I find it fascinating when dudes do this - I'm the one they follow, so I'd assume they have some level of respect for me (or at the very least, believe that I can move about the world with a modicum of awareness and competence). AND YET! When I have an interaction with a stranger they do not know and will never meet, their instinct is to leap to the defence of that stranger.
Misogyny is assuming that any random man is more correct than any woman (even one you respect/like).