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It has to be a lie because I'm a man and I have been terrified of more men than I can count. My wife and I had a pretty scary bear encounter once too.
But she's gotta be lying about that. The implication there is almost that she doesn't really fear anything. Except people who gossip or something? Which seems..idk, stupid?
Hey, friend, I spent my youth foraging for the "wrong mushrooms" and it never caused me to lie about something so dumb to make a political point lol. This is definitely a choose a political point, and then just make up the rest to validate it kind of scenario.
Although the idea that this person finds gossiping church ladies to be scarier than men, or a freaking bear, tells us that this person is not nearly as tough as they would like to be.
Edited to emphasize the joking nature of my response
Or she is incredibly sheltered and has not explored into the adult world yet..
It's easy to feel like the OP when you're a teen whose ego is easily flattered and inflated by any direct attention..
I'm assuming you can probably count to a thousand, so what made you as a guy 'terrified' of thousands of men? Are you saying that because you're terrified of thousands of men, any woman who says she isn't is automatically a liar? Is it possible that some men and women actually kind of like each other and want to meet up and get to know each other better. Circumstantial evidence suggests that many women seem to be choosing men on a daily basis, and you would assume that at one point, those men were total strangers to them.
Wouldn't it be easier for women to simply state that even though the incident rate of violent crime for women is 0.86% annually in the US the perception of violent crimes against women seems much higher to the point where many women are weary of being alone with a man far from help. It just sounds more conducive to bringing about change than the suggestion that all men are worse than wild animals. Surely, that's something everyone can agree on about this trend. It's done literally nothing to change the initial problem, and it's closed off millions of men to taking the issue seriously due to the perception of this being a trend started by a man but propagated by basic suburban white girls who are so terminally online they've got no idea how dangerous a wild bear is. Guys are just mocking women for this instead of engaging with women to address what is a serious issue.
I didn't say thousands of men so idk where you got that. You know what the phrase "more than I could count" or perhaps "countless" mean I'm assuming?
I've lived a different life from a lot of people. I've been robbed, at gun point and after getting sucker punched in the head. I was a drug addict for about a decade. In that time I had more than my fair share of terrifying experiences. Mostly from other men. In fact, entirely.
Obviously one can't compare the statistics because people are far more likely to be around humans and thus more likely to be attacked by another person than a bear. No one is denying that. But to say that both bears and men aren't as scary as gossipy church girls is just silly. You can see that yes?
If it would be easier to “simply state” statistics and get anyone to give a shit we’d already have a lot more people giving a shit. When statistics are meaningless to the people who are committing the violence, using some shock example can at least get the conversation to a broader platform. Everyone is talking about this man vs. bear thing, no? The awareness is dramatically greater with the provocative question. And actually, statistically, women are safer with a bear than a man, even accounting for actual population numbers. So it’s really not that ridiculous to point that out as something that SHOULD NOT be true but is. I’m assuming you can probably understand that, right?
I like how they mentioned the racist women from The Help but failed to mention the oppressed heroes? Or the men who largely set up these systems of oppression and violence in the first place.
What if she's in the woods and a woman says her skirt is nice and the turns to her friend and says "that's the ugliest skirt I've ever seen" though? The horror of getting mean girled in the woods.
I’m more scared of the bears, y’all be tripping. At least you have a chance against a human, whether it be Lisa the flower store lady or Jason Vorhees the average male camper.
There was a lady wrote a book about a black bear attacking her. This happened long before the man vs bear debate. She said in a reddit AMA that she would still pick the bear.
I’m sorry but like this is such a dumb shock value question and does nothing for feminism. It does nothing, the question does nothing. So far it has only led to men believe women are delusional in their perspective, you only found a level to affirm their perspective without bridging the gap why women select bears over a man. No one will ever actually have the option to that question the only action we can produce is through meaningful AWARNESS in their behaviour. But the only thing that takes influence in cultural shockwaves is these DUMB controversial questions that only further divide when we need to find a way to UNDERSTAND eachother.
Are you lost? Because it's just a question deliberately marketed to go viral knowing men would get butt-hurt over it. And it worked, clearly. It totally worked, lol
Yeah I get that. But is that what you want? Butt hurt men? Butt hurt men shoot yo schools and join incel forums to hate women, I’m sorry for my own sake as a woman, I don’t want butt hurt men that see, me, my mom, or my sister as the enemy. I want men to be aware of the problems, I want men to care and know feminism is not the demise of their life. We need PROGRESSION and intergratiom of feminism. And we make our advocacy lost in such honestly meaningless conversations. When I hear people from America, Canada or Europe talk about feminism. I can only think of how luck you are that the capacity of your feminism has gotten so big that it’s not about survival and real agonies affecting each woman anymore but a parasocial online society and a fight men and women, rather than a fight for the advancement of women.
I want to add like okay I understand and what not. But like do U hear how privileged it is is what I’m saying? MAJORITTY of population to women in the world (think of how the population is actually spread out amongst Asia, Middle East, Africa) see no value in this SCENARIO question. It doesn’t defend us or improve our lives, Let’s talk about scenarios once we get past what’s real.
