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"  Okay. Guys? We need to stop forcing this victim narrative on Huma Abedin. When the news of Weiner&amp;#039;s &amp;quot;Carlos Danger&amp;quot; Facebook-sexting scandal broke on Tuesday, everyone&amp;#039;s first thought immediately went to his wife Huma Abedin, who had been publicly campaigning on behalf of his New York mayoral campaign. Abedin, who had famously forgiven Weiner for the initial Twitter episode that forced him to resign as a congressman, once again voiced her forgiveness and support for her husband \u2014 as well as reminding the press that this was a marital transgression, not a political one. &amp;quot;We discussed all of this before Anthony decided to run for mayor, so really what I want to say is I love him, I have forgiven him, I believe in him, and as we have said from the beginning, we are moving forward,&amp;quot; Abedin said. &amp;quot;Thank you very much.&amp;quot; Since then, the media has exploded with disapproval that Abedin stood by Weiner for the second time, let alone that she spoke on his behalf. Lisa Bloom, writing for CNN: &amp;quot;Isn&amp;#039;t it time to call the spectacle of the suffering political wife, standing by her man in the media glare as he admits to his latest sexual offense against her, what it really is: spousal abuse?&amp;quot; And the Post wondered when New York politics were reduced to sexually hedonistic men and their &amp;quot;doormat [wives].&amp;quot; But the Post also slammed Huma with a cover blaring: &amp;quot;What&amp;#039;s Wrong With You?&amp;quot; Inside, there&amp;#039;s more: &amp;quot;Clearly, there is something very wrong with Abedin \u2014 whether it&amp;#039;s simply that she shares her husband&amp;#039;s vaulting ambition or that she has a pathological need to be publicly humiliated, something&amp;#039;s up.&amp;quot; People \u2014 notably, women in the media \u2014 on Twitter are also grousing about Abedin&amp;#039;s choice, saying patronizing things like &amp;quot;Oh, Huma.&amp;quot; But CNN&amp;#039;s Bloom strikes more to the heart of it: &amp;quot;We have the right to say that we will not enable this anymore; we will not endorse it; we will not bless it just because it is her &amp;#039;choice.&amp;#039;&amp;quot;  Nope. More like \u2014 as is often the case with judgmental opinions \u2014 people don&amp;#039;t bless it because they don&amp;#039;t personally understand it. Because she&amp;#039;s bright and beautiful while he&amp;#039;s sort of dopey and waves his penis around on the Internet. Because even though Abedin comes from a high-ranking political background, women aren&amp;#039;t thought of as powerful political players who make personal decisions for reasons other than lady-emotions. Abedin used to work for Hillary Clinton, and clearly took a page from her playbook. Would you call Hillary Clinton a &amp;quot;doormat&amp;quot; for staying with Bill? Huma Abedin is not Rihanna. She&amp;#039;s a savvy, self-aware, politically ambitious woman who believes in Weiner&amp;#039;s ability to run New York \u2014 whatever she thinks of him as a husband is not only none of our business, but completely immaterial \u2014 and she&amp;#039;s autonomously making choices that will further both of their careers, not just his.  When the Post notes &amp;quot;This used to be a city where cynicism, skepticism and a general philosophy of F-you-ness kept even the most famous, accomplished arrivistes on edge. What happened?&amp;quot; they&amp;#039;re raising a double-edged sword of a question: Who knows if Abedin even married Weiner out of love in the first place? Since when did New Yorkers believe that the personal and marital choices of politicians have more to do with feelings than strategic partnering? And why are we assuming she doesn&amp;#039;t have people on the side as well? We&amp;#039;re not judging her on a &amp;quot;person&amp;quot; thing \u2014 we&amp;#039;re judging her on a &amp;quot;woman&amp;quot; thing, expecting her leave beacuse that&amp;#039;s the only idea of a &amp;quot;strong woman&amp;quot; we&amp;#039;ve been culturally educated to accept. We forget sometimes that, like men, there&amp;#039;s more than one &amp;quot;strong woman&amp;quot; mold out there. All in all, as is the case with most marriages, we only know about 5 percent of what their marriage is like. To pretend that we&amp;#039;re aware enough of their relationship off-camera enough to judge Abedin as a person for choosing to stay with Weiner is a major oversight. Follow Anna on Twitter. Image via AP "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.cosmopolitan.com/politics/news/a14551/huma-abedin-weiner-choice/>