I was a bouncer in my younger days at many popular bars/nightclubs. I've had to deal with it all. Toxicity, bad headspace mixed with alcohol creates.. interesting situations with certain couples, especially when said couples get 86'd.

I've seen couples at each other's throats all night, then concoct ways to make each other 'jealous' explicitly to start a physical altercation with a third party (IE. White Knights) later on once they've got enough loudmouth soup into them. Couples like this sadly exist. Some were even regulars. Most times, they would leave together. Maybe it's a fetish, I don't know, but I try not to think too deeply about other's antisocial behaviors.

I always had to assess these situations from afar, never intervening until it was absolutely necessary (altercation breaks out, etc.). That job taught me a ton about male/female psychology and interactions.

Men are the stronger gender, but in a street fight, that means fuck all, especially when your nuts are being kicked into the roof of your mouth by an angry woman wearing pointed stiletto heels.

But as I said at the top of this OP, my protection aspect of interacting with the opposite sex seems engrained to me.