Commentary from NPR's Alicia Montgomery
http://www.npr.org/blogs/tellmemore/2009/12/tiger_woods_and_white_girls.html
In a column titled "Tiger's Validation Complex," Robinson asked "What's with the whole Barbie thing?" He offered a thoughtful argument about what the champion golfer's taste in girlfriends -- old-school Barbie hair, proportions, and (yes) skin color -- might say about his character.
I appreciated the Montgomery's point about the position 'the alleged girls on the side' have in this Tiger saga. Truly there is a different focus and a different level of consideration given to the women in the tale and then to Tiger. Beyond any formal news story, I have not once heard their names (besides Tiger's wife Elin) mentioned. "They" are always mentioned as if Tiger had a stash of them in his home office or something. So, in essence, Tiger is the individual in this tale while they ladies are a mythical entity that constitute his extramarital affair.
Robinson's article makes an interesting observation about Tiger's preferences in women, but he also prolongs the practice of stereotyping and depersonalizing which is too often utilized in these sex scandals. The Barbie thing reduces those women to types rather than people and it further incriminates any woman who is tall and blond as being a devious adultress. I certainly am not defending Mattel for creating such an ingrained model for beauty (I take great issue with stereotyping beauty too), but I will call to attention this habit we have gotten into with objectifying the woma(e)n in these scandals. It's just a product of how our culture thinks about sex and popular people.
I'd also like to propose a thought experiment for this particular scandal to help make my point. What would happen, if Annika Sorenson, one of the most notable faces in the LPGA tour were to have been in this very same situation as Tiger Woods. What would all of the editorials have said about the "males on the side". What 'type' would they have been? It's true that Tiger Woods is an extremely powerful figure and that he naturally garners more attention and is more recognizable than any other person male or female on the planet, but this does not change the fact that we view these sexual transgressions much differently if it is a male than if it is a female in the spotlight.
To even further make my point, anyone who reads this should google image 'male athlete' and 'female athlete' for a true indication of what typifies each.