[Sgt]

(08-22-2015 09:17 PM)puckerman Wrote:  

I believe that men actually do shit-test other men, and it happened a few times recently.

Men shit test men a lot, but the examples you gave are not shit tests. A shit test would be when someone is

• testing another person
• whether that person can stand up for himself, or is a pushover
• using some irrelevant shit as the basis of the test
  

In the examples you gave, the guys did not want to test what you are about. They were actually thinking you are a threat to their relationship (when people are very insecure, even the presence of another male is threatening) and wanted to scare you away or establish a boundary.

A guy shit testing another guy in the gym would go more like this:

• A asks B whether he still needs the 25kg-dumbbell
• B says "no, but you sure it's the right weight for you?", looks at A dismissively
• A answers "It's not the right weight, I just use them for my warm up"
  

After an exchange like that, both guys would ususally laugh - B has established that A is not an overly sensitive pushover that he would have to walk on eggshells around.

I had a story similar to yours happen to me:
When I was at a big swing dancing festival in Cracow last year, I was talking to two ukrainian women in the kitchen of the hostel I was staying at. They were laughing and having fun when suddenly a short asian guy came into the kitchen real quick, stared me point-blank in the eyes and asked "WHAT'S UP?!" in an inadequately loud way. It was clear he didn't want to join the conversation... Then he grabbed one of the girls and literally pulled her out of the kitchen. The other girl, her friend, was extremely embarassed and said something along the ways of "It's because he's short" It turned out he was the main DJ of the Dragon Swing festival, "Shorty George" (very aptly named) and the girl he pulled away was his girlfriend.

When I told this story to a friend, I called it "short man syndrome", but I think the term that debeguiled used is much better, because short man syndrome is a little too specific:

(08-23-2015 12:35 PM)debeguiled Wrote:  

They are aping the constant threat mentality of street culture to feel tough, continually scanning their environment looking for something to throw a passive aggressive fit about.

In their minds, they really are living under the constant threat of having their girlfriends "stolen" by the "bad other men". When your thoughts revolve around this a lot, it will manifest itself in erratic behaviour like the examples you wrote about.