Self-Defense - How Far Should One Go?

First of all, I apologise in advance if my stand may upset or annoy anyone reading this, I'm well aware of how controversial this topic has been ever since I can remember, I would just like to put it out there that I'm not trying to advocate for violence, I just feel like what I'm about to say is common sense and I'm open to your various point of views if you guys disagree with me. Let's just try to be respectful in our response.

Thank you.

_{Photo by Johann Walter Bantz}

When it comes to the issue of self defense, everyone seem to have different opinion based on the gender involved, which is a bit surprising for me because I feel (think) that self defense should be the same for everyone involved.

A couple of days ago, I had walked into an argument my friends were having and they had immediately turned towards me to ask me of my opinion. They had all seen a video of a lady confronting a guy behind slapping him across the face three consecutive times without the guy retaliating. They had shown me the video and I'm not going to lie, if I was that guy, my first instinct would be the retaliate and hit her back after the first two slaps because those weren't "friendly slaps" at all.

Now before you all jump into conclusion, I'm not one to hit a lady or a guy either. It's been more than twenty years since I last raised my fist to fight anyone and even then I was a kid, so fighting has never really been a thing for me. I always make sure to walk away from the situation before it escalates to anything too serious that would make me want to fight, I still do.

But in a situation like that where you're getting assaulted by someone, irrespective of their gender, I feel it's only right for you to defend yourself or are you to endure all of it and walk away just because the person at the other end is a lady?

More than half of my friends there had said they would retaliate without thinking twice about it while the rest had said that nothing will make them raise their hands against a lady, which is something that I respect but do not believe in. I feel like they just haven't been angered well enough to want to do something.

Well, as for me, I will say here what I said to them, I'd never be the guy who hits a lady first, lord knows I've been tempted way too many times and I've always left every one of those situations the bigger person. But as a man, if there's one thing I will never tolerate, it will be someone assaulting me and me not doing anything about it because I'm trying to be the "perfect gentleman".

I may not retaliate the first time and might even try to walk away, but if you don't let me go and still continue to hit me even after I ask you to stop, whatever comes next will be on you because I will be defending myself in other to stop you from hitting me because I do not like being hit by anyone, irrespective of your gender.

If you know me, you'd know I'm a man of peace and I always preach peace every chance I get, I just feel like there are somethings we shouldn't let people get away with all the time, in order to prevent it from happening again in the future and this applies to all genders.

But if I'm wrong, I will like you guys to enlighten me in the comment section below because as always, I'm always eager to learn from each and everyone of you.