People I Do Not Understand: Gloria Allred & Joslyn James
Tiger Woods had barely regained consciousness in November and Ms. Allred was already on retainer by at least one of the alleged mistresses, Rachel Uchitel. This morning she was hand holding yet another alleged mistress, Joslyn James, at a press conference denouncing Tiger Woods carefully crafted public statement as a "Staged Stunt." Pot meet Kettle, everyone's wearing the new black I see.
According to Ms. Allred's website she is " the most famous woman attorney practicing law in the nation today, a tireless and successful advocate whose high-profile legal battles on behalf of victims whose rights have been violated have led to many landmark precedent-setting court decisions and hundreds of millions of dollars which she has won for her clients." I don't doubt it. I'm sure she's done all kinds of good in her years as a lawyer and her firm's website touts a list of cases won with which most of us are familiar, including the Nicole Brown Simpson case of yore. So, I wouldn't dare to question her street cred. She's got that in spades.
© Reuters
However, I fail to understand where feminist case law is to be made by representing these women. This morning former porn starlette Joslyn James was sobbing before the assembled press about how she couldn't help falling in love with Woods, whom she has previously asserted impregnated her twice during their relationship, and bemoaning his failure to publicly apologize to her personally in his statement. Really? I have to ask who deserves the apology and feminist legal representation more - Joslyn James or Elin Woods?
All of these women knew that Woods was a married man. They knew who he was when they hooked up with him. He's the most famous athlete in the world and his photo, and that of his lovely bride, were everywhere before he got caught for being the world's most famous Lothario. This isn't the kind of situation where girl meets John Doe at a bar, who claims to be single, hooks up with him and starts an affair only to find out he's got a wife and 6 kids back in the 'burbs. These women knowingly engaged in consensual sexual relationships with a married mega-star, and now they want an apology and hire legal counsel to get it? Sorry, this I do not understand in the slightest. All of these women owe Elin an apology and themselves a lot of soul searching.
Wood's statement this morning was neither all that surprising, or frankly, all that warranted. He doesn't owe us an apology for his behaviour. Maybe he owes his sponsors an apology for failing to live up to the reputation they paid him to convey, but that doesn't need to be public. He probably owes his mother an apology for embarrassing the hell out of her, but that doesn't need to be public. He definitely owes his wife an apology, and I'm guessing he'll be making at least one a day for the rest of their marriage. Again, that doesn't need to be public either.
Granted, it would be a gentlemanly thing to apologize to these women for treating them like sex objects, and my guess is that part of his 12 step program will include some form of amends to them. Rumors have it that Rachel Uchitel has gotten $1 million in hush money amends already. However none of these apologies need to be public. None of them require press conferences, and none of them require the purported greatest feminist lawyer in the United States to get them.
To my mind this is one of the classic cases in which everyone involved should be ashamed of themselves and apologize for dragging all of us into this melodrama.
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crazypants
Boanerges1
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Comments
ok ... fine ... I'll read it.
and I'm going to kick your ass on Monday morning with my green tea & lemon bourbon slushie ...
::slap::
::slap::
I would never mess with Gloria but she does pick some weird cases. However, her impecable wardrobe, make-up and haircuts keep me too busy staring and wondering, it always gets me off track. I mean, I want to get irritated but then....god, where did she get that great suit?!
You're right, why the hell go public...just take your money and run.
I suppose she is an entitled as the next bimbo, but she doesn't have much leverage now.
I feel like I have a li$p doing thi$!
Gloria Allred is an opportunistic, publicity seeking ambulance chaser. She's been a risible fixture in the tabloid media, first as a local L.A. media personality in the '70s. Her "representation" of Woods' mistresses involves brokering book deals or other pending media offers. Woods' mistresses can have no legitimate cause of action against him and nobody's prosecuting or suing them. Allred isn't practicing any law in these situations.
I like this post. Rated.
You make yourself look silly.
How ridiculous to assert that there is too much publicity and media hype about this whole thing by writing a public blog about it.
I guess you really thumped me. I feel ashamed.
I wish I could hire an attorney for every time I didn't want to own up to my side of a big disaster and ask the world to pity me. Spare me. Unless there was coercion, there's nothing here but Allred window dressing and that's despicable.