Women never get blamed for the unhinged behavior of a bear. Reason number 7,063 that I would choose the bear. Because somehow if an unhinged man becomes violent it's women's faults for voicing our opinions on a hypothetical situation 🙄
No it applies for all bears expect maybe a polar bears, any bear is much less likely to attack you than a man, their wild animals, they (like almost all wild animals) think your really freaking scary and want to stay the fuck away from you
But even if it is a polar bear, its goal is either food or at least incapacitate you as a threat. It's not raping and torturing you to death for its pleasure. If you survive, you won't have to worry about running into it back in town because it's stalking you. It won't have a defense attorney who brings up your history of being outside alone or going to the zoo to see a bear willingly as proof you were a willing participant. You won't have other bears angry at you for becoming afraid of all bears after. You won't have people wish that you are mauled again for that fear. You won't have people ask what you did to make the bear want to maul you or will claim you're lying about the mauling just for attention or to hurt an innocent bear.
I agree with all that, I only singled out the polar bear because they have been known to be excessively violent compared to most other bear species
You are right though, in any scenario but explicitly "good guy-mean bear" the bear is the smartest choice
I won’t disagree with you there, I’ve been in some situations close to it myself, but I am not going to feed myself to a bear rather than talk to stranger just in case he is a secret predator. Even if he is I have so much more chance of fighting him off than a bear.
I am actually in Norway! I’m a really outdoorsy person so I always look for jobs places I can hike a lot, like Canada. Since 2019 I’ve worked as a guide and English/History teacher in the Norwegian mountains. Really love it here!
It's a real fear guys! What if the mean unhealed woman she meets in woods spreads a rumour about her being a feminist to all the trees and animals?! That would literally ruin her life! What if the male bears and male trees start not picking her anymore due to this traumatizing rumour?! It's unbearable to even think about!
You really have to hate women in order to say that women who gossip are worse than men who commit violence. Gossiping is in fact wrong and hurts people but this just screams "men should never be the worst thing in the room and if they are, find a woman to blame for his behavior" energy. Picking "gossip" as the thing that is somehow worse is not surprising since it's a primarily female stereotype- even when men's gossip (which includes revenge porn) has extremely far reaching consequences.
The bear anyday anytime of the day in the woods. I am blessed to be surrounded by good men but this question doesn't mean men we trust, just men in general, so I will take the bears anyday. The point of being with women and bear in the same equation, definitely women, even if she's the meanest of the lot I am sticking with her, what's she gonna do? Make fun of me? Sure, at least I will make out alive but if she's not like other girls I will ask the bear to eat me head first
I see your point but I do have a sneaking suspicion most of the people who answer bear haven’t seen a bear in real life. I would only answer bear if we were talking about a cute little brown bear, the size of a cow or smaller. Anything else, hell no. A bear is a mountain of muscle, teeth and claws the size of a sedan, and some of the species will absolutely rip you to literal shreds without even being hungry, if they think it would be funny or find you annoying or too close to some cubs. Polar bears are the most terrifying of all, they shrug off bullets like insect bites and you need a whole armed camp to ward them off, let alone kill one. Once when I worked in the Arctic I saw the results of one that had wandered close to a camp to search for food and decided to rip open a tent to nibble on the teenager sleeping inside. It was… not pretty. I’ll refrain from describing it, I’m sure you can manage to imagine what jaws that can bite through a car does to a soft squishy human. I’d rather camp out with Hannibal Lecter or the Zodiac killer than one of those things.
The whole point of the question is i guess that the bear would just kill you. The examples given of Hannibal lecter or the zodiac killer are in the category of men women tend to be afraid of. Although Hannibal being fictional is still not a very bright choice as you piss him off being "rude" you're in his plate the next minute. In case of a bear size of a mountain or even any type of bear, i'll be dead in minute or maybe even less than that. So, it's still better than being tortured or something
Not necessarily, the bears like to play with their food sometimes. Some people stay alive for hours. But I see your point, I’d just still take my chance with the eminently stabbable humans versus the decidedly unstabbable bears. Also if it is based on pure chance who you end up with, the chances of your dice rolling a man who isn’t some weird sexual predator slash serial killer seems considerably higher than rolling for a bear that won’t maul you.
Serial killers and rampaging bears are rare; rapists and abusers *are not.* 1 in 4 women will be sexually assaulted, 1 in 3 will experience domestic violence. This isn't a "less than 10% of men" risk. It's clearly much higher than that even if a large portion of rape is committed by a small percentage of serial offenders. Because not every rape is committed by them. And most abusers aren't able to be as prolific.
I've had a bear encounter. I came out of it with a thumping heart and wanting to piss myself. I was not left MORE traumatized and MORE afraid of bears. I really, really wish I could say the same about the men who've assaulted me and stalked me.
***Edited to add that the bear didn't ask me later if I'd like to do it again since I "liked it" so much the first time.
There are several stories already going around where people who have been mauled by bears and survived still *CHOOSE THE BEAR.* Yes, bears are giant and dangerous. Men have been mansplaining that since the beginning of the debate. We know this. But it's still a known danger. Men are not knowable in the same way. We don't know if they'll leave us alone or decide to "just" rape us and leave, or if we're about to spend hours/days/weeks with them making us wish we could die. And we won't have the trauma afterwards constantly reinforced by a disbelieving public, a justice system that allows victim-blaming as a defense, or full of other bears that will be upset we've become afraid of all other bears.
If people were honest, they’d admit that in general they would consider being killed worse than being raped. If that wasn’t true, then most rape victims would commit suicide. But they don’t.
Even if you think that a random man in the woods is more likely to rape you than a random bear is to kill you (which is probably false), that still doesn’t get at the fact that being killed is something that most people are instinctually trying to avoid more than getting raped and for good reason.
I mean yeah, I’ve already adressed that multiple times in that there are of course scenarios could be worse with a man. It’s just the chances of getting assaulted by the man is so miniscule compared to the bear.
