I would never strike a lady. Any female assaulting me removes herself from that category and its protections.
Self-defense (or defense of others who can’t defend themselves) and sports of which the hitting is an accepted part. It’s OK in Taekwondo, not OK in hockey 
Since Taekwondo isn’t a group sport, it isn’t really covered by the OP, but heck, if there’s a fighting group sport out there, any woman who takes part should do so understanding she can get hit and has not excuse to moan about it.
And for the first case, a hold would be preferable to a punch.
To me the gender(s) of the people involved is not an issue.
Self-defense, or the prevention of a greater crime… if I saw a woman running towards a pack of schoolchildren waving a fireaxe and screaming, I’d stop her any way I could. I’d rather get my ass sued off than get interviewed after the fact and have to say “well, gee, I never thought she’d actually cut those kids’ heads off… I mean, she’s just a woman, right?”
Look, I’ve never hit a woman, but the notion that women are above being struck because they’re the fairer sex is baloney. Sometimes, people are assholes and need to be corrected. Men prefer a straightforward approach which sometimes involves contact. This is effective and to the point. However, this approach has become frowned on by a feminized culture that fears such direct action.
Women have a way of pushing men to their emotional limit because they’re counting on the man backing down because he won’t utilize his best weapon against her. They get away with things that a man would never do to another man because that man knows his actions would result in conflict.
For example, if I’m walking on a sidewalk and two men are coming towards me, walking abreast, one of the men will lean or otherwise move so as not to bump into me. Not because I’m a big tough guy, but because men know that you don’t do that without inviting conflict. Women have not figured this out. They will block the entire sidewalk, lost in their own world, and run into you if you don’t take evasive action (which depending on the sidewalk may be impossible). Another example: several times on the subway I’ve seen several healthy young women sit while an elderly person stands. Are women exempt from such courtesy?
My point is that women can be assholes too. Men have a direct way of dealing with such behavior. A crisp smack across the face (not hard, mind you, just a quick little cuff) could go a long way in instructing women of the errors in their ways. At the very least, I would like to see more fathers giving their daughters timely and deserved smacks for exhibiting the selfish and disrespectful behavior that seems to run rampant in young women in this culture.
Outside of a good spanking when she needs it, I believe in Guy Rule Number One: Don’t hit girls.
That’s the way I read the question, too. Apparently it is not what the OP intended, but the OP later says it’s ok to answer that question.
I have zero problem hitting a guy for attacking a woman. I’m deep in the rural South, and we don’t much cotton to men hitting women around here. We are also both a Castle Doctrine and a “Stand your ground” state, so I don’t forsee much in the way of legal complications. Defense of another is a valid reason for the use of reasonable force. I’m free to liberally cite the case of Foot v. Ass to resolve the situation.
If it appears that the woman is the aggressor, I’d prolly stay out of it unless I had to intervene to prevent a killing. If the guy is the aggressor…well, maybe we’ll see how he likes taking on somebody that hits back.
[Moderator Underoos On]No, let’s just pick one, o.k.? Let me know what you want the title to read, and I’ll change it for you.[/Moderator Underoos On]
Wow, I couldn’t disagree more. Frankly I think that’s horseshit.
There’s no excuse for hitting another person, unless you are defending yourself from a mugging/murder. Striking in anger, striking to “correct” someone’s behavior, etc. is a sign of weakness. Do you really think that hitting young women is the only way to correct rude and assholish behavior?
Sure, I agree that teen girls and young women can be just as stupid and assholish as their male counterparts, but since when do we hit people because they’re irritating?
You think fathers should hit their daughters if they act out? No way. There’s simply no excuse for that, in my book.
A spank on the bum for a little girl being bratty is one thing, but a “cuff” (your term) across the face of a teen girl for being bitchy? Not only is that unacceptable I would think it’s not likely to be an effective teaching tool. If I saw a father do that I’d call social services. There are far better ways to correct your teen than to hit them.
And to seriously advocate that adults should go around hitting each other to correct rude behavior is ludicrous. You’d be in jail from assault charges if I were involved.
tdn, I think I know that woman. She’s doing much better now. If she continues to demonstrate improved behavior, she might just be allowed on the Springer show.
I can certainly understand the frustrations of tdn’s roomie and of Moidalize (whose user name reminds me of a cartoon character with anger issues - is that wrong? 
). Violence in those situations, however, is rather problematic for a number of obvious reasons. There have got to be better ways to address such conflicts. I’d bet that the Dopers here could come up with some pretty creative suggestions if someone started a thread on dealing with those sorts of frustrating situations.
To answer the OP, I concur with most of the posters here: only in self-defense (and even then, exercise great caution and seek other options such as escape). I’ll also say that I don’t think gender should make much difference.
