One of the toughest guys I have ever known used to wear a pink shirt when he went out on the town, because he knew that someone would suggest that he was gay and then he could beat the crap out of them. His Dad had passed away when he was young, and he was raised my his single mother and 4 older brothers... all really big and mean men. My friend wasn't a big guy. (5' 8" -ish and didn't look strong, or tough), but he was fearless and would take on the biggest guys around. At one point, all of the boys, and their mother, were in the penitentiary ALL at the same time...
He was a lot of fun (if you knew him), and always had a lot of girls hanging around, but after a time it started to feel like a "job" trying to keep him out of trouble (mostly over pool table arguments). Eventually one of the girls took me away to another town, where three months later, took all my money and my dog... a grand total of about $140.00 and most of that was dog food and chew toys...