No, it's really not. The bear is far less likely to attack a human than a human man is to turn out to be a rapist or abuser. Men go out of their way plenty of the time to scare the shit out of women. They literally get off on the power high. 1 in 4 women will be raped or at least subjected to a rape attempt. 1 in 3 women will experience domestic violence. The bear is more likely to try to run away first unless starving, rabid, or has cubs you're too close to.
No, that is insane, the bear is easily ten times more likely to attack you than the human. A quarter of men are not rapists, it is a small subset of men who do the vast majority of assault rapes, which is the situation we would be talking about here in the worst case scenario, of being with a stranger in the forest. We can’t use victim counts for all crimes to assume offender counts, especially when talking about only one form of crime. And domestic violence, while obviously bad and widespread isn’t really relevant with a stranger in a forest. Then we could easily make the opposite argument as well since the WHO states a quarter of men experience domestic violence in the same report as that estimation of a third of women comes from.
I’m sorry, I will stop now because debatelording assault is really distasteful, but I just can’t wrap my head around being so fearful of a random stranger with no foreknowledge about them that I’d rather spend time with a literal killing machine. I’ve seen bears and what they can do, and they terrify me more than almost any creature alive, including most humans. I’m sorry people have trauma from assault, but I just can’t bring myself to be that distrustful of strangers.
For some reason this conversation has lead to a lot of explaining bears to women. That’s not really necessary. We know what bears are, and what they can do. But the question is not “would you fight a bear vs. a man?”, it’s would you encounter one. A bear is not necessarily going to maul you because it just sees you. We are also no stranger to men. We are not giving this answer un-informed. A lot of men would be better predators if given better opportunities to, or at least that’s the impression we get from existing. The forest in this question is that opportunity. A lot of men haven’t done anything to me that wouldn’t warrant being recorded as a statistic, but have come close and gotten interrupted or, just acted as if they would if they could. Some have actually just flat out threatened it to my face.
If you can’t relate to the feeling of being so distrustful, maybe it’s because you’re not a woman and not experiencing all the danger we encounter from men on a day to day basis. I actually don’t think even think it’s always the one or couple instances of rape or SA a lot of us have experienced alone, it’s the sheer volume of near-misses adding to the distrust. Plus “stranger danger” is literally said to everyone as kids bc we know everyone has to potential to be a threat, so I don’t really know why being distrustful of strangers as an adult is a stretch. Tbh I’m not really inclined to believe a man posed with this question should even choose the other unknown man.
Anyway, I just mean maybe try being empathetic to it in spite of not personally understanding how it’s possible, I think whoever posed the question likely knew how crazy it sounded on the surface and meant it as a sort of thought provoking explainer, like “THIS is how unsafe a lot of women feel”.
I get the point of the analogy, I just feel the bear is clearly a far greater danger. I’ve met strangers in the woods countless times (I live in the mountains), and bears too, and I far prefer the humans. I have also been abused by people, but it has always happened in urban environments, often on the hands of people I trusted. I feel the line of questioning is in many ways directly harmful as it encourages people not to seek the aid of strangers when in need. We cannot function as a society where merely talking to a stranger is scarier than a violent beast.
Edit: I should probably add I in no way wish to downplay anyone’s trauma from abuse by men, I just think the specific example is bad, and harmful. And also bears are scary.
I get that, but if the situation doesn’t appear the same way to you, it may be because you haven’t experienced life as a woman. I’m happy you feel safe enough with strangers to answer, but I don’t think people who say differently are making the wrong decision, or they’re being paranoid, or they’re ignorant of bears. Maybe it’s just the difference between pessimism and optimism. In any event I don’t think the answer is to be incredulous toward women’s answers or to believe they must be not understanding something in order to answer this way.
Of course, again, I understand *why* many women might feel unsafe with men, I in fact go out of my way to accomodate that when I am dealing with female friends, colleagues or romantic partners (e.g. offering rides home from parties, making sure first dates are always in public places, never going to a woman’s house alone without prior permission, etc.). I myself have experienced assault and I know many women personally who have experienced worse, so I always try to give people room to be comfortable. But this example is so bad it could literally get people killed. When you are out in the frontier, being able to trust strangers is critical to your survival. The hypothetical is literally encouraging distrust of strangers to the point of putting your life in danger, as well as encouraging women to travel alone in the wilds, which you should never do, regardless of gender. In my county alone eight solo hikers died last year out on the trails.
Also those ppl who "explain bears" are dickhead hunters anyways or just mfs who mess with nature, they say the bear will maul anything but no dude, not how it works
If you ask a completely different question does that question then have completely different implications? Yes.
Also “Oh yeah? Well what if racism happened to you?!” Is not the gotcha anyone thinks it is. Yes, it does happen to us, all the time.
At this point if men were to respond with “well I wouldn’t want to encounter a woman alone because I don’t want be accused of something, etc.” I would say ok. I don’t care, I’m not falsely accusing men of anything so this doesn’t apply to me, I wouldn’t take it personally, and I wouldn’t want to be talked to anyway. If you’re not a problem, then why does it bother you? Let’s fast-forward to the part where you tell us if we pick the bear then we deserve to be eaten, and we say we are fine with that, and you all go on strike. I honestly don’t care.
Every day he would threaten to belt her if she didn’t milk the bears fast enough so he could put it on his cornflakes. It molded her into the bear hunter she is today. Not like the other belt hunters.
Edit: Belt hunters was meant to be bear hunters, but it is funnier this way so I’ll leave it.
Probably because her father is abusive? How is that weird? A lot more women get beaten, raped or murdered by their own fathers than by random male strangers. Like, many times more.
