Tiger Woods is blasted as ‘misogynistic’, ‘tone-deaf’ and ‘disrespectful’ by women’s empowerment group as backlash over him giving Justin Thomas a tampon at Genesis Invitational continues
Tiger Woods have faced a barrage of criticism, and now outraged a women’s group, following a practical joke between he and Justin Thomas, wherein he gave his friend a tampon.
The 15-time major champion outdrove Thomas on the ninth hole at the Genesis Invitational – his first PGA Tour event in seven months – and summarily slipped him a tampon as a joke.
Many have flooded social media defending Woods’ gesture as nothing more than a inside gag between the pair.
While others have been quick to slam the act, with one female empowerment group predictably outraged by the public act.
‘Tiger’s tampon moment was not only misogynistic but also tone-deaf and straight-up disrespectful to women and girls all over the world,’ Kara Sugar – CEO of Women’s Global Empowerment Fund – said, via TMZ.
The 15-time major winner cheekily handed Thomas a tampon during the opening round in CA.
She then queried if he was implying ‘periods are embarrassing or shameful or a sign of weakness?’
Woods offered an apology following the furor at a press conference Friday.
‘It was supposed to be all fun and games,’ he said, ‘but obviously it hasn’t turned out that way and if I offended anybody that was not the case.
‘It was just friends having fun. As I said, if I offended anyone in any way shape or form, I’m sorry. It was not intended to be that way.
‘We play pranks on one another all the time and virally I think that this did not come across that way but between us it was different.’
Golf influencer Paige Spiranac jumped to the defense of Woods amid the anger directed at the 47-year-old, speaking to the ‘hypocrisy’ of certain women.
Both Woods & Thomas saw the funny side of the joke, which came after he outdrove the latter
Paige Spiranac took to Twitter to defend Tiger Woods amid the backlash of his tampon joke
Spiranac posted her initial defense of Woods by saying that he should not be canceled
‘If anyone tries to cancel Tiger over this we riot. It’s funny,’ Spiranac wrote on Twitter Thursday.
‘It’s interesting to see women outraged by Tiger slipping JT a tampon after out driving him but those same women will quickly tear me down for how I’ve decided to build my business. You can’t pick and choose when to be a feminist.’
Replying to another tweet, Spiranac added: ‘Women say sexist s*** to men (and other women) all the time but are too self involved to see the hypocrisy.’
The influencer highlighted a ‘hypocrisy’ behind some who had criticized Tiger Woods