Without seeing the context of this squabble between FW and FM .. It is hard for Me to know if She was just defending herself against some verbal confrontation or if she was truly trying to manipulate Him. With this in Mind, I now give My thoughts.
No matter what a FW says or Does, what she considers Her right as a FW, She can and will be held responsible for it. My father use to tell Me growing up" lifes not fair deal with it, the only rights You have are the ones I afford to give You" This is the life of a FW.. A FM can hear Your words, no matter how YOU as a FW meant them, and do as He pleases with them, no matter how You meant them He will react as He feels, He can ignore, He can respond, He can punish.. We as FW have the right to be as brass, defiant, loud, demanding, "manish" for lack of better word as we Like, it is Our right GIVEN to Us because they want to, not because a FM has to. She was struck because He was insulted and felt manipulated...We as Women have a natural way of manipulating as Sister Amber said, and sometimes its without even knowing. A look, a flounce, a pout, or even silence, all are ways WE do do to get what We want. Its all in the delivery of such things that a Man decides, am I being manipulated or is She simply being a Woman. It is in delivery of Our words and actions that a Man exercises His right, to judge those words and actions and do as He pleases, because face it, Our rights, We earn from Man, they are not just given because We are free, We are free because He sees a reason to respect that Freedom and keep Us Free. IN this case, strictly going on the quote, the Man obviously seen a Reason to keep the Woman free, as a split lip was all that He chose to give her for Her actions.. thus .. He respected Her freedom, by allowing Her to stay Free but punished Her for Her own actions. In essence, He told Her, You have the rights afforded to You, but watch how You use them, because they can and will come back to bite You, because that is My right as a Man.