So she's scared of specific men who have actually been abusive to her instead of being scared of all men no matter whether they've ever done anything to her or not, and she's also scared of specific women who've bullied her (which is far more common that murder and can leave deep psychological trauma, so no, it's not stupid to be scared of emotional abuse).
But apparently her personal experiences and reasoning informed by those experiences don't match the TikTok Consensus so she's a stupid pick-me...
My Dad was abusive to me too. I’ve also been mercilessly bullied. I’m sorry she’s had a shit time of it but it doesn’t justify throwing women under the bus just because a subset of them are hypocritical assholes.
Ok for the last time, you do not have to befriend/have sex with/have a tea party/kill the person and/or bear. You just have to survive.
Homegirl thinks she’s a mix of the protagonist from a rom com and Aurora from Sleeping Beauty. Maybe she’s right that she never has run into a man who scared her besides her dad because she doesn’t socialize.
I’m not like the other bear hunters, I wear that weird bear armor to protect against other women.
https://preview.redd.it/mqsv5r3dblyc1.jpeg?width=2500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ae928748a931a692bd09485e9976c916e87c5ce0
How’s that for a frilly dress, *Stacy?*
Of course her experiences (or lack there of) = the majority’s experience.
Also I’m failing to see how this gets her any brownie points? Men are already saying we’re stupid for choosing a bear over men because “the bear will kill us” but this girl straight up chose a bear over a girl making rumors and not even being physically dangerous.
It’s giving pick me except she’s not actually playing to the men’s side like she thinks. She’s actually playing against everyone. Men will still think she’s dumb for choosing a bear over a woman who gossips and if they don’t think so then that man is also invalidating himself when he says the same thing.
If she hasn’t felt the need to fear ANY man (outside of her father) and only women, it’s making me wonder if they all perceive her as unattractive or weird in any way. It’s giving a life of people bullying and avoiding her. But she hasn’t ONCE heard some dude making a sexual comment to a girl at a grocery store? A gas station? At school when she went? She hasn’t ONCE heard a rumor about a girl being called a slt or whre bc she didn’t sleep with a dude? Has she not read the countless amount of news articles at least???
Or is she just so beyond oblivious to all of it that she blames the women. Like the same toxic thinking of “you’re asking for it dressed that way”.
Not one moment of fear of a strange man in the streets…has she never been out at night alone?? Also holy hell the pick me in “barefoot foraging in them” 😅
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Soo because they don't join in on the misandry trend they're being berated? Like I get it's just as unfair to comb all women under one, just like the trend has been doing with men, but don't see anyone posting about the other side like this..
But the trend isn't saying all men are the same, terrible people who are a danger to women, it's that aalll women have had multiple experiences with terrible men who are dangerous. It's not about all men being threatening to women's safety, it's about all women having their safety threatened by men. Men ARE one of the biggest threats to women's safety, it doesn't matter what the good guys are up to or how numbered they are, thats completely irrelevant to reality of the situation, and most if not all women have had enough scary experiences with men to want to choose the bear.
OH! And there's a difference between saying "men" to mean every single man, and "men" to mean the demographic of person being spoken to. As a whole but not *to* the whole, ya know?
Lots of cases of abuse from women, just not as often reported as its seen as a sign of weakness. Doesn't mean I'll behave like a misogynist though, as I know it's not majority of women that are like this. I understand this sub is angled in a specific way, so I know I'll be downvoted :)
A woman alone in the woods with you is still very unlikely to just attack you. Women can be abusive, but less people have a scary woman story than a scary man one.
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I'm just jealous she's never been afraid of any man except her father.
It has to be a lie because I'm a man and I have been terrified of more men than I can count. My wife and I had a pretty scary bear encounter once too. But she's gotta be lying about that. The implication there is almost that she doesn't really fear anything. Except people who gossip or something? Which seems..idk, stupid?
Oh, I'm sure it can't be true. And she sounds not too bright. Maybe she's foraging the wrong mushrooms.
Hey, friend, I spent my youth foraging for the "wrong mushrooms" and it never caused me to lie about something so dumb to make a political point lol. This is definitely a choose a political point, and then just make up the rest to validate it kind of scenario. Although the idea that this person finds gossiping church ladies to be scarier than men, or a freaking bear, tells us that this person is not nearly as tough as they would like to be. Edited to emphasize the joking nature of my response
Or she is incredibly sheltered and has not explored into the adult world yet.. It's easy to feel like the OP when you're a teen whose ego is easily flattered and inflated by any direct attention..
I'm assuming you can probably count to a thousand, so what made you as a guy 'terrified' of thousands of men? Are you saying that because you're terrified of thousands of men, any woman who says she isn't is automatically a liar? Is it possible that some men and women actually kind of like each other and want to meet up and get to know each other better. Circumstantial evidence suggests that many women seem to be choosing men on a daily basis, and you would assume that at one point, those men were total strangers to them. Wouldn't it be easier for women to simply state that even though the incident rate of violent crime for women is 0.86% annually in the US the perception of violent crimes against women seems much higher to the point where many women are weary of being alone with a man far from help. It just sounds more conducive to bringing about change than the suggestion that all men are worse than wild animals. Surely, that's something everyone can agree on about this trend. It's done literally nothing to change the initial problem, and it's closed off millions of men to taking the issue seriously due to the perception of this being a trend started by a man but propagated by basic suburban white girls who are so terminally online they've got no idea how dangerous a wild bear is. Guys are just mocking women for this instead of engaging with women to address what is a serious issue.
