Is it ever acceptable to hit a woman?

Interesting reading these posts. Out of interest do peoples opinions change if it is a pregnant woman?

Definitely as there's two people's safety to consider, one of which is completely innocent and oblivious to the whole thing.

This.

Out of interest, wilfred, if the woman had a child with her (approx 3-8), would your opinion change as well?

I am quite old-fashioned in my views on this. I would say no. You can rationalise it to yourself all you want... I would say it's just taboo...

At 6ft and nearly 200lbs of mostly muscle I am physically stronger than the average woman... Don't get me wrong, if a woman hit for me no good reason I'd be pretty mad, but I would be disappointed with myself if I hit a woman back.

I used to hit my little sister when I was a kid when we got into arguments/fights, really regret it... I think she resents me for it to this day...

My dad has beat my mum up before too and I don't think she has ever really gotten over it...

I can't ever see myself hitting a woman unless she is putting my life is in legitimate danger, i.e. coming at me with a knife :/


For all the people who say women should be treated "fairly" and use this as a reason to see nothing wrong with hitting women back, bear in mind men are a lot stronger physically (on average) than women. That's just a biological fact.

Well no, hitting somebody back is seem to be a lower form of hatred i.e. you're giving into your enemy and are morally lower than them by stooping too their level.

You should never hit a women, you should never put yourself in a position where you are faced with that choice. There is but one exception and that is self defence - only when, however you have a unfavoured chance of death or serious injury.

If she slaps you, treat your women better, don't hit her back.

And to the people saying the reason why a man shouldn't a woman is because of the strength differences, just think for a second. I'm 6 ft and if a puny 5 ft something guy hit me and I hit him back, would you care as much if a woman of the exact same strength, height and weight got hit by me? Or would you care more? Be honest. And what about a woman bigger than me?

If you're sitting there thinking, "woah too many questions" you'd understand my point. What I'm getting at is that it's all pointless. If someone is attacking you, you aren't gonna be thinking, oh are they stronger than me? How much does she weigh? Is she a proffesional fighter?

You can never find out all this information in the space of time when someone hits you. Your reaction is just going to be instinctive, if someone startles you enough you'll hit back regardless. Besides all this 'never hit women under any circumstances' is a form of underlying misogyny because it views women as inferior and being unable to defend themselves.

So girls next time a guy says 'a man should never hit a woman' what he is really saying is 'girls are so weak and pathetic they can never cause any harm to men'.

Yeah and some men are much smaller and weaker than others, they still accept if they are going to hit a bigger man they will most likely get hit back. Saying they are smaller and weaker isn't a good enough reason tbh.

The examples you gave don't really seem like the sort of thing I consider acceptable though. I can see why you'd be bothered after those but honestly if a drunk woman slapped you in the street and you slapped her back, it's totally different to beating your wife or attacking your sister.

Nope not fair. If a woman slaps you it'll barely do anything, maybe burn a bit. You slap a woman you can give her a concussion.

You can kiss her back instead of giving her a hit

I think that people should adjust their strength when hitting someone weaker than them and if a bigger woman hit you then fine fair enough hit her back. Actually i wouldn't hit someone weaker than me back unless it was repeated harassment for both females and males.

So if there's a 5ft 2 guy who's my age and me being 5ft 10 gets in a fight with him, i have to adjust my strength. Or is that case ok to fight him properly.

Its a difficult one...

And for me personally, depends on the situation. E.g. If a guy cheated on me, and I felt the need to release some anger in the direction of his face with the palm of my hand. He is going to have to stand there and accept it. If he hit me back...well sorry but that's unacceptable. (Then again I do understand that this can be turned, and if I cheated on him would have to 'take a punch' and can't quite justify that! So guess this thought is obsolete)

Equality though desirable, as others have said simply cannot always be achieved when it comes to the physical side of being humans.

Yes, some women are bigger/stronger than the average woman. And some men are smaller/weaker. However the average male IS physically stronger than women. This is sheer biological fact.

If I hit a guy, I don't think its really acceptable for him to plant a full forced punch on my body. However would fully accept being restrained. At the end of the day no one wants to be hit! So its not fair for them to stand there and 'take it'.

So if there's a 5ft 2 guy who's my age and me being 5ft 10 gets in a fight with him, i have to adjust my strength. Or is that case ok to fight him properly.