A Few Words from “An Advocate of Sarah Palin and Her Principles”

Time is the most valuable commodity on a campaign and you just can't waste it thinking about how to choose your words carefully or get your job done more diplomatically. If someone isn't in tears every day, that day wasn't all it could be advancing the campaign. I once witnessed an experienced (big) man slap a professional female colleague across the face over an ad buy... and no one thought anything of it, starting with the woman. In fact, she would have been insulted if anyone told her she should have been insulted. Mary Matalin CNN 11/18/09

Yes, you read that correctly.

Mary Matalin believes a man physically chastising a female colleague is business as usual among the high-powered, tough-minded, hell-for-leather sophisticates running a national presidential campaign. And we’re quickly reassured by her that the woman in question would have been “insulted if anyone told her she should have been insulted.”

To be fair, I can believe the woman in question would have been insulted by someone telling her she should be insulted after being struck by a co-worker. If in the course of a national political campaign, a male colleague slapped me, and someone who witnessed it hastened to instruct me to be insulted, yes, I would consider that advice an insult to my intelligence. “No Shit, Sherlock,” might be my first response as I rubbed my cheek and mentally toted up the attorneys I could call.

Somehow, the excuse that the guy just didn’t have time not to slap me wouldn’t go over very well. Nor would I be impressed by hearing someone talking about it as though it were merely a breach of diplomacy or tact, akin to choosing the wrong words.

It would have nothing to do with hurting my feelings. It would have nothing to do with whether or not being struck made me cry. It wouldn’t even be entirely a matter of what that slap said about the stability or common sense of the male colleague, and whether or not this kind of behavior would escalate in the future.

It would have everything to do with the need to set firm limits when you’re a woman working in what was previously an all male preserve. I’m reminded of an anecdote I once heard about a black man back in the ‘70s who, as the one African American in a previously all white office, objected to being called “boy” by his white boss. “You don’t see me constantly reminding the people around me that I’m a grown man,” said the boss.

“You don’t have to,” retorted his black employee.

A woman who puts up with being physically attacked in the workplace, even if it’s just a slap in the face, is not being a “good sport.” She’s not being wunnathaboys or tough, or savvy, or stoic.

She’s being a fool.