It's called 'free will' baby. Their crying over their choices versus owning up to them.
weight loss pills and
OPI nail polish
and an extra ::slap:: incase 1IM missed.
Either way.. does it really matter? Media is supposed to make us educated and enlightened, not feel better or worse about some of our choices.
As for Gloria... geez... she should quit her day job. Ha!
Great post. Entertaining.
A REAL feminist doesn't blame the "other" woman when "her" husband screws another woman - as if her husband had no free will.
A REAL feminist doesn't play the "divide and conquer" game the patriarchy wants women to play.
Are YOU a REAL feminist, or a tool of men?
I believe that Allred has shown better judgment and feminist inclinations when she's taken on cases like that of Hunter Tylo, who was fired by Aaron Spelling for being pregnant, or Mandi Hamlin, who was humiliated publicly when she forced to take off her nipple rings at an airport by the TSA. I believe that demanding apologies for a woman who willingly dated a married man isn't furthering the cause of women in this country, and I ain't afraid to say it. If that makes me "a tool of men", then so be it. I'd rather be called that than to live by the creedo that being a woman means I have to support every woman regardless of their behaviour just because they are women.
Until this all happened I didn't know Tiger was married - because I only know enough about golf and celebutainment to know who Tiger Woods is but not the facts of his life. After this all came out I read that the women met him in nightclubs that pimp the young hotties who frequent the clubs to their rich clients - which they call "whales" to denote how "big" they are.
Virtually every heterosexual woman has been one one side or the other of the wife-whore line. Which side you fall on depends on marital status ONLY because both women has sex with a married man.
I still say it's a "divide and conquer" game that all women lose by playing. The wife got a huge $$$ payout and I don't hear you calling her a whore.
Gloria Allred first made her reputation getting compensation for Lee Marvin's mistress when he tried to renege on his promise to her - the first time "palimony" became law. It's notable that this instance has been left off of Allred's Wikipedia entry.
By the way, REAL feminists don't call women names like "skank" or "whore" or "slut" or "bitch" just for being sexually active.
By the way, REAL feminists don't call women names like "skank" or "whore" or "slut" or "bitch" just for being sexually active.
As far as I can tell you're the only one who has brought that language into this discussion. Nowhere in my post did I apply any of those terms to those women.
I think real women blame the husband for his actions, not the "other woman."
So, are you saying that women who intentionally engage in an adulterous relationship are not responsible for their own actions and do not deserve some of the blame for an affair? That seems to imply that these women are all "tools of men."
1_Irritated_Mother said she wants to "slug that bitch in the mouth."
Nick Carraway called her a bimbo.
Ablonde called Allred a slut.
I can't count the number of people, including you, who used the $ a bit too freely when talking about this. As if the wife didn't get a bit of it herself.
I guess it's okay for people who AGREE with you to use those words, but if people DISAGREE you get all offended.
In the bad-old pre-feminist days it was said that the wife was responsible for her husband's adultery. Now it's blamed on the non-wife. When are we going to reach a level of enlightenment where we blame the man - if indeed we need to blame anyone - for his adultery?
After all it's Tiger who made a promise to be faithful to Elin. Joselyn didn't make any such pledge. Even Tiger admitted he alone was responsible for his actions. He didn't say Joselyn forced him to have sex - or Joselyn made a promise to Elin. So why do you want to blame Joselyn?
In addition nowhere in this post did I lay blame, so when you say YOU, I presume you're talking to me. I asserted that she (Joslyn) is responsible for her own actions and that she doesn't get to demand public apologies when her own behaviour is culpable. Solely blaming the man for the adultery is tantamount to claiming that these women have no freewill and no ability to make decisions about their own behaviour. That I find that kind of assertion to be belittling.
To be precise, I didn't call anyone a bimbo but rather said that I supposed that Ms. James was as entitled to a payoff as the next bimbo.
However, that may be a distinction without a difference because I did make the association between Ms. James and being paid off for having sexual relations with a celebrity. I suppose that would make her a call girl or blackmailer.
And this Gloria Allred, whose claim to fame, according to you, is getting compensation for women who are sexually intimate with celebrities without benefit of a contract, cash in advance, or a marriage certificate, compensation in the form of MONEY.
