Balddog said:
Oh come off it..Youre better than that. You know that was purely a response to Fatiains post.
Ive never advocated restraining a woman..I know how hard it is through personal experience.
It was a response to Fatian's post, which was a response to your post which in turn was a response to my post, etc.
Look at the sequence for the context. I said that it was a mistake to assume women were necessarily much weaker than men. You said it was true in 99% of the time (a figure I don't believe, by the way), and that a 15 stone man was "MUCH" stronger than a 15 stone woman 99% of the time. Fatiain then related the anecdote about three 6 foot plus large men having trouble with a 5'6" slim and skinny woman, all of which comes back to my objection to your assertion that men shouldn't hit women because
Those who say women should be treated the same as men...I dont agree with..
Women are weaker.
I didn't, and still don't, accept your view that women shouldn't be treated the same because they are weaker.
The theme of the discussion, with Fatiain and with the comments I'd made, was about assessment of the strength of women, and in particular, relative strength. I don't see why you now restrict your comment to how much damage you can do when you punch, and seem to be seeking to exclude the relevance of strength to restraint, when restraint has been a common theme running throughout this thread. How many people have said something like "I wouldn't hit her, I'd restrain her".
Balddog said:
Can you expand upon that? What damage has been done? Im talking about fists here...weapons and the like are a different kettle of fish. Unless she has some kind of martial arts training, which would make her an exception anyway, then shes gonna find it hard to do serious damage to the average man.
Sorry, but you're wrong. As I said some time ago, any man seeking to simply restrain (yes, I know you weren't talking about that) a woman risks a knee in the goolies, a high-heel punched through the foot or getting his face and/or eyes clawed, etc. None of those were spurious items made up. They were comments from my wife based on her surgical experience ... including one bloke that lost an eye this way.
When faced with a woman that is hitting you, there are a limited range of options available and they will depend very much on circumstances. One option
might be to walk away, but it equally well might not. Another is restraint, a third is trying to talk her down and a fourth is thumping her.
My point, and firm belief, is that assuming a woman can't do serious damage because she's weaker is a serious miscalculation because, even if she is quite a bit physically weaker (and that isn't necessarily the case) she is still a threat to be reckoned with.
So, by logical extension, treating a woman differently because she is a woman is, in a way, kind of dismissive, even contemptuous, of her abilities. I believe in equality, and won't treat women any differently from men in other ways (except the obvious) and that includes according them the respect that they are due physically. But given that, I also accord them the respect that the damage they can cause is due, and don't dismiss them as not being a threat. And given that, I will react with an assault buy a woman as I would with a man because I simply don't believe that they are sufficiently weaker as to be easy to dismiss ..... perhaps unless you are a young, fit, strong man and either trained or very experienced in fighting. Then, maybe, you perhaps aren't at much risk from most women .... unless they catch you by surprise. But a large percentage of the male population don't fall into that category.
