"Hey. You're being a dick. Knock it off." "Excuse me, but I don't think that was called for. I understand that you're feeling upset because I didn't acknowledge your email yesterday, and I apologize for that, but I don't think that name-calling is warranted here. Can we talk about this?" Can you hear many women saying the first, or many men saying the second? Why is that, do you think? Numerous possible explanations exist, but I would posit that the woman is "covering her tracks" and pre-emptively apologizing and acknowledging the validity of the (probably male) other person's feelings BECAUSE she is accustomed to being gaslighted when she expresses displeasure. This could easily extend to other scenarios -- extra word use when giving an opinion to ensure that she's acknowledging that others may have different opinions, extra word use when making a decision to guard against being told that her decision is crazy...