Here's my final stance to get my point across and my checkmate argument. There comes a point where the physical prowess of a boy to a man becomes equal on another man. It's hard to pinpoint, I'll concede that, but it's there. Hypothetical, we have a boy at 5 years old (not related, complete strangers) coming in to attack a man of 30 years old who doesn't age (again, hypothetical here to prove my point).
A 5 year old going full force to inflict harm on a 30 year old man is a punchline. The 5 year old cannot do anything, and a 5 year old punching a man as hard as they could would be a mild annoyance to the man. Would the man be justified to punch the 5 year old as hard as he could to stave off further attacks, or would the man simply grab the boy to de-escalate / control further blows or what have you? Of course the latter.
Let the boy age a couple years to 7. Same scenario. 7 year old comes in full force. More potential to harm, man still won't wail on a 7 year old.
Age him to 12. Maybe now the man may need to throw a solid slap on the kids head to defend. Maybe a kick.
Age to 15. It's getting more dangerous, but the man still has dominance physically over a 15 year old I believe.
There comes a point, however, where that boy becomes a, say, 21 year old and an imminent threat toward the man is becoming clear, where shit is getting on a level where their physical prowess is either even or close enough for the man to then retaliate out of necessity with full force... full punches toward the young man in order to properly defend himself.
What changed? Same boy, same man. What changed (besides age, but don't be silly that I'm now arguing age is the "point of this") is the kid became a man and equaled the man's physical strength and prowess.
Under normal circumstances (to include most circumstances), a woman will never be on the same level as a man. We all know 97% of men can overpower 97% of women. A woman coming in to attack a man is the equivalent of a boy probably roughly 14 or so... again, hard to pinpoint, but you understand exactly what I'm talking about. It's not about gender. It's about different gaps in strength.
