Baloney. Women and men are vastly different. The level of protection and gentleness to women from men should always exceed that given to other men.
And boys and girls?
Men historically have defined the sexual parameters of society, from the Puritans to the Taliban.
Not out of protection, but out of fear of competition. Virgins are prized not for 'purity', but because they won't be able to make comparisons. Remarks like "Boys like sex and girls don't need it" have ancient roots, and they are NOT because women are on a pedestal.
Quite the opposite.
Yet the messages we women get from birth until death are "Like sex, hate sex, stay pure, be a slut, use sex to get things".
Either you protect children (yes children, boys and girls) equally, or you look deep inside yourself and see what you fear.