Joy Behar Claims ‘You Can't Really Stay On TV Unless You're Likable’

Following her announcement that she will be departing the cast of ‘The View’, co-host Joy Behar has taken it upon herself to reach into the depths of absurdity in her final few months on the daytime talk show.  On March 11, the five co-hosts were discussing Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s recent book Lean In, and the role women have in the workplace.

Following Whoopi Goldberg quoting Sandberg’s book, where she states that, “working women are not assertive enough. And this quote, they don't have leadership, there's a leadership ambition gap”, Behar claims that, “When Hillary Clinton becomes president, the glass ceiling will be broken.”  [See video after jump.  MP3 audio here.] 

Behar then continued her typical liberal rant before making an even more shocking claim:

But one of the things she says in the book, that was interesting to me, was when a woman is powerful, she's less likable. When a man is powerful, he's not. He's just as likable. I think that that's an issue. Women want to be likable. So we're always in conflict about power and likability. You know you can't really stay on TV unless you're likable.

Contrary to Behar’s imagination, she is one of the most confrontational co-hosts in the history of ‘The View’ yet somehow she has managed to remain on the show for more than 15 years.  Behar apparently thinks she's eminently likeable although she has, on air, wished for Mitt Romney’s house burn down and compared religious adherence to drug addiction.

On a side note, later on in the discussion, Barbara Walters and Elisabeth Hasselbeck engaged in verbal altercation just moments after Walters defended Hasselbeck from rumors that she was being fired from The View.

Following Hasselbeck questioning the rationale behind Sandberg’s comments in her book, Walters rudely interrupted her, confronting her knowledge of the subject matter at hand.  She even questioned whether or not Hasselbeck had actually read Sandberg’s book.

One would think Walters would show a bit of civility on the same day she defended Hasselbeck, but less than 10 minutes later, she was back to rudely challenging her conservative views.

See relevant transcript below. 

ABC

The View

March 11, 2013

11:15 a.m. EDT

WHOOPI GOLDBERG: But say, you know, speaking of stupid conversations, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg has everyone talking about her new book Lean In, where she claims working women are not assertive enough. And this quote, they don't have leadership; there's a leadership ambition gap. It's still keeping women from succeeding. Dammit.

JOY BEHAR: When Hillary Clinton becomes president, the glass ceiling will be broken. But women still have issues rising in these corporations, but one of the things she says in the book, that was interesting to me, was when a woman is powerful, she's less likable. When a man is powerful, he's not. He's just as likable. I think that that's an issue. Women want to be likable. So we're always in conflict about power and likability. You know you can't really stay on TV unless you're likable. Isn’t that true Barbara?

ELISABETH HASSELBECK: Why keep writing that women cannot be likable, when they're in power. Doesn't that in fact in some way allow this theory to just be perpetuated? At some point we have to look around us, I mean maybe it's because we are here, and we work with incredibly hard working and successful women. I mean there are strong women in this house. And I think it's a little odd to keep saying women can't be strong and they can’t be successful. Stop saying that. It’s not true. There are women doing incredible things every single day and the more you allow articles like that and those phrases to continue to get—

BARBARA WALTERS: Excuse me. A, it's not an article. It's a book. Have you read it?

HASSELBECK: Yes

WALTERS: Because that's not her main point. Her main point is that women do not assert themselves; they don't know how to negotiate. And that they will say even before they have a child, maybe I shouldn't take that very big job, because I'm going to want to have a child, and if I have a child, the two things won't work together.

BEHAR: It’s a reality.

WALTERS: But she also has a husband, this is the part of the book, who shares the homework, all of the stuff that you have to do at home, takes care of the children, and she says, when you meet a man, and he's not interested in sharing everything, don't marry him. Okay. But not every man says I want it to be 50-50.