On average the top 10% of women are only as strong as the bottom 10% of men. IIRC your average 25 year old woman who goes to the gym is only as strong as a 14/15 year old boy.
The difference between my wife hitting me is at worst a bruise, and me hitting my wife is a fractured skull. The difference between my wife slapping me is a red mark on my face, and me slapping my wife is her being knocked to the floor. I can take my wifes wrist in one hand and I can force her to the ground or I would break her arm if she resisted. If my wife takes my wrist in both hands, she's struggling to even force me to move my arm (this one she tried the other day cause I wouldn't touch the pumpkin goop).
The average woman has around 50% of the upper body strength of a male. Male bones are on average larger and denser than womens. Similarly our skulls are thicker, denser and have features like a bigger brow and stronger jaw than women. Our skin is literally thicker and stronger than women. Men have a naturally higher muscle-to-body-mass ratio than women.
I think on average men tolerate sexism towards them because we can, because we really don't need to defend ourselves from words. Women do need to defend themselves from words, because words are easily turned into actions and women can't easily defend themselves against actions.
I genuinely think that a lot of women are afraid of men, perhaps not consciously. Maybe not rightly so today, but only because of our society and morals. Society and morals put a decline in the male-female spousal abuse rates, to the rape rates.