I don't know if agree with your claim that "leveling the playing field is a zero-sum game" although to many men is might seem that this is the case. There's a reason for this though, check out this and this to read about it. Essentially, testosterone by nature increases the competitive nature and decreases cooperation. Thus the balancing of power between gender, which should bring about increased cooperation is viewed by those with higher testosterone levels as a threat to their power. I certainly don't want to excuse anyone's behavior though. Hopefully we've all evolved to the point where we can recognize this kind of biological tendency and think rationally about how to curb the behavior it might otherwise bring about.
I think that science plays an important role in understanding one another, from really basic things to really complex things, and you can never have too much science in any dialogue. But let's not miss the forest for the trees. This is a problem with white men fucking things up and not facing social or legal consequences. This is about white men being upset any time an advantage is removed, or a wrong is righted. This is about white men fighting to limit women's access to healthcare as much as it's about white men making the internet a toxic place for women and minorities. These aren't things that we're beyond, yet. As I said before, hubski is very much an exception, but that means that we have to be very vigilant about these things, and raise our voices when the angry white men take a dump on our intellectual cohorts, whatever they happen to be, because being the exception means the odds are working against us. I'm not saying we need to demonize white men (I am one, so that would be a strange position,) but let's be honest about what's wrong with the internet; it's angry white men.