Let us face it, the urge to help & protect women is ingrained within our DNA. Society continues to hold this expectation even though (or perhaps because of) the era of strong independend women . Indeed, the worst behaviour imaginable is refusal to whiteknight: worse than the attack. White Knights imagine a scenario of rescuing the damsel in distress, and her subsequently falling in love.

Reality is different. The vast majority of women elect to stay with their abusive partners, and you are not Superman. White Knights lose while damsels side with the abuser

Whiteknighting has benefits, employing it as a mating strategy tickles some women.

These female specimen exploit the "Helping M'Lady! no questions asked"-attitude to act knowingly in the wrong. She suffers no consequences for foul & rude behaviour, because such a woman employs her White Knight partner as meat shield to compensate.