cupiscent
Sage
From there I sit, Trick, there are two aspects to this.
I come from a family of tall women. There's a lot of society pressure that the man be the taller in the relationship. That can be tricky when you're tall. There's a lot of society pressure to be ladylike and dainty and slender and "not mannish". Women who are stronger or tougher often get called "dyke" - in a way that makes it clear it's pejorative. Elite female athletes get called that sort of thing, even though they're women who are clearly the best at what they do and celebrated for it. We're told it's not attractive to be strong.
There is sadly also, in Australia and, from what I hear, in America and Britain as well, a low level but quite pervasive threat of violence against women by men. Women are taught from a young age ways to "stay safe". In that environment, it might be seen that being bigger, stronger, capable of holding our own against a male assailant would be of benefit. On the other hand, that buys into the "the way to be safe from guns is to have a gun" viewpoint, which seems to me to just lead to more people being shot. Plus, however much you train or lift or learn, there's always the chance your attacker will have trained just as much and then - as has been noted here - all else being equal, the man has an advantage.
These two points are possibly related.
I come from a family of tall women. There's a lot of society pressure that the man be the taller in the relationship. That can be tricky when you're tall. There's a lot of society pressure to be ladylike and dainty and slender and "not mannish". Women who are stronger or tougher often get called "dyke" - in a way that makes it clear it's pejorative. Elite female athletes get called that sort of thing, even though they're women who are clearly the best at what they do and celebrated for it. We're told it's not attractive to be strong.
There is sadly also, in Australia and, from what I hear, in America and Britain as well, a low level but quite pervasive threat of violence against women by men. Women are taught from a young age ways to "stay safe". In that environment, it might be seen that being bigger, stronger, capable of holding our own against a male assailant would be of benefit. On the other hand, that buys into the "the way to be safe from guns is to have a gun" viewpoint, which seems to me to just lead to more people being shot. Plus, however much you train or lift or learn, there's always the chance your attacker will have trained just as much and then - as has been noted here - all else being equal, the man has an advantage.
These two points are possibly related.