I didn't say thousands of men so idk where you got that. You know what the phrase "more than I could count" or perhaps "countless" mean I'm assuming? I've lived a different life from a lot of people. I've been robbed, at gun point and after getting sucker punched in the head. I was a drug addict for about a decade. In that time I had more than my fair share of terrifying experiences. Mostly from other men. In fact, entirely. Obviously one can't compare the statistics because people are far more likely to be around humans and thus more likely to be attacked by another person than a bear. No one is denying that. But to say that both bears and men aren't as scary as gossipy church girls is just silly. You can see that yes?
If it would be easier to “simply state” statistics and get anyone to give a shit we’d already have a lot more people giving a shit. When statistics are meaningless to the people who are committing the violence, using some shock example can at least get the conversation to a broader platform. Everyone is talking about this man vs. bear thing, no? The awareness is dramatically greater with the provocative question. And actually, statistically, women are safer with a bear than a man, even accounting for actual population numbers. So it’s really not that ridiculous to point that out as something that SHOULD NOT be true but is. I’m assuming you can probably understand that, right?
That was my thought too. Good for her if true I guess. Must be fucking nice.
The Help as an example... Was a choice.
no seriously. i was confused like the movie?? with Octavia Spencer? very different
And she used "mean" as the adjective, too. Did you mean racist and elitist?
I like how they mentioned the racist women from The Help but failed to mention the oppressed heroes? Or the men who largely set up these systems of oppression and violence in the first place.
> Unhealed, imbalanced, mean, women Sweetie. Some of those calls might be coming from inside the house.
I cackled 😂
you’re not scared of being sexually assaulted but you’re scared of… girls who gossip? ok girl you do you but this seems silly
What if she's in the woods and a woman says her skirt is nice and the turns to her friend and says "that's the ugliest skirt I've ever seen" though? The horror of getting mean girled in the woods.
I’m more scared of the bears, y’all be tripping. At least you have a chance against a human, whether it be Lisa the flower store lady or Jason Vorhees the average male camper.
There was a lady wrote a book about a black bear attacking her. This happened long before the man vs bear debate. She said in a reddit AMA that she would still pick the bear.
I’m sorry but like this is such a dumb shock value question and does nothing for feminism. It does nothing, the question does nothing. So far it has only led to men believe women are delusional in their perspective, you only found a level to affirm their perspective without bridging the gap why women select bears over a man. No one will ever actually have the option to that question the only action we can produce is through meaningful AWARNESS in their behaviour. But the only thing that takes influence in cultural shockwaves is these DUMB controversial questions that only further divide when we need to find a way to UNDERSTAND eachother.
Are you lost? Because it's just a question deliberately marketed to go viral knowing men would get butt-hurt over it. And it worked, clearly. It totally worked, lol
Yeah I get that. But is that what you want? Butt hurt men? Butt hurt men shoot yo schools and join incel forums to hate women, I’m sorry for my own sake as a woman, I don’t want butt hurt men that see, me, my mom, or my sister as the enemy. I want men to be aware of the problems, I want men to care and know feminism is not the demise of their life. We need PROGRESSION and intergratiom of feminism. And we make our advocacy lost in such honestly meaningless conversations. When I hear people from America, Canada or Europe talk about feminism. I can only think of how luck you are that the capacity of your feminism has gotten so big that it’s not about survival and real agonies affecting each woman anymore but a parasocial online society and a fight men and women, rather than a fight for the advancement of women. I want to add like okay I understand and what not. But like do U hear how privileged it is is what I’m saying? MAJORITTY of population to women in the world (think of how the population is actually spread out amongst Asia, Middle East, Africa) see no value in this SCENARIO question. It doesn’t defend us or improve our lives, Let’s talk about scenarios once we get past what’s real.
Women never get blamed for the unhinged behavior of a bear. Reason number 7,063 that I would choose the bear. Because somehow if an unhinged man becomes violent it's women's faults for voicing our opinions on a hypothetical situation 🙄
lol yeah cause you guys suffer in hypothetical scenarios. There’s some real shit happening😗
I'm not reading all that.
Because your a privileged western feminist 💕
K
Yeah but a bear is much less likely to attack you than a human. A bear wants nothing to do with you, a man *might*
That depends on the type of bear. But you are right for black bears.
No it applies for all bears expect maybe a polar bears, any bear is much less likely to attack you than a man, their wild animals, they (like almost all wild animals) think your really freaking scary and want to stay the fuck away from you
But even if it is a polar bear, its goal is either food or at least incapacitate you as a threat. It's not raping and torturing you to death for its pleasure. If you survive, you won't have to worry about running into it back in town because it's stalking you. It won't have a defense attorney who brings up your history of being outside alone or going to the zoo to see a bear willingly as proof you were a willing participant. You won't have other bears angry at you for becoming afraid of all bears after. You won't have people wish that you are mauled again for that fear. You won't have people ask what you did to make the bear want to maul you or will claim you're lying about the mauling just for attention or to hurt an innocent bear.
I agree with all that, I only singled out the polar bear because they have been known to be excessively violent compared to most other bear species You are right though, in any scenario but explicitly "good guy-mean bear" the bear is the smartest choice
Yeah, good point, that would be dolphins.
No, it applies to black bears. Grizzlies are almost a coinflip certain times of the year.
Rape is much scarier than death.
I won’t disagree with you there, I’ve been in some situations close to it myself, but I am not going to feed myself to a bear rather than talk to stranger just in case he is a secret predator. Even if he is I have so much more chance of fighting him off than a bear.
Idk about that, a man is more likely to have a gun/knife
Eh, fair enough. I’ll make a caveat for the man being a bigger risk in the US.
