Accusations of golddigging

[Travis]

This is something I first started mulling a couple weeks ago. At the time one of my favorite MLB players, pitcher Matt Cain, was just about to complete a perfect game. On TV they started cutting away to his wife as she stood in the stands trying to look composed as her husband came closer and closer to one of the rarest feats in sports.

Later, after he does in fact pitch a perfect game, I go online to rub this in the face of some Dodger fan friends (don't worry its all done playfully ) and noticed that all over the internet guys (I presume) were constantly commenting on what a looker the wife was. Now that is rather eyeball rolling itself because seriously that's what you are talking about when something that's only happened 21 times before is about to happen? Only for the inevitable "yeah that's what $120 million will buy you." response to be thrown up.

Really? It couldn't be anything else?

This got my mind going on how often I see this kind of accusation thrown around on the internet. It's as if in the eyes of many the only way a beautiful woman ends up with any man that isn't a handsome movie star is because of $$$. And this rather bothers me.

Am I alone in thinking that this is a rather inappropriate thing to just be throwing around casually?

 

[MG1962]

Undoubtedly some women do marry purely for gold digging reasons.

However, remember 120 million dollars buys a lot of beauty products, treatment, exercise routines and clothes. It would be interesting to see how 'hot' some of these women look 10 minutes after they get out of bed in the morning

 

[tyr_13]

You're not alone. While golddiggers do indeed exist and target athletes, it's unfair and fallacious to say, 'therefore, that wife is a gold digger'. It ignores a whole host of other possibilities and often is just so much crying sour grapes. This is especially true when she obviously shares his passion for baseball.

 

[Careyp74]

Surely a golddigger who marries an athlete will be on the edge of her seat, watching him about the throw a perfect game, solely in the hopes of reaping the added income that such a feat will bring.

 

[Brainster]

I don't think there's any doubt that sports stars have always tended to have beautiful wives; think Joe DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe, for example. Of course, this applied even back when sports stars weren't all that wealthy. But I would imagine by now that the average sports star has, on average, a much prettier wife than the average sports star of the 1950s. But you know how it is, it's the man who gets to do the choosing in those situations, so it could also be argued that it's Cain doing the "beauty-digging".

ETA: After writing this I googled Matt Cain's wife and looked at the images. I would have to say that while she does a pretty good job with what she's got, she's not a knockout.

 

[Travis]

If this thread turns into an argument over which athlete wives actually are hot or not I might just need to devise a whole new eyerolling smilie.

Anyways I find the whole thing presumptuous on a massive scale. And this is not to be confined to athletes. I see this kind of accusation whenever a man seems to have a beautiful wife and he isn't necessarily obviously poor.

 

[Polaris]

If this thread turns into an argument over which athlete wives actually are hot or not I might just need to devise a whole new eyerolling smilie.

Anyways I find the whole thing presumptuous on a massive scale. And this is not to be confined to athletes. I see this kind of accusation whenever a man seems to have a beautiful wife and he isn't necessarily obviously poor.

For that one they'd have to roll back into the skull al a Last Crusade.

I'm with Brainster on this - it's not that they're gold-digging, it's that the man is doing the choosing because he has more options to go with his high earnings.

 

[Howie Felterbush]

For that one they'd have to roll back into the skull al a Last Crusade.

I'm with Brainster on this - it's not that they're gold-digging, it's that the man is doing the choosing because he has more options to go with his high earnings.

Isn't it the same thing, really?

He's got more money, and therefore he has more choices because of the money, because more women would want to marry a rich dude, which is basically gold-digging on the women's part.

Right? Or not?

 

[Smackety]

I would like to see an example of an old, fat, ugly, POOR guy with a young, beautiful model for a wife.

 

[TragicMonkey]

Anyways I find the whole thing presumptuous on a massive scale. And this is not to be confined to athletes. I see this kind of accusation whenever a man seems to have a beautiful wife and he isn't necessarily obviously poor.

And it goes triple for gay men if their significant other is younger and hotter. They never stop to think maybe he likes him not for his money, but because he's got mad sexual skills.

 

[AvalonXQ]

However, remember 120 million dollars buys a lot of beauty products, treatment, exercise routines and clothes.

