14 DAY TRIAL // Whoopi Goldberg is under serious fire right now for a series of comments she made the other day on The View, while discussing the case of ESPN’s Stephen A. Smith, who was fired after he went on air and said that women should stop provoking men into hitting them. That’s because Whoopi is in total agreement with Smith.
The controversy began when Smith went on air to talk about the Baltimore Ravens’ running back Ray Rice, who hit his wife after she started hitting him. Smith said that Rice’s gesture was shameful, but at the same time, understandable because his wife had hit him first, so he just responded to violence with violence, it wasn’t like he had instigated it.
The topic came out on The View, and as the panel of co-hosts looked on somewhat in shock, Whoopi proceeded to defend Smith by elaborating on the idea that women should not provoke men to domestic violence.
Video of this segment of the episode is embedded below.
Whoopi’s point is that women should never hit men unless they want a taste of their own medicine. The other ladies on The View are of the exact opposite opinion: no man should hit a woman “unless his life is in jeopardy,” as Jenny McCarthy says.
Men and women are not equal in strength, she argues, so even if a man is hit by a woman, it would not be fair to the woman for him to retaliate in the same way.
Whoopi says the opposite: no one should hit anyone, she stresses, but if you’re a woman and you do hit a man, don’t act surprised if he returns the punch or slap or kick, or whatever it was you gave him.
“Don’t be surprised if you hit a man, he hits you back,” she says. “If you make the choice as a woman who is 4’3″ and you decide to hit a guy who is 6 foot tall and you’re the last thing you want he wants to deal with that day and he hits you back, you cannot be surprised.”
“I know I’m going to catch a lot of hell, and I don’t care. But you have to teach women, do not live with this idea that men have this chivalry thing still with them, don’t assume that that is still in place,” Whoopi says.
At the same time, women “should learn” that it’s never ok to hit people, whether they’re female or male, she adds.
As we speak, controversy on the issue is still raging on. From what we could find online, including in the comments sections, it seems that men are siding with Whoopi, with some even saying that they would hit a woman if she hit them first, while the women are with the other ladies on the show, in saying that men should never get violent no matter what.
Where do you stand on this issue? Let us know in the comments section below.