I suppose that puts Ms Allred, the feminist, in roughly the same position as a pimp. Collecting a commission for sexual favors. But, of course, in a dignified manner that is privileged by law. Since she is also a lawyer.
As long as we are involved in equal opportunity blame, how about blaming Elin for neglecting her husbands sexual appetites. I am frankly shocked regarding the extent to which married women tend to feel that they have a right to sexual exclusivity without exercising that right sufficiently to keep their man satisfied. A real feminist is good in bed. A real feminist is feminine, no?
Actually, I have no idea what a real feminist is or isn't. I suppose being a decent human being might be a start. Or maybe I am hopelessly confused.
And runaway - what the fuck are you even talking about? If you want to talk about the feminist aspect of this post, then you should respond to what was actually said: However, I fail to understand where feminist case law is to be made by representing these women. You think these gals are going to set some legal precedent - that they should set some legal precedent - because, what, they slept with a married man who got caught?
Furthermore, surly didn't proclaim that she's a feminist in this post, simply that Allred proclaims she is one - preferably when there are camera bulbs and money flying in her face.
You're failure to pin this only on the man shows much more about your thought process than surly's.
Specifically, I meant you, IAmSurly, plus all the commenters who also rushed to judgment against Allred and the women she is representing.
It didn't become personal, IAmSurly, until you took the YOU to be second person singular. And then decided to (1) defend other comments plus (2) defend your own.
I apologize for assuming you were a feminist, but in my defense the OpenSalon people also assumed you were an authority on feminism, hence the title they gave to your post, "Gloria Allred's questionable feminism." You merely implied you were qualified to dispute Allred's "feminist case law," whatever that is.
Don't worry - the other commenters are also defending their right to call the women names.
Each person is responsible for his/her actions, but not responsible for other people's actions. Get it?
The women didn't force Tiger to commit adultery and they didn't "betray" Elin. Tiger was the one who promised to be faithful to Elin when he married her (assuming they used some version of the standard vows). These women made no promises to Elin and thus did not betray her.
Get it? No one is off the hook. Everyone is a "sinner." I just think the "blame the girlfriends" talk has gone too far, especially here where people are also attacking a lawyer for defending her clients - which is her job.
No ? If your morality is faulty, then your logic must be spurious,applies.
If the mistresses had kids by the guy and this could be proven, they'd probably be entitled to child support.
Used to be that you could sue for "seduction," but you'd have to prove that 1.) you were an innocent little thing beforehand, 2.) you didn't know the guy was married, and 3.) your future marriage/financial prospects had been ruined.
Uh, yeah.
Yeesh.
he's the numero uno athlete in the world, big moneymaker, young, great looking. why not? every other fucking athlete on the planet is a dog. why shouldn't he be a dog too? no one's complaining he ass raped them like everyone's OTHER fave athlete did. you remember, the guy who bought his very heartbroken wife a BIG ass diamond ring and she didn't divorce him and everything worked out okay and life is good and the world forgives.
maybe next week someone will tell the darker stories cause frankly if all he did was fuck, I'm shrugging to the tune of "who cares".
We all know feminism is multi-dimensional.
Lobbying for making pole-dancing an Olympic sport, defending the socially victimized Crystal Mangum, and helping pornstar victims of Tiger Woods' predations are ALL manifestations of the many-petalled flower that is feminism today.
As Eve Ensler has recently said, we all have a "girl cell" inside of us.
Let it flourish, Tracy, flourish and grow, and then, maybe, you will see feminism take hold here in the US.
Thanks, Gloria Allred!
You have helped a victim of patriarchal oppression tell her story, and that is all that counts.
To the haters who ascribe financial motives to Gloria - shame on you!
She is helping women everywhere - from the struggling Caucasian female Harvard MBA executive who can't make more than $500,000/year to the mutilated Sudanese widow who is prostituting herself for stray handsful of millet for survival.
They are both sisters in the fight for victory over male oppression.
To the writer that correctly pointed out that Veronica Siwik-Daniels owes over $10,000 in child support - shame on you! Women don't owe child support, MEN do!
Calling this victim a "bitch", a "slut", etc. is proof positive feminism has a long way to go in this country. Shame on your haters, too.
You are making the path to recovery so hard for this tender victim. She deserves better from her sisters in oppression.