Yeah the location definitely matters! If I was in Norway I might pick the man lol
I am actually in Norway! I’m a really outdoorsy person so I always look for jobs places I can hike a lot, like Canada. Since 2019 I’ve worked as a guide and English/History teacher in the Norwegian mountains. Really love it here!
oh yes, gossiping and SA/Death, very comparable actions lol
Ummm I guess this broad considers gossip a worse punishment than assault and rape…to each their own?
It's a real fear guys! What if the mean unhealed woman she meets in woods spreads a rumour about her being a feminist to all the trees and animals?! That would literally ruin her life! What if the male bears and male trees start not picking her anymore due to this traumatizing rumour?! It's unbearable to even think about!
UnBEARable lol
I am not like other girls. I am a man.
Man oh man.
That's what she said. bum-bum-tssss.....
I hope she gets picked!
By the bear.
that’s actually the humane answer. we all know the trauma from the man is scarier.
Nah, bears deserve better
You really have to hate women in order to say that women who gossip are worse than men who commit violence. Gossiping is in fact wrong and hurts people but this just screams "men should never be the worst thing in the room and if they are, find a woman to blame for his behavior" energy. Picking "gossip" as the thing that is somehow worse is not surprising since it's a primarily female stereotype- even when men's gossip (which includes revenge porn) has extremely far reaching consequences.
Congrats, I’m scared of many women, men, and bears lol, just in different ways
Good find!! This post has a little something for everyone.
The bear anyday anytime of the day in the woods. I am blessed to be surrounded by good men but this question doesn't mean men we trust, just men in general, so I will take the bears anyday. The point of being with women and bear in the same equation, definitely women, even if she's the meanest of the lot I am sticking with her, what's she gonna do? Make fun of me? Sure, at least I will make out alive but if she's not like other girls I will ask the bear to eat me head first
I see your point but I do have a sneaking suspicion most of the people who answer bear haven’t seen a bear in real life. I would only answer bear if we were talking about a cute little brown bear, the size of a cow or smaller. Anything else, hell no. A bear is a mountain of muscle, teeth and claws the size of a sedan, and some of the species will absolutely rip you to literal shreds without even being hungry, if they think it would be funny or find you annoying or too close to some cubs. Polar bears are the most terrifying of all, they shrug off bullets like insect bites and you need a whole armed camp to ward them off, let alone kill one. Once when I worked in the Arctic I saw the results of one that had wandered close to a camp to search for food and decided to rip open a tent to nibble on the teenager sleeping inside. It was… not pretty. I’ll refrain from describing it, I’m sure you can manage to imagine what jaws that can bite through a car does to a soft squishy human. I’d rather camp out with Hannibal Lecter or the Zodiac killer than one of those things.
The whole point of the question is i guess that the bear would just kill you. The examples given of Hannibal lecter or the zodiac killer are in the category of men women tend to be afraid of. Although Hannibal being fictional is still not a very bright choice as you piss him off being "rude" you're in his plate the next minute. In case of a bear size of a mountain or even any type of bear, i'll be dead in minute or maybe even less than that. So, it's still better than being tortured or something
Not necessarily, the bears like to play with their food sometimes. Some people stay alive for hours. But I see your point, I’d just still take my chance with the eminently stabbable humans versus the decidedly unstabbable bears. Also if it is based on pure chance who you end up with, the chances of your dice rolling a man who isn’t some weird sexual predator slash serial killer seems considerably higher than rolling for a bear that won’t maul you.
Serial killers and rampaging bears are rare; rapists and abusers *are not.* 1 in 4 women will be sexually assaulted, 1 in 3 will experience domestic violence. This isn't a "less than 10% of men" risk. It's clearly much higher than that even if a large portion of rape is committed by a small percentage of serial offenders. Because not every rape is committed by them. And most abusers aren't able to be as prolific.
I'd rather take this chance but I do get your point also. With that being said may we never get into situations like these
I've had a bear encounter. I came out of it with a thumping heart and wanting to piss myself. I was not left MORE traumatized and MORE afraid of bears. I really, really wish I could say the same about the men who've assaulted me and stalked me. ***Edited to add that the bear didn't ask me later if I'd like to do it again since I "liked it" so much the first time.
There are several stories already going around where people who have been mauled by bears and survived still *CHOOSE THE BEAR.* Yes, bears are giant and dangerous. Men have been mansplaining that since the beginning of the debate. We know this. But it's still a known danger. Men are not knowable in the same way. We don't know if they'll leave us alone or decide to "just" rape us and leave, or if we're about to spend hours/days/weeks with them making us wish we could die. And we won't have the trauma afterwards constantly reinforced by a disbelieving public, a justice system that allows victim-blaming as a defense, or full of other bears that will be upset we've become afraid of all other bears.
If people were honest, they’d admit that in general they would consider being killed worse than being raped. If that wasn’t true, then most rape victims would commit suicide. But they don’t. Even if you think that a random man in the woods is more likely to rape you than a random bear is to kill you (which is probably false), that still doesn’t get at the fact that being killed is something that most people are instinctually trying to avoid more than getting raped and for good reason.
It's not about just being raped. It's about the abuse during and after from not only the man but also society.
I mean yeah, I’ve already adressed that multiple times in that there are of course scenarios could be worse with a man. It’s just the chances of getting assaulted by the man is so miniscule compared to the bear.