This was my first thought, too.

If I were a multi-millionaire, would I have a hotter spouse? Yes, because my spouse and I would do things that take money to make ourselves look more attractive.

 

[Newtons Bit]

Isn't it the same thing, really?

He's got more money, and therefore he has more choices because of the money, because more women would want to marry a rich dude, which is basically gold-digging on the women's part.

Right? Or not?

Athletic, rich and famous are attractive...

 

[Loss Leader]

If women are attracted to someone who is a strong provider, and men are attracted to someone who is aesthetically pleasing, I'm not sure what the problem is. If they want to get together, let them. Now, if Cain's wife honestly did not love him, I'd be a little angry. But if she didn't love him, she probably wouldn't have been at the game.


ETA: Okay, I googled them. Matt Cain and his wife are exactly the same level of hotness.

 

[Hercules Rockefeller]

But I've heard that sometimes they *gasp* are a couple before the man gets rich and famous!?!?

 

[Polaris]

If women are attracted to someone who is a strong provider, and men are attracted to someone who is aesthetically pleasing, I'm not sure what the problem is. If they want to get together, let them. Now, if Cain's wife honestly did not love him, I'd be a little angry. But if she didn't love him, she probably wouldn't have been at the game.


ETA: Okay, I googled them. Matt Cain and his wife are exactly the same level of hotness.

I don't think anybody is saying they shouldn't be together. When it all boils down I think the majority of emotion when it comes to the thread title is sour grapes. "She's only with him for his money" usually means, "she'd be with me if I had his money" or "I'd be with him if I had the looks to attract his money."

 

[Polaris]

Isn't it the same thing, really?

He's got more money, and therefore he has more choices because of the money, because more women would want to marry a rich dude, which is basically gold-digging on the women's part.

Right? Or not?

I don't think it's always a conscious thing, as blatant as "I'm going to marry a rich man or bust!" That's full-throttle gold-digging. I think it's more complicated.

Picture high end club with a doorman. The women are generally going there to dance, but the men are there for the women. The guy who has money has access to, say, the VIP lounge and can be showy enough to order a bottle of Grey Goose and have them leave it. If he invites a girl up and she accepts, it's most likely going to be because she's possibly never been in the VIP lounge and this is her chance, he's providing something exciting and new - she didn't go to him because he's got money exactly, she went to him because of the options his money bought, rather than a guy on the dance floor who had to sacrifice something else during the week to scrape the cover together.

 

[Beerina]

You're not alone. While golddiggers do indeed exist and target athletes, it's unfair and fallacious to say, 'therefore, that wife is a gold digger'. It ignores a whole host of other possibilities and often is just so much crying sour grapes. This is especially true when she obviously shares his passion for baseball.

Success is sexy, and not just in a gold-digging way. While the attitude, "I can fall in love with a rich man as easily as a poor one, so I might as well limit it to the rich" is a bit suspect, it can also be true.

I would like to have the problem of having to decide if this or that woman loved me (including success factor) or was a complete, lying golddigger.

 

[Travis]

But I've heard that sometimes they *gasp* are a couple before the man gets rich and famous!?!?

In a number of cases this is actually true.

I don't think anybody is saying they shouldn't be together. When it all boils down I think the majority of emotion when it comes to the thread title is sour grapes. "She's only with him for his money" usually means, "she'd be with me if I had his money" or "I'd be with him if I had the looks to attract his money."

Exactly. When you know nothing about the couple making this statement is uncalled for.

Yes I know some couples are together for exactly this reason and so long as everyone is on the level about it I guess I have no right to complain. But that isn't what this is about. It's about couples that are together for many complex reasons of attraction that are being labeled as such unfairly.

I know I would be pretty pissed if I got rich and famous and then people accused my significant other of being a golddigger when I met her before any of that happened.

 

[Brainster]

I know I would be pretty pissed if I got rich and famous and then people accused my significant other of being a golddigger when I met her before any of that happened.

Okay, so obvious question: Did Cain marry his wife before he became rich and famous?

 

[Joey McGee]

I consider these kinds of statements to appear as low-hanging fruit to the reward-starved, socially inept brain. They can't help but make the comment any more than I can resist a flawlessly-made mojito.