I don’t even like mock hitting, like you might see girls/young women do to their male friends. It’s a pet peeve of mine that a number of sitcoms show women smacking their dim-witted spouses as comedic. It’s even less funny to me than asking how many feminists it takes to screw in a lightbulb.
I’m not sure if that’s wisdom or cleverness.
Sometimes the only proper response to a given action is a good, hard punch in the face. Whether the performer of that action is male or female doesn’t change the response.
Sometimes the only proper response to a given action is to shoot. Whether the performer of that action is male or female doesn’t change the response.
Spend some time working in law enforcement, residential treatment, or an urban high school and you’ll very quickly ditch the inane idea that women_by virtue of their sex_are less capable of violence than men or that they shouldn’t be handled as one does a violent man. To believe otherwise in any of those jobs will get you hurt or killed in pretty short order.
I suppose “if she mouths off to you” wouldn’t be an acceptable answer?
Also, if you are her pimp it’s actually required to lay hands on anyone slaping one of your hos.
Ideally, gender should not enter into the basic equation.
You shouldn’t hit anyone except in self-defense.
(I’d allow exceptions for rather unusual and/or unique circumstances - say like someone, male or female, is freaking out so bad that their actions are going to cause harm - then it might be appropriate in order to break them out of it and focus them on the impending harm.)
That being said, I give allowances in initial provocation and in degree of response for gender as well as for size, health and fragility issues. Of course, I’ve only thrown two blows at other human beings in almost 30 years of adulthood, both in self-defense, so it’s not like I have a low threshhold of such things. Hell, my ex-wife repeatedly struck and injured me without response, but that was more because I knew she’d lie to the cops and I’d be the one who ended up in jail.
The closest I’ve come to physical violence with a woman was way back about 23 years ago when a crazy and panicked mother of the girl who lived upstairs from me in a Duplex/illegal triplex attempted to force her way past me into my apartment after nearly damaging my front door with the vehemence of her pounding assaults on it. Because she wrongly believed that my door was the door to her daughter’s apartment. When she threw herself at me and attempted to shove me out of the way to gain entrance, I forcefully shoved her backwards, then warned her that it was MY DOOR and that I would hurt her if she tried that again. The threat gave her enough pause for me to be able to explain that her daughter’s door was around back. (She was a loon!)
If it had been a guy, I would have flattened him.
I was watching Dr Phil the other day (I know, that was my first mistake) and saw him tout the idea that you should never hit a female. (This was in the context of a fight that had happened between a man and a woman, but Dr Phil made a blanket statement without qualifiers.) I’m just not sure why. I don’t think there are many situations when it’s Ok to hit anyone, but why should women be exempted?
Because they are delicate shrinking flowers.
Obviously men are just too pumped full of testosterone to control their supremely awesome fists.
Seriously, why do we just assume all men would rather hit each other to solve their problems? That’s a pretty poor stereotype there as well.
They just can’t help it! :rolleyes:
I can agree to the point that some women I’ve known will do things that would get a man punched right in the face in a similar situation.
Most guys know you don’t go screaming right up into another guys face, invading his personal space pointing a finger an eighth of an inch from his nose while calling him demeaning names unless this person is insane or a ninja. Most men know you will get knocked out for pulling some aggressive stunt like that. Some women do it all the time.
[Moderator Underoos On]Fixed title[/Moderator Underoos On]
I totally agree, I just disagree that even in that situation it would be ok to hit that woman. Clearly someone who acts like that is totally nuts and needs to be told in no uncertain terms that her behavior is unacceptable. If it’s a grown woman, maybe she needs the police to explain verbal assault to her.
Plus, if it’s someone you know pulling this shit then you need to have a sit down and think about whether you want that kind of nut-bag in your life.
Maybe it’s the places I’ve lived and the circles I’ve run in, but I’ve never hit another human being in my life, and I haven’t been hit since the 4th grade, and even then never in the face. In all my years, I’ve only seen two people get punched in the face. Unless I’m missing a huge part of life, I don;t think it’s a common thing.
Maybe it’s more common behind closed doors.
Most people have never had to hit anyone in their adult life. But you occassionaly find yourself in a position where you must be ready to do so. The threat is usually enough.
I just find the prevailing passive aggressive methods of conflict resolution to be more frustrating and demeaning than direct confrontation. Come at me if you’re going to come at me, don’t back door me. Ever have a nutty coworker start some crap with you at work that didn’t invite? The process of working that problem out can make you tear your hair out (not that I advocate striking your coworkers).
As I said, I’ve never hit a woman in my life, but I don’t think 5 across the chops should be discounted completely. It doesn’t have to be a brutally devastating attack, just a sharp, concise message.