My mother, and my best friend's mother (they did not know each other) always taught me to treat a lady as a lady, until she starts acting like a man. Then hit her like the man she's pretending to be. I always took this to mean it's OK to knock them out if they attack you. And thus how I have lived my life. Only have had to hit one girl my whole life though and it was in grade school. Generally, I dont get interacted with aggressively by even the craziest women. But I've always believed in equality. True equality. And if a person attacks me, they can be sure that I'll be trying to do more damage to them than they do to me. My father always taught me never to start a fight, but to always finish it. Every time I started a fight, I got grounded for at least a month, but when I was attacked and fought back, we went and got ice cream.
TL;DR If you attack me, be prepared to be in a fight, regardless of what kind of bits you have.