Now what?

I'd say he should attempt to avoid further attack and restrain her but should try not to be violent in doing so. Not because he's a man and she's a woman though.

He should try to defend himself while doing minimum damage to the woman. I don't think it matters what the situation was (where it happened, why, who's involved, etc.), this is always the case.

He should do what he has to do to protect and defend himself.

He should do nothing. Women never deserve to be hit. It's sort of how racists are only white, men only deserve to be hit.

Yes, and women should never go to jail. If they murder someone, they are either nutty (belong in a mental ward) or a man suckered them into doing it.

I think he should defend himself, but he doesn't need to go over the top.
It has nothing to do with the perp being a woman, I don't think anyone should hurt anyone if it can be avoided.

Did you know that in France, PMS is a legitimate defence for murder?

Uh... if that's true, it's weird.

I think that ultimately he should try to protect himself to the best of his ability under the circumstances. If he can run away, all the better. If he can restrain her, that would be good too. If in the confusion, he wound up killing or maiming her, I think that it would be an obvious case of self-defence. Unfortunate, but reasonable under the circumstances.

I was actually inspired to do this survey by Wicksy's somewhat similar survey of last year:

http://surveycentral.org/survey/10654.html

I didn't want to include the link in the explanation because I thought it might skew the results. I wanted people to approach this fresh, without any pre-conceived notions beyond the hypothetical incident.

That survey gives me a different picture though. If someone slaps you, but they aren't attacking you to the point you need to defend yourself, that's a bit different than your example.

Maybe it's just had one or two successful cases but in law, once a precedent is set.....

I'm going with restraint at first...if this doesn't work, then all if fair...hit the psycho until she can be restrained.

Maybe. It seems pretty scary though. Would she need a doctor's note, saying she gets really bad PMS? Some women don't even get bad PMS at all, and they could use that excuse anyway. I hope they at least had some sort of doctor's testimony. Even then, it seems kind of weird.

Maybe men could use PMS as an excuse for murdering their partners!

Yeah. That's exactly why I wanted to give that survey a little distance. I think that most people who responded to Wicksy's survey imagined something considerably less violent than my hypothetical here. Having been on the receiving end myself, I think that I imagined something a little more dire.

He should do whatever it takes to protect himself.

he should fart loudly, violently and voluminously so that he stinks her out of the room

I chose "He may fight back with as much force as necessary to subdue her" but that's not completely true.

I think he may fight back with as much force as necessary to get the fudge away from the crazy dog!

Fight back

control and restraint

Oh no, not the fart-attack defense manoeuvre!

Err. Would he be in any condition to hit back after he's been hit in the face by a heavy mug, then hit with a chair ? Why the hell aren't his 'friends' trying to stop her ? If he can still move, he should try and hit the dog - hard - to stop her ! She can save any apologies/ excuses for the mug & chair for the police.

Fight back with as much force as necessary, and as big as she is and already busted a mug on my head for no reason, knock her out! If help is needed yell for help.

He should fight back to subdue her. It doesn't sound like he has much of a chance, though.

He can hit her a little bit and restrain her. Maybe he should ask why she is attacking him.

Mitigating circumstances, or enough to get them off scot-free? Mitigating circumstances I would definitely buy into - having severe PMS can be a lot like suffering with a mental illness. But PMS certainly can't be used to say that someone wasn't in control of their actions, nor to get someone off a murder charge.

When using PMS as part of a defence, a woman would need their condition to have been long-documented by their doctors *before* the crime. Any woman who suffers bad PMS *will* seek help from a doctor either directly by asking for help, or indirectly through self-harm or suicide attempts.

Fight back with as much force as is necessary. Hopefully that won't involve hitting her, but if it does then he has every right to do it. If that results in her being maimed or even killed, then that's unfortunate, but justified.

It's a far cry from shooting a burglar in the back as he's running away, so don't go thinking I've suddenly changed my mind about defending yourself or your property! Tony Martin deserved that prison time.

Fight back, but don't use any more force than necessary. I'd feel the same way if the attacker were male.

Do I detect a wee bit of sarcasm?