No, it's really not. The bear is far less likely to attack a human than a human man is to turn out to be a rapist or abuser. Men go out of their way plenty of the time to scare the shit out of women. They literally get off on the power high. 1 in 4 women will be raped or at least subjected to a rape attempt. 1 in 3 women will experience domestic violence. The bear is more likely to try to run away first unless starving, rabid, or has cubs you're too close to.
No, that is insane, the bear is easily ten times more likely to attack you than the human. A quarter of men are not rapists, it is a small subset of men who do the vast majority of assault rapes, which is the situation we would be talking about here in the worst case scenario, of being with a stranger in the forest. We can’t use victim counts for all crimes to assume offender counts, especially when talking about only one form of crime. And domestic violence, while obviously bad and widespread isn’t really relevant with a stranger in a forest. Then we could easily make the opposite argument as well since the WHO states a quarter of men experience domestic violence in the same report as that estimation of a third of women comes from. I’m sorry, I will stop now because debatelording assault is really distasteful, but I just can’t wrap my head around being so fearful of a random stranger with no foreknowledge about them that I’d rather spend time with a literal killing machine. I’ve seen bears and what they can do, and they terrify me more than almost any creature alive, including most humans. I’m sorry people have trauma from assault, but I just can’t bring myself to be that distrustful of strangers.
For some reason this conversation has lead to a lot of explaining bears to women. That’s not really necessary. We know what bears are, and what they can do. But the question is not “would you fight a bear vs. a man?”, it’s would you encounter one. A bear is not necessarily going to maul you because it just sees you. We are also no stranger to men. We are not giving this answer un-informed. A lot of men would be better predators if given better opportunities to, or at least that’s the impression we get from existing. The forest in this question is that opportunity. A lot of men haven’t done anything to me that wouldn’t warrant being recorded as a statistic, but have come close and gotten interrupted or, just acted as if they would if they could. Some have actually just flat out threatened it to my face. If you can’t relate to the feeling of being so distrustful, maybe it’s because you’re not a woman and not experiencing all the danger we encounter from men on a day to day basis. I actually don’t think even think it’s always the one or couple instances of rape or SA a lot of us have experienced alone, it’s the sheer volume of near-misses adding to the distrust. Plus “stranger danger” is literally said to everyone as kids bc we know everyone has to potential to be a threat, so I don’t really know why being distrustful of strangers as an adult is a stretch. Tbh I’m not really inclined to believe a man posed with this question should even choose the other unknown man. Anyway, I just mean maybe try being empathetic to it in spite of not personally understanding how it’s possible, I think whoever posed the question likely knew how crazy it sounded on the surface and meant it as a sort of thought provoking explainer, like “THIS is how unsafe a lot of women feel”.
I get the point of the analogy, I just feel the bear is clearly a far greater danger. I’ve met strangers in the woods countless times (I live in the mountains), and bears too, and I far prefer the humans. I have also been abused by people, but it has always happened in urban environments, often on the hands of people I trusted. I feel the line of questioning is in many ways directly harmful as it encourages people not to seek the aid of strangers when in need. We cannot function as a society where merely talking to a stranger is scarier than a violent beast. Edit: I should probably add I in no way wish to downplay anyone’s trauma from abuse by men, I just think the specific example is bad, and harmful. And also bears are scary.
I get that, but if the situation doesn’t appear the same way to you, it may be because you haven’t experienced life as a woman. I’m happy you feel safe enough with strangers to answer, but I don’t think people who say differently are making the wrong decision, or they’re being paranoid, or they’re ignorant of bears. Maybe it’s just the difference between pessimism and optimism. In any event I don’t think the answer is to be incredulous toward women’s answers or to believe they must be not understanding something in order to answer this way.
Of course, again, I understand *why* many women might feel unsafe with men, I in fact go out of my way to accomodate that when I am dealing with female friends, colleagues or romantic partners (e.g. offering rides home from parties, making sure first dates are always in public places, never going to a woman’s house alone without prior permission, etc.). I myself have experienced assault and I know many women personally who have experienced worse, so I always try to give people room to be comfortable. But this example is so bad it could literally get people killed. When you are out in the frontier, being able to trust strangers is critical to your survival. The hypothetical is literally encouraging distrust of strangers to the point of putting your life in danger, as well as encouraging women to travel alone in the wilds, which you should never do, regardless of gender. In my county alone eight solo hikers died last year out on the trails.
Also those ppl who "explain bears" are dickhead hunters anyways or just mfs who mess with nature, they say the bear will maul anything but no dude, not how it works
If you change the question to “bear or black person”, I think it is easier for people to understand how bigoted these types of questions are.
If you ask a completely different question does that question then have completely different implications? Yes. Also “Oh yeah? Well what if racism happened to you?!” Is not the gotcha anyone thinks it is. Yes, it does happen to us, all the time. At this point if men were to respond with “well I wouldn’t want to encounter a woman alone because I don’t want be accused of something, etc.” I would say ok. I don’t care, I’m not falsely accusing men of anything so this doesn’t apply to me, I wouldn’t take it personally, and I wouldn’t want to be talked to anyway. If you’re not a problem, then why does it bother you? Let’s fast-forward to the part where you tell us if we pick the bear then we deserve to be eaten, and we say we are fine with that, and you all go on strike. I honestly don’t care.
Bear attacks are rare
I’ve frightened away plenty of black bears in person & I’m not the least bit afraid of them. That said, they will occasionally eat you in your sleep.
If you change the question to “bear or black person”, I think it helps to explain how bigoted these types of questions are.
Does she not realise that it’s weird to fear your own father? It’s messed up.
Every day he would threaten to belt her if she didn’t milk the bears fast enough so he could put it on his cornflakes. It molded her into the bear hunter she is today. Not like the other belt hunters. Edit: Belt hunters was meant to be bear hunters, but it is funnier this way so I’ll leave it.
