I never thought this would be an issue in my life, at all. And i used to belong to the school of thought that stated that hitting, pushing, or touching women roughly in any manner whatsoever in any circumstance is ALWAYS wrong.

But as me and my longtime (now ex) gf went through an extreme rough patch, i found myself in a position i never thought i would be in:

I felt physically threatened by a woman half of my size.

The feelings you feel when you are physically and verbally attacked by a woman you would have given your life to protect are remarkable. I'll spare the boring details, but after a pattern of controlling and abusive behavior, I had my manhood called into question by my ex for literally walking two steps ahead of her to get to my car. I told her that I didn't want to date anymore, and she stormed off and went to a bar with her friends. Three hours later she calls me from a taxi, drunk, lost in atlanta and berating me for "abandoning" her. When we get home, she starts screaming at me for anything and everything i've done wrong. I tried to remove myself from the situation by walking away, telling her we were through, speaking rationally, etc. nothing worked. Thats when she started pushing me. and pushing me. I told her to stop touching me over and over and over again. I threatened to call the police. I tried reasoning. And then she started hitting me. And I lost it. I will never be a victim of violence, just like i swore my gf would never be. When she started hitting me, i warned her again and again to stop. She grew more angry and more violent. So i grabbed her by the hair and tripped her, making her land on her back. She immediately started crying and ran downstairs. We tried to work things out, but the mindblowing thing is when I brought this particular situation up to her she said "I dont want to talk about it. I cant believe you would ever do that to me"....

Never again. I will never date another woman that holds such an egregious double standard. I will never date another woman that holds such an egotistical position that she believes she can physically harm me with no consequences. I would love to hear any of your stories. it is a hard thing to go through, both because of the broken trust between you and your partner, and because of the bullshit shame men are programmed to feel when we rightfully defend ourselves against abusive women.