It’s also frankly a hard line to walk for a man to defend one woman from another one. I think most people would prefer that someone looking to commit a violent act be prevented, but I’d assume men would be worried about the optics of physically defending against a woman, especially if you inadvertently overdo it. I’m a woman, so I can’t be sure, but I think that would be lurking in the back of my mind (and I know how easy it is for men to hurt me without intending to). Even worse, you might underdo it, leading to the original intended violence, your possible criminal consequences from your defense, and your loss of face.
I’ve seen the “white knighting” thing in videos, but in my small amount of personal experience people are actually pretty good at sorting out and agreeing on who is the primary aggressor regardless of gender. Maybe the “man is always wrong” reaction is an anecdotal thing that gets blown up to a more common occurrence than it actually is, or maybe it’s a factor of crowd size and people jumping in from far away with no idea of the context.
What really sucks is getting attacked by a woman as a man. There is absolutely no good answer, it’s just a bad place to be stuck in.
It’s also frankly a hard line to walk for a man to defend one woman from another one. I think most people would prefer that someone looking to commit a violent act be prevented, but I’d assume men would be worried about the optics of physically defending against a woman, especially if you inadvertently overdo it. I’m a woman, so I can’t be sure, but I think that would be lurking in the back of my mind (and I know how easy it is for men to hurt me without intending to). Even worse, you might underdo it, leading to the original intended violence, your possible criminal consequences from your defense, and your loss of face.
I’ve seen the “white knighting” thing in videos, but in my small amount of personal experience people are actually pretty good at sorting out and agreeing on who is the primary aggressor regardless of gender. Maybe the “man is always wrong” reaction is an anecdotal thing that gets blown up to a more common occurrence than it actually is, or maybe it’s a factor of crowd size and people jumping in from far away with no idea of the context.
What really sucks is getting attacked by a woman as a man. There is absolutely no good answer, it’s just a bad place to be stuck in.