I just found this thread, squirrels--props.
Sometimes great threads get lost outside of our 'MM' realm.
I agree with what you said for the most part, but I got the impression that you were portraying sh!t tests as a contrived agenda, and i think this is a common myth in our community.
Viewing all sh!t tests as some deliberate action with an intended function is naive, and frankly, AFC. Im not accusing you of subscribing to this, but it came off that way.
As a previous poster mentioned, the whole sh!t test thing is purely a label that WE invented to describe certain behaviors. I think a lot of men, especially intelligent ones, have a terrible habit of reading waaaayyy too far into things when it comes to women. Granted, there are certainly some crafty women out there who will execute a premeditated test on a man, but this is not the norm.
Basically what I am saying is that while every woman will sh!t test her man at times, they arent conciously aware they are delivering a "sh!t test". They are just being women. Women are far more perceptive than we give them credit for. We may hold the cards in analytical powers, but they "see" a lot of things we think are hidden.
That's why when the 'active test' rolls around many men loose their frame. They get comfortable, as you said, and drop their guard. Their insecurities about losing her start to seep out the cracks, and she intuitively recognizes this.
Women need a ROCK. They need a Man who is unwavering in character, strength, and constitution; but also one who is human. The man who passes this 'active test' is the one who remains his confident SELF throughout the storms and the sunny days. Many of us will falter when the going gets comfortable and we think we 'have her', and that is when they see the structural defects that can be our undoing.
It's not like we have to be supermen--this is impossible. But women, by nature, are "fluid"--- they have an amorphous, flowing nature that changes from one minute to the next. They need an oak that will not sway with their every breeze. That is the essence of man, if you will.
