April 20, 2017

Breitbart's Ian Mason tells us that Sarah Palin believes Elizabeth Warren stole her intellectual property:

Exclusive–Sarah Palin Shreds Liz Warren for Ripping Off Her ‘Fight Like a Girl’ Quote

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) tweeted “fight like a girl” to her followers Tuesday. She later used the same phrase in an interview with National Public Radio promoting her new book.

The line may seem familiar. It was a popular catch-phrase of ... former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin.... when Governor Palin learned of Warren cribbing her line, she told Breitbart News, “I don’t know. Coming from liberals who urge women to claim victimization, ‘Fight like a girl’ just doesn’t sound the same as when legit fighters for equality say it, mean it, live it, and will never give it up.”

The basis for Palin's claim? She used it in 2011, according to Mason:

In more than a mere tweet, the self-described “hockey mom” belted the phrase out in front of the Wisconsin State Capitol in Madison, Wisconsin after thousands of public sector union members threatened to shut the state down....

... Palin used “fight like a girl” in the “Tea Party Spring” of 2011....

Fox News Insider follows up with a post titled "Sarah Palin Calls Out Elizabeth Warren for Stealing Her 'Fight Like a Girl' Line."

Palin was quick to point out that if the "fight like a girl" line seems familiar, it's because she said it first.

The former governor of Alaska used the line during a speech in Madison, Wisconsin, in 2011.

Really? Palin was the first person ever to say "Fight like a girl"? In 2011?

I don't think so. Here's a 2008 book by Lisa Bevere called Fight Like a Girl: The Power of Being a Woman. Here's a 2007 book by Megan Seely called Fight Like a Girl: How to Be a Fearless Feminist. Here's another 2007 book by Lori Hartman Gervasi called Fight Like a Girl...and Win: Defense Decisions for Women.

There have been several songs called "Fight Like a Girl," but one -- by Bomshel -- was released in 2009, two years before Palin went to Wisconsin.

The Fight Like a Girl Club and Fight Like a Girl Foundation support cancer awareness. They trademarked "Fight Like a Girl" in 2007.

And according to a 2007 New York Times story, "Fight Like a Girl" was also the slogan of a Toronto pillow-fighting league:

''We're not being all fluffy with ribbons and nighties,'' Ms. Zachariah said. She added: ''A lot of these fights are really brutal. Fighters have gotten nosebleeds. Boozy Suzy wrenched her elbow, and she was out for two months.''

But the phrase has been used as a rallying cry since the last century. In the 1990s, a Winnipeg zine publisher named Stefanie Moore created a poster called "I Fight Like a Girl," which is still quoted:

Two issues of a comic by Winnipeg's Tamara Rae Biebrich, titled Fight Like a Girl and inspired by Moore, were published in 1997.

So unless you coined the phrase in 2011 and took it back to the twentieth century using a time machine, you have no claim on this phrase, Sarah. Stop pretending you do.

Originally published at No More Mr. Nice Blog

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