MagiStream

If a woman hits a man, should he be allowed to hit back?: Yes.

Why so/why not?: It all comes to the equality thing. If A woman hits a man, he has every right to hit back and vice versa.

Other opinions/facts: Obviously abuse isn't part of this. Abuse is wrong on either side.

Thank you all for contributing! Abuse is a horrific thing on both parts so I definitely agree there!

If a woman hits a man, should he be allowed to hit back?:
Not usually. But if required for keeping oneself safe and/or alive, then yes.
Why so/why not?:
Generally, no one should be hitting anyone for any reason! There's no reason to be violent over things, but I suppose, if it were me and I needed to keep myself safe, then I'd consider it fine for me to hit back. And if it's fine for me to keep myself safe, it's fine for anybody else, whether man, woman, or other. But why hit anyone for any reason? We're all people, aren't we?
Other opinions/facts:
I'm a pacifist who doesn't believe in violence except for situations involving someone's safety, and even then only in self-defense! I generally don't believe in violence over differing opinions, or even war, but I won't get into that here.

If a woman hits a man, should he be allowed to hit back?:

This isn't really a gendered question for me. I think the man shouldn't hit back, but neither should a woman if she was hit by a man. Ideally, neither would hit in the first place.

Why so/why not?:

Although it's tempting to retaliate, unless the situation is life-and-death, it's more responsible to remove oneself from the situation rather than escalate it.

Other opinions/facts:

This isn't really a matter of gender, in my opinion, but of confrontation management. If one person hits another, they should feel entitled to retaliate or not unencumbered by gender. If a woman hits a guy, she can't get offended if he hits back just because he's a man.

If a woman hits a man, should he be allowed to hit back?: Yes.

Why so/why not?: My mom was extremely abusive toward my stepdad. She constantly guilt-tripped him. She was extremely jealous of the attention he gave to his children, she threatened them and called them evil, and she tried to stop him from seeing them at every turn. I'm even fairly sure that she has raped him--and yes, she also beat him viciously. When my mom got arrested for running at him with a knife, she tried to say it was because he tossed hot water on her--but that was only because my stepdad felt threatened in the first place. The cops said that they almost arrested him as well, which I would have thought to be BS because that self defense should have been well within his rights. Women can be abusers just like men. It's actually part of sexism against women that we don't see things this way--we just assume that women are helpless creatures who would never hurt a fly, and that if a man gets hurt by a woman, he's weak or should not be believed.

Other opinions/facts: Chihirolorc has a point when they say that the retribution has to be proportionate, though. That's one thing to consider. On the whole though, I think a man in a situation of clear, repeated, undeniable abuse should be allowed to hit back as hard as he wants. I say this because my mom was physically and emotionally abusive toward me as well. I'm a girl, so people would be less likely to suspect me if I hit back. But if I was a guy, would that change anything about how much she hurt me? No. It wouldn't. And my right to self defense wouldn't change either.

I agree with the other people it is not always black and white. I think any type of violence should be avoided and if you calm a situation down without hitting back that is the best option. Though there will be times you have to hit back in self-defense.

So I will say yes depending on the situation and if you can calm it down without violence that is better.