Tiger Woods has been slammed as ‘misogynist’, ‘deaf’ and ‘disrespectful’ by the women’s empowerment group – while backlash for giving Justin Thomas a tampon at the Genesis Invitational continues
Tiger Woods has faced a barrage of criticism and has now outraged a women’s group after he joked with Justin Thomas that he gave his boyfriend a tampon.
The 15-time major champion passed Thomas on the ninth hole at the Genesis Invitational – his first PGA Tour event in seven months – and slipped him a tampon for fun.
Many have taken to social media and defended Woods’ gesture as nothing more than an inside joke between the two.
While others were quick to criticize the act, one female empowerment group was outraged by the public act.
“Tiger’s tampon moment was not only misogynistic, but also non-musical and disrespectful to women and girls around the world,” Kara Sugar, CEO of the Women’s Global Empowerment Fund, told TMZ.
The 15-time Major winner presented a tampon to Justin Thomas during the opening round in CA.
She then asked if he was implying, “periods are embarrassing or shameful or a sign of weakness?”.
Woods apologized at a news conference Friday after the uproar.
“It was just meant to be fun and games,” he said, “but obviously it didn’t turn out that way and if I offended anyone, it didn’t.
“It was just friends having fun. Like I said, if I’ve offended anyone in any way, I’m sorry. It was not intended that way.
“We play pranks on each other all the time and virally I don’t think it came across that way, but it was different between us.”
Golf influencer Paige Spiranac jumped into Woods’ defense amid anger at the 47-year-old, speaking out about the “hypocrisy” of certain women.
“If anyone tries to fire Tiger over this, we will riot. It’s funny,” Spiranac wrote on Twitter on Thursday.
“It’s interesting to see how women are outraged that Tiger slips a tampon to JT after driving him, but those same women will be quick to put me down for deciding to build my business. You don’t get to choose when you’re a feminist.”
In response to another tweet, Spiranac added, “Women say sexist s*** to men (and other women) all the time, but are too self-centered to see the hypocrisy.”
Both Woods and Thomas saw a funny side to the joke, which came after he overtook the latter
Paige Spiranac took to Twitter to defend Tiger Woods amid backlash over his tampon joke
Spiranac released her initial defense of Woods, saying he shouldn’t be called off
The influencer highlighted a “hypocrisy” behind some who had criticized Tiger Woods