Seems like he's outnumbered since she's so much bigger.
It seems fair to me that he hit back in order to stop her.

Oh. OK

You gave romkey the lollipop face....

Aye, a wee bit lassie.

I think even that is too much. People with bad headaches don't have the same leeway do they?

He may fight back with as much force as is appropriate.

Other...

He should just get the hell out of the way and leave town!!

WOOF!

He should fight back enough to subdue the attacker.

Mmm, the blow-job face. Freudian Slip perchance?

I don't remember any cases where bad headaches have been cited as mitigating circumstances, but even that seems reasonable to me. If you suffer badly with headaches and have been sleep-deprived, your judgement isn't necessarily what it would be if you didn't have the headaches. But even with that aside, PMS is different to headaches. I suffer fairly badly with it and experience quite strong desires to harm myself and others, even entertaining suicidal thoughts at times. I've never suffered so badly that the part of my brain that maintains an air of reason can't quell to some degree what the PMS is doing to me, but I *have* lost control largely due to PMS before. If my personality were more violent, or if I was in an especially stressful situation or if I had an underlying mental illness, the PMS could well be enough to push me over the edge and make me do something that I might be inclined to do during another part of my cycle, but probably would not ultimately go through with.

PMs can't make you do something you ordinarily would be completely incapable of, but it's certainly one more factor in making people lash out.

That's one reason it's important for people to recognize their states of mind, cycles, reactions to situations, and patterns. If they can anticipate it ahead of time and know what's going on, reason can override everything else.

hehehehehe

Wonderfully said, Biggles.

I think depression should be a legitimate excuse then because a lot of people say they were on the verge of suicide before they got medicated. In fact most people go through some cycle of mood where they do things they wouldn't ordinarily do.

I think kaleb meant the above reply for you.

I think depression may be used as a mitigating factor in many courts - I wish I knew what the legal precedent was like in cases like that

If I was him I'd run!

I don't know much about depression, but I always thought people who are depressed usually don't get violent with other people.

I think he should do all that's possible to protect himself, without intent of killing or maiming her... (that could mean trying to avoid the further attack first, but if doesn't work, then restraining, he needs to protect himself and would have every right to do so) ...I hope someone has already called the cops!

Yes I concur with glitterbits on your comment, also I can relate to what you go thru with PMS...and I agree with joalis reply to you

Initially, try to avoid further attack without retaliation. Back off (rapidly!), then try and talk her down. If he really doesn't know her then there could be all sorts of possible reasons why she attacked him, such as mistaken identity - there's no point fighting back if she's already realised that she made an error by attacking first. If that doesn't work, and avoidance is impossible, then resist the attack with reasonable force.

so the chips are down, and so is he helplessly laying on the ground and cant get up while shes above him with a chair. sounds like he's screwed. in that case, he should kick her in the chicken, take her chair away, and run really fast.

thats if he cant take the chair away from her. if he can, he should take it away from her and throw it to the side. if she still wants to fight, without hands tied to his back, go full scale and kick her ass. if not possible or impracticle, run really fast.

and if still, thats not possible, ONLY AS A LAST RESORT, smack her with the chair a few times until she stops

Hey... I already answered this one! Am I having a déja vu?

I am glad I was an inspiration for this survey!!

You were?

Don't worry....read Zang's comments!!

Just because he is a man and she is a woman does not mean he is bound to waive his right to self defense. He should fight back "with as much force necessary to subdue her."

Cut her up

Break her damn jaw for even disrespecting. She should have made sure of who it was before she struck. I'd have no mercy - even if I was a man.

The second option.

The first one. Kick her ass!!! Not only did she hurt him but that was a major beer foul.

Hey Tasty.

Hi sexy!

How have you been?

Busy! I'm going to send you and ASB some email soon and catch you up on stuff.

Ok. It's good to hear from you.

ask the genie who was sitting at the bar next to you.

that crazy person needs serious help and that man should do whatever it takes to protect himself w.o. any unnecessary harm to the woman

He may fight back with as much force as necessary to subdue her....but if it were me, woman to woman, I'd beat the daylights out of her.

...if she's going to fight like she's a man, the it's only fair to f*c& her the f*c& up.