To men reading this thread: The reason you don't hit women isn't because it's chivalrous, it's because you can kill them. You are that much stronger that you can legitimately end a woman's life with a single "wrong" hit.
I worked out a lot at the time and thought I could hold my own well enough. Yeah no, this guy had me in a position where he could’ve removed my damn head so fast it shocked me, like maybe 15 seconds. Obviously he was a friend and didn’t hurt me, but I realized all of a sudden how utterly vulnerable I was and how stupidly cocky I had been. I’ve never forgotten that.
I do not know if this is the case for other men, perhaps I'm the only 'tard that took so long, but I did not realize just how great the gap in physical power between the sexes was until I was an adult.
Boys will roughhouse when they are young, and being the lightest kid around, I couldn't win with weight but I was at least lithe, fast and agile. When I was younger, I always imagined it would be similar for women - weight disadvantaged and a good bit weaker on average, but not completely helpless in an (unarmed) fight.
Much later in life, I was training with a gal pal and after some lifting instead of the usual cardio routine, one day, we did some heavybag training because she expressed an interest. I showed her some basic form, how to use boxing tape so you dont fuck up your wrist etc. and then she went to work.
The difference between us in striking power and speed, even though this woman was about my weight (and could probably outsquat me) and had done plenty of lifting, cardio, all kinds of training, staggered me, no pun intended. We worked with focus mitts next to switch it up and when I deflected a blow a little too hard I unintentionally knocked her off balance even though she had a pretty good stance.
It will sound incredibly silly but it wasn't until that training session that it hit me, at least in abstract principle, how utterly terrifying life must be for women and why so many of them so often have to feel unsafe in public. You're constantly surrounded by people who could legitimately kill you if they so desired and life will teach you that plenty of them are one bad day away from becoming an angry rape-ape.
I can't empathize, because empathy to me implies understanding what that feels like - but maybe now I can sympathize, a little better, at least.
(On a less serious note, I just got caught up reading 50 pages over the past day and this is still a contender for best new thread of 2023).