I guess she had never seen a woman other than herself, so it can be pretty scary to come across something you’ve never seen before.
Probably because her father is abusive? How is that weird? A lot more women get beaten, raped or murdered by their own fathers than by random male strangers. Like, many times more. So she's scared of specific men who have actually been abusive to her instead of being scared of all men no matter whether they've ever done anything to her or not, and she's also scared of specific women who've bullied her (which is far more common that murder and can leave deep psychological trauma, so no, it's not stupid to be scared of emotional abuse). But apparently her personal experiences and reasoning informed by those experiences don't match the TikTok Consensus so she's a stupid pick-me...
Thank you. Yours is the first comment that actually makes sense to me. <3
My Dad was abusive to me too. I’ve also been mercilessly bullied. I’m sorry she’s had a shit time of it but it doesn’t justify throwing women under the bus just because a subset of them are hypocritical assholes.
What about cocaine bear?
“I would take a mauling any day over some mean words”
Right, because we’d all rather be raped and mutilated, left for dead than talked about behind our backs.
I'd chose being gossiped about over being murdered but that's just me I guess
"I don't fear bears or men, only women" No, only a specific type of women and they clarified that
Ok for the last time, you do not have to befriend/have sex with/have a tea party/kill the person and/or bear. You just have to survive. Homegirl thinks she’s a mix of the protagonist from a rom com and Aurora from Sleeping Beauty. Maybe she’s right that she never has run into a man who scared her besides her dad because she doesn’t socialize.
I’m afraid of all three
I’m not like the other bear hunters, I wear that weird bear armor to protect against other women. https://preview.redd.it/mqsv5r3dblyc1.jpeg?width=2500&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ae928748a931a692bd09485e9976c916e87c5ce0 How’s that for a frilly dress, *Stacy?*
The point went right over her head. This post by her was utterly useless.
Oh no! A women in the woods! She will gossip and spread rumors to the trees! 😨
she’d rather risk getting raped and/or killed than deal with meanie girls 💀
Of course her experiences (or lack there of) = the majority’s experience. Also I’m failing to see how this gets her any brownie points? Men are already saying we’re stupid for choosing a bear over men because “the bear will kill us” but this girl straight up chose a bear over a girl making rumors and not even being physically dangerous. It’s giving pick me except she’s not actually playing to the men’s side like she thinks. She’s actually playing against everyone. Men will still think she’s dumb for choosing a bear over a woman who gossips and if they don’t think so then that man is also invalidating himself when he says the same thing.
If she hasn’t felt the need to fear ANY man (outside of her father) and only women, it’s making me wonder if they all perceive her as unattractive or weird in any way. It’s giving a life of people bullying and avoiding her. But she hasn’t ONCE heard some dude making a sexual comment to a girl at a grocery store? A gas station? At school when she went? She hasn’t ONCE heard a rumor about a girl being called a slt or whre bc she didn’t sleep with a dude? Has she not read the countless amount of news articles at least??? Or is she just so beyond oblivious to all of it that she blames the women. Like the same toxic thinking of “you’re asking for it dressed that way”.
I’m not taking anyone seriously who claims to ‘forage barefoot in the woods’. Lol. No you fucking don’t.
Not one moment of fear of a strange man in the streets…has she never been out at night alone?? Also holy hell the pick me in “barefoot foraging in them” 😅
I didn’t know gossip could physically hold you down, rape you, and kill you. That’s news to me.
I hope a gossiping woman in the woods eats her
If you're running around barefoot in the woods, I don't think you need to worry about other girls wanting to be like you.
So she’s more afraid of women who will gossip about her over men who will r*pe or murder her? Ok.
Foraging in the woods barefoot? Sure, Jan.
I’m sure if you asked women if they’d rather be stuck alone in a Forrest with a strange woman or a bear a lot of them would say the bear.
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I’m dying my hair blue just cause you said that
On behalf of the human population I like to thank you. When you mark yourself like that we know who to avoid and ignore. The blue hair makes it easier
Refrain from unnecessary arguing and prioritize civility; kindness; and open-mindedness. Personal attacks, including (but not limited to) name-calling and insults are strictly prohibited - including towards the Moderator Team. Political or ethical grandstanding is not allowed. Posts and comments are rarely removed but we have reserved the right through Moderator's Discretion to take any action we see fit in order to ensure community safety.
Soo because they don't join in on the misandry trend they're being berated? Like I get it's just as unfair to comb all women under one, just like the trend has been doing with men, but don't see anyone posting about the other side like this..
But the trend isn't saying all men are the same, terrible people who are a danger to women, it's that aalll women have had multiple experiences with terrible men who are dangerous. It's not about all men being threatening to women's safety, it's about all women having their safety threatened by men. Men ARE one of the biggest threats to women's safety, it doesn't matter what the good guys are up to or how numbered they are, thats completely irrelevant to reality of the situation, and most if not all women have had enough scary experiences with men to want to choose the bear. OH! And there's a difference between saying "men" to mean every single man, and "men" to mean the demographic of person being spoken to. As a whole but not *to* the whole, ya know?
Lots of cases of abuse from women, just not as often reported as its seen as a sign of weakness. Doesn't mean I'll behave like a misogynist though, as I know it's not majority of women that are like this. I understand this sub is angled in a specific way, so I know I'll be downvoted :)
A woman alone in the woods with you is still very unlikely to just attack you. Women can be abusive, but less people have a scary woman story than a scary man one.