The obvious follow-up question is: is it acceptable to hit a man back? It's implied by the thread's question that it is, so the question should instead be phrased, should the automatic response to being struck by a man be to strike him back? Just how far are we going to take this gender inequality thing - is it going to be "never hit women, always hit men", or is it going to be "never hit women, always hit men (if you can run faster than them or are larger than them or outnumber them)", or what? Because I've been struck three times in my adult life, and I never considered the appropriate response to be retaliation despite the fact that the assailants were all males - in all cases the assailant just needed to cool down and/or sober up, and escalating the situation wouldn't have accomplished anything productive.