Lemon, Woods, and Casual Sexism
Don Lemon and Tiger Woods show that we haven't come far enough, baby.
“It is better to keep your mouth closed and let people think you are a fool than to open it and remove all doubt.” - Attributed to Mark Twain
Tiger Woods didn’t open his mouth, but it was his poor attempt at humor that linked him with CNN anchor Don Lemon in engaging in foolish acts of misogyny.
Lemon was discussing Nikki Haley’s presidential bid with his two female co-workers on their show “CNN This Morning,” and proceeded to make a male chauvinist pig of himself.
He told Kaitlan Collins and Poppy Harlow:
“This whole talk about age makes me uncomfortable. I think it’s the wrong road to go down. She says people, you know, politicians are suddenly not in their prime. Nikki Haley isn’t in her prime. Sorry, when a woman is in her prime is in her 20s and 30s and maybe 40s.”
Doubling down, he added:
“Don’t shoot the messenger, I’m just saying what the facts are. Google it. Everybody at home, when is a woman in her prime? It says 20s, 30s and 40s… “I’m just saying Nikki Haley should be careful about saying that politicians are not in their prime, and they need to be in their prime when they serve. She would not be in her prime according to Google or whatever it is.”
Famed golfer Woods is playing in the Genesis Invitational, and after outdriving Justin Thomas on the ninth hole, they were walking away from the hole when Woods hands Thomas a feminine hygiene product, apparently indicating that Thomas was playing like “a girl.”
Both men should have been more focused on doing their job rather than making errant comments. Lemon lost his prime-time role months ago and needs to win over early morning viewers to remain a viable component of the network’s news coverage. Woods has been hobbled by injuries and surgeries after a serious auto accident, not to mention needing to help fans forget about the implosion of his marriage due to numerous extramarital affairs.
But no, they had to make sure that everyone knew what louts they were.
Lemon is fifty-six, so he’s surely well-removed from his prime. Why did he think he needed to make a big deal about Haley’s age. Moreover, one could make an exhaustive list of reasons why Haley is not a serious candidate without bringing age into the conversation.
Her age doesn’t disqualify or qualifies her for President. She will prove or disprove her candidacy by how she runs her campaign and how she is perceived by voters.
Given that our current president is eighty and his predecessor is seventy-six, Haley seems positively youthful at fifty-one.
As for Woods, his personal life helped to derail one of the greatest runs of success in American sports history. The resulting scandal, plus his medical problems, caused him to morph from the most successful golfer of his generation to at best, an often-average golfer.
Given his past, plus the fact that he has a daughter, one would have hoped that Woods would have a more enlightened view of women.
Perhaps not.
These two very public examples typify the challenges that women face. It doesn’t matter that the Vice President is female, as was the previous Speaker of the House. It doesn’t matter that we have self-made female billionaires like Oprah Winfrey and Rihanna.
Regardless of women’s achievements and limited societal advancements in recognizing their equality, some men still don’t get it.
And probably never will.
But perhaps Don Lemon and Tiger Woods will learn from these very public missteps and learn to regard women as more than the “weaker sex.”
One can only hope.