Nobody should hit anybody unless they absolutely have to. If, in their best judgment, they absolutely have to, I don’t care what the genders involved on either side are.
If you get hit, the wiser thing to do to de-escalate the situation might be to just leave, though there can be an argument for striking back. In that case, too, the genders don’t matter. So if, say, a woman hits a man, I don’t see why he shouldn’t hit her back (though only in a proportionate degree).
I think hitting is childish but if a woman hits a man he should be able to defend himself without people screaming “but she’s a gi-irl!” in his ear.
Not sure if that was an option, though 
I do think that it’s possible for a woman to be confused about hitting a man in a way that is really unlikely to be reciprocated. Especially a generation ago, but still today, there exists men who would not only never admit that female-on-male violence hurt, they would go out of their way to make sure everyone knows that no level of female violence can get through there pain threshold. If a girl’s father, or other important male influences were of this “Go on. Hit me. You can’t hurt me” kind of mindset I can see getting to a place where female-on-male violence seems inherently playful, or a safe way to express frustration, or even a way to make a guy feel strong and manly–no girl can hurt him! This dynamic often involves the violence girlfriend getting more frustrated as the placid man chuckles at her impotence. Frankly, it’s a relic of a set of attitudes that are on their way out, and it’s not flattering to either player in the drama.
On the other hand, I can’t imagine any boy being raised around women who were quick to encourage him to hit them and then tell him how little it hurt.
I don’t believe in hitting women, never have even though I’ve been provoked a few times.
My son got the same morals. He was recently going through a break up with his GF. She kept getting in his face yelling etc, one day she just punched him right in the mouth.
He turned his back on her, put his fist through the wardrobe door and walked out of the room
Ditto.
I only hit another man as an absolute last resort. As far as women, forceful restraint is as far as I’d go. Sorry. I’m generally for equality and all.
ETA: now, as for my ex wife, I’d pay for a hit on her, but only if I were totally Teflon.
I’d rather nobody was hitting anyone.
But generally a man can do far worse damage to a woman, if he is typically stronger than her (not always the case if you were to cherry pick a few individuals, e.g. DJ Qualls vs Serena Williams) so I guess I vote B.
Gender equality is a myth. Women are superior in some ways, men in others. They are rarely if ever equal in anything not a man made construct. Thus I would be loathe to hit a woman with a fist under any but the most dire circumstances (attempting to claw my eyes, pulling a knife/gun/etc.). Depending on the situation and whether I thought she’d keep it up, I might slap her as hard as I felt necessary in order to get her to stop.
I was at a party, and a woman started hitting on me. Physically. She’d come up behind me and bonk me on the head.
I told her to stop. She didn’t stop. I told her to stop, dammit. She didn’t stop. I had a female friend of mine intercede, to explain to her that this was not appropriate, and that it was not funny, and to stop. She didn’t stop.
After about the seventh time, I slapped her face. Not very hard. And I spent the rest of the evening and much of the next week feeling shitty about it. It wasn’t the right thing to have done. I should, instead, have recruited some others to watch her for me, to warn me when she came near, so I could use my arms to block her when she tried to hit me. All I ended up doing was causing there to be two “bad guys” in the room instead of just one.
However, my feelings about the incident would be exactly the same if it had been a man, not a woman.
The poll choices are worded poorly. I think it’s bad for either gender to hit each other. Obviously some weightlifter or boxer guy could do a lot more damage to a small woman than vice versa, but there a lot of middle-of-the-road build people of either gender who could do more or less equal damage to each other.
I went to college with a guy who was being abused by his girlfriend. It was mostly emotional manipulation but occasionally she’d haul off and hit him. He was really torn up because it was in the earlier stages and she was messing with him emotionally, plus he knew she shouldn’t hit him but didn’t feel like he was “allowed” to make a big issue about it because he was a guy and that wasn’t a manly thing. He did eventually leave her, thank goodness.
Morally at least* it’s all about context. No one of either gender should hit someone for a purpose like bullying or sadism. But if a woman is coming at a man with a knife I think he has a perfect right to hit her as hard as he can, not to just let her stab him**.
*legally I understand that in practice the rule is “If you’re a man, don’t hit a woman under any circumstances”
**I recall reading years ago of a case where a man was accused of domestic violence for shoving his wife away from him after she repeatedly stabbed him.
Believe it? No. Have a hard time shaking underlying assumptions? Sorry, but yes. For some reason, when I hear than a man hit a woman, I think of abuse. When I hear a woman hit a man, I think of that light slap you see on TV when a guy gets fresh, or her fending off a violent attack.
Now, note, this is just an initial thought that comes without any more detail. All it takes is to change it to “She hits me” coming from a guy, and I do instantly change to abuse. It’s just that a single hit does not make me jump there in my mind.
I guess it’s something I need to work on, but I don’t exactly want to go around following people who hit one another.
Both are equally bad.
I have no problem with either gender hitting the opposite gender in self-defense, though. If a woman starts wailing on a man I don’t expect him to just stand there and take it. It’s always best to remove yourself from the situation, I think, but if you can’t … if you’re a woman and throw the first punch, you don’t get to go “oooh, the bad man hit me” when he defends himself.
I slapped a boy when I was in 7th grade. I regret it 
WTF?
Not saying I don’t believe you. Would love to read that case for some legalistic recreational outrage.
IMH (empirical) O, he can absorb her punches easier than she can his, but her kids are at an even greater disadvantage than she is.
I’ve got no cites for this, but never, ever have I know of a violent woman who used a man as a punching bag for her life’s frustrations, but spared her kids. And she *will *have kids: people who can’t manage their fists don’t do much better with their gonads.
I’ve only really heard ignorant people prop that idea up. 9/10 times, they’re missing the entire idea behind gender equality, and in doing so, ignore the fact that more real offenses called “assault” and “battery” have likely taken place. Neither extends any type of gender bias.
I also wouldn’t phrase the question as such, that “a woman should be able to hit a man”. I think either sex should refrain from hitting the other, as has been stated. I guess a good question to ask, is how often cases are reported (in either scenario), and why or why not?
And then, there is the very basic premise that in fits of anger, people do make impulsive decisions, regardless of their personal morals, and so it’s best not to potentially escalate a situation with violence.
I got taken to jail for defending myself from my crazy ex wife.
She was hitting me. It didn’t hurt but it was pissing me the fuck off. I grabbed her twice to get her to stop. I grabbed her once on the wrists and another time on the arms.
The second time I grabbed her, she was standing in between me and the door. I just wanted to leave and get out of there. She wouldn’t move. So I took her by the arms and made her move out of my way. In doing so, she fell flat on her ass.
So, I’m out in the front yard trying to cool off. The next thing I know, here come the cops. The cops saw the bruises on my ex wife’s arms where I had grabbed her and put me in cuffs.
When I tried to explain to them that I was just trying to defend myself, they started to patronize me: “Oh what’s wrong? You can’t take a little woman hitting you? You poor guy.”
The charges were eventually thrown out but still, I got to spend a night in jail.
So yeah, when it comes to domestic violence, there is definitely some bias going on. Cops should know better.
This is what I’d like to vote for.
Nobody should be hitting anybody. A person who is assaulted has every right to defend him/herself.
Likewise.