographed in compromising situations with people other than their spouse; (b) commit technological suicide by sexting, texting, emailing, voice mailing, etc. to the people with whom they are cheating and pretty much set themselves up for a massive fall into the abyss where - drum roll, please - all celebrities fall because they are just plain dumb asses.
In this age of technology, transgressions, cheating, slutting around, or whatever you want to call it, are going to come back and haunt anyone in spades about a thousand times over. And the people with whom the celebrities are cheating? Ha, don't let that "I didn't know who he/she was when I was screwing them while they were hanging from my chandelier" ignorance fool you. Those texts, sexts, emails, voice mails and cell phone photographs are saved to flash drives and hidden away for future use. These "cheat-ees" (not the cheat-ers) are stacking the deck that someday they, too, will become famous for having fucked so and so.
Take Monica Lewinsky, for example. Unless you are from another planet, as soon as you hear her name you automatically think "she gave the President of the United States a blow job in the oval office." Yes, that is how I want to be thought of 24/7/365 when someone speaks my name.
Not.
Don't give me this oh, she was young and naive and innocent bullshit. She knew exactly what she was doing. My personal opinion - OK - eww - I'm sorry - there are just some things I will not put into my mouth and Bill Clinton's johnson is one of them. Yuck. I have to be reasonably or more attracted to someone (powerful or not) before that even happens).
But there are plenty of people willing and able to be on the receiving end of the transgressions no matter who the cheater is. Maybe it's me but aren't there about 75 million different sexually transmitted diseases running around our planet just waiting to hop on to someone? Nevermind the ones that probably haven't even been discovered yet! Gross.
Congratulations, Tiger. You've probably inherited a few new STDs and passed them along to your wife. That's disgusting. And frankly, I think the truth of the matter is (and I'm sure everyone else feels the same way) is that Elin Woods went after her husband with - no surprise again - a golf club. "Sources" claim that Woods was texting one of his "transgressions" right in his house and his wife bagged him. And now one of those transgressions has turned over an alleged voice mail from Tiger Woods begging her to remove her name from her phone because his wife was probably going to call her and - no surprise - rip her a new you know what. Or something like that.
Remember the movie Moonstruck? Cher, Nicholas Cage, Danny Aiello and Olympia Dukakis? Olympia played Cher's mother in the movie and she caught her husband cheating on her. And she set out to find out why men cheat. The living room scene where Olympia and Danny Aiello (who plays Johnny - Nicholas Cage's brother who can't do wrong to his mother) are sitting plays out something like this:
Olympia: Lemme ask you something Johnny. Why do men cheat?
Danny Aiello: Because they fear death.
I always thought that was hysterical because Olympia Dukakis agreed and she goes on to tell her husband that he's gonna die anyways so he needs to 'stop seeing that woman.'
If only it were that simple.
People cheat for different reasons. But when celebrities cheat, the entire world knows about it because of who they are. The media creates a firestorm and when celebrities like Tiger Woods admit to "transgressions" but don't outright admit the actual cheating and with whom, the media continues to whip its audience into a frenzy with speculations and of course, the "cheat-ees" who eventually surface with all the damaging evidence.
Cheating has nothing to do with death. It's a means to bolster one's ego, one's self-esteem because there is always someone else who will look at you in a different light (maybe not a very good light but a different one at best) and who will compliment you or tell you things that your husband or wife or girlfriend or boyfriend has failed to see or simply overlooked, who will treat you differently than everyone and who will at some point in time become your go-to when the world is closing in around you.
When you are a celebrity, everyone wants a piece of you in some way, shape or form. It's whether you are willing to give yourself up to that kind of life - or to those "transgressions" in order to retain your self-esteem, self-worth or integrity.
What is it with famous people or people with money that make them commit acts of infidelity and then have their lives plastered on the front pages of every tabloid, every online magazine and dot com news center? Is there really something lacking in their lives that they can actually find with someone who has nothing to do with their lives?
Perhaps THAT is the answer. Perhaps celebrities should have boyfriends or girlfriends not in the "business" - people who live in obscurity, single Moms or Dads who don't have money but who actually have integrity and character and self-worth and values. Perhaps those qualities are what celebrities are seeking out when they commit these "transgressions."
I'm not a believer in the grass is always greener in the other side. Whether you are a celebrity with that "I don't give a fuck attitude" or someone like me who does live in obscurity, is not famous in any way, shape or form but has committed my own share of transgressions in my life that really are of no interest to anyone and certainly not worth tabloid fodder, it's how strong a person is on the inside, or how strong his or her own self-esteem and self-worth really is that can determine how you deal with stardom or fame or having gobs of money at your disposal.
If you become successful and/or become extraordinarily good at a natural talent with which you were born, it's up to you how you pursue that talent and how you handle the notoriety that comes with it.
But don't think that you need to have everyone love you or fall all over you to make you any better than who you are. I know there are people that live for that kind of adoration and those tabloids and online dot coms fuel the fire of transgressions - whether sexual or not - day after day and those people live for that kind of fame.
But sooner or later the furor dies down and those people fade out of print until someone else comes along with new transgressions and new fuel for the fire.
Is it really worth it in the end? And if you have children, is it worth it for them to be subjected to these transgressions as well?
Tiger Woods' kids are gonna grow up and find out that their Daddy was a cheater (not on the golf course) and that their Mom went after him with a golf club as a result. Nice job, Woods. Thank you for probably contributing to the delinquency of minors of the future - your own kids.
And ditto for Monica Lewinsky. I can't imagine her having children because sooner or later her kid(s) would find out what she did and be the subject of ridicule. And I'm not inclined to think that a kid will want his Mom at his baseball game who is known as the Mom who once gave a blow job to a president of the United States, among other things.
Every kid has their limits. Perhaps celebrities should find those limits too.
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