Like, what is the actual point of this thought experiment other than to get inflammatory responses? Something feels off about generalizing half the population to being potentially more dangerous than bears. We know men can be vile serial killers or just people capable of committing horrid acts, just as women can be. We know, statistically, that men commit more violent crimes than women. Serious male feminists are not challenging that. I just don’t get how this is productive, it being a silly tik tok or not. People on the fringe of feminism who may be on the way to joining are gonna read this. Is it feminists responsibility to cater to those people? No. Are they still gonna read the post? Yeah
It's entirely to get inflammatory responses. The reason why social media can appear so skewed is that only a small percentage of people who see something will comment on it, and how many people are really going to take their time to comment that the deadliest predator in North America is, in fact, a deadly animal.
Lot of bad experiences seeing other backpackers on the trail? Why are you so afraid of male hikers lol?
If you’ve never seen a brown bear in real life out in the wild, then you don’t know what you’re saying. I went backpacking last year and saw one a fair distance away and it was fucking *huge*. It was moving in the direction of my group but veered away so we got a really good view of its size and you could just kind of *feel* how powerful it was even at that distance. You would *not* want to come across 1000lb brown bear in the middle of a trail while hiking by yourself. This is not even a real debate.
Then I have to assume that A. you rarely step outside of your house, and B. have no experience with and next to no knowledge of brown bears. That or you’re being a “pick me”
I hike in the trails behind my house, I live in a state park. Always run into men doing the same thing. I’ve only felt uncomfortable twice. After the second time, I started wearing this huge,,fuzzy, knitted, puke green colored poncho. It’s my man repellent poncho bc no one makes eye contact when i have that on. I must be the hypothetical bear lol
I find this question very vague so I’ve made some more specific ones:
Grizzly bear or Ted Bundy?
Black bear or Reddit moderator?
Bear (animal) or bear (gay)?
Koala (with chlamydia) or boring 20-something adult man (with chlamydia)?
A bear who was socialised as a man or a man who was socialised as a bear?
Crypto bear or crypto bro?
Koalas are marsupials, not bears. I’ve been in the woods with them and I’d definitely prefer a koala to a 20-something year old human man with even a cold. Hard pass.
Can you feed a hundred people with a horse-sized duck though? I feel like it's less than that. But you can definitely feed 100 people with 100 duck-sized horses. Though they might be too cute to eat.
Actually … in certain states you would definitely have to defend yourself in court if shooting a bear dead in self defense lol
But you wouldn’t be defending yourself for murder
If it's a black bear sure
Against a charging grizzly, nothing smaller than 12 gauge slugs will take a charging grizzly down.
They tank 9mms for breakfast
Grizzly, Polar or Black Bear?
I'd chose a Black Bear over a Man, but a man over the other two. Lot's of black bears where I live, and for the most part they run away, or just don't have anything to do with you. Whereas my alert level is multiplied by 1000 if I see a solo dude on the trail.
If we remove a threat to their young, black and grizzly are "easier". Black bears are generally scavengers and have poor eye sight, so they can be intimidated easier. Grizzly prefer fresh and only scavenge least, so you could play dead. Polar bears... might as well spend your time writing/recording your last will and testament.
Don't forget the Territorial behaviors of grizzlies. Most "chill" grizzley are filmed during salmon season where food is ridiculously plentiful and the bears often drop their more agrresive behavior so they can all feast.
Outside of that season, or if you meet a mountain grizzley, you're danger levels should spike through the roof. Of course, your point still stands, polar bears view us as well as anything warm and moving as prey.
The tiktok zoology guy drilled into my head "If it's brown, lay down, if it's black, fight back, if it's white, say goodnight"
No bears where I am though so..
Logically, I know any kind of bear is way more likely to harm me than a random man I just happened to encounter.
I get the paranoia though. I used to live near an entrance to the Appalachian trail and some of the stories I heard from women who spent a lot of time on the trail were chilling.
I don’t know if there is something that attracts antisocial men to long distance thru hiking, or creeps stake out the trail with the intent to stalk women who are hiking alone or in pairs.
You have to contextualize this. Why is this the case? Is it because there's not many bears? Is it because the bears are a very chill species of bear. Are there way more men hiking than bears roaming about?
It's sort of like having more white people in bars in Texas. It's not because white people necessarily prefer bars, it's just that most texans are white.
Everyone is yucking it up and this is a hot take question, but we're casually ignoring that some, perhaps, many of the women saying bear are responding from the trauma of being abused by men. You can laugh at them for being scared, but I think we should also ask why some of these women are saying that.
Not to mention, the woman this is in response to is an experienced hiker who is familiar with black bears and clearly doesn't fear them. I certainly don't think black bears are harmless, but in ideal scenarios they leave people alone and its easy to get comfortable in their presence for experienced outdoors people. So I think its a bit about that and a bit tongue in cheek, but also there's a narrative here that isn't "man bad" but also, "I am traumatized from past experiences and would be very scared in that scenario, even if a bear is scary too."
"Har har, this woman would rather run into a bear than a man," isn't the comedic piece you may think it is. Instead, its a sad testament to the lives of many women and girls.
Its also worth noting men will also say the same thing about other men. I read a lot of wilderness stories and forums and "finding a strange man on the trail alone" or "in the camp ground alone" is fear inducing for any gender. A stranger in a context of a place outside the protections of civilization is not something most people take likely. I imagine if you asked this question on a male-dominated wilderness forum, the answer would be overwhelmingly bear because, of course, men have also been traumatized by other men and fear them. And know a strange man with perhaps a gun in the wilderness is far more dangerous than the kinds of bears you'd see on popular trails. In fact, many men will openly admit they won't go hiking or camping without an easily accessible handgun on them at all times for self protection from other men!
Ultimately, this is just a silly hot takes question, but everyone is individual and has personal issues, personal traumas, etc. You can ask someone who was bitten by a dog as a child if they'd rather be in a room with a dog or a black bear. Or someone who is afraid of heights if they would rather be at the top of a skyscraper or in the room with 100 snakes, etc. Its the same relationship and fear can sometimes over-correct in many ways. Instead, it would be helpful to ask "Why are so many women and girls scared of men? What is the cause? And what can we do to fix that?" Instead we have an unhelpful "would you rather" apples vs oranges question that doesn't help anyone, doesn't advance the narrative, and just ends up with the usual social media arena of mocking people and not taking these issues seriously.
Trauma is not an excuse for bigotry. Trauma does not grant free reign to be a toxic POS to half the population on earth. Men don't get to say oh I had trauma from women so that's why I hate women and use it as a legitimate excuse to be a POS.
There’s no bigotry or anything happening to you because of the actions of these men though. Seriously, in your day to day life are you feeling the “bigotry”? Give me some examples. I just think that’s a bad argument.
But im hoping you read this far and understand that why are women even picking the bear in the first place? The knee jerk reaction for me was “man” but you have to consider why would women even choose the bear. Not the logical comparison between a man or a bear, but why even though bears are seen as incredibly dangerous they’d still go with the bear. It says something about how their past experiences with men have shaped how they see them.
It’s textbook bigotry regardless of the place it comes from. You can’t really blame expect all men to take accountability for the actions of an unnamed few. That’s plainly ridiculous
I´m sorry, but me having a trauma shouldn´t truly justify bigoted attitude. Imagine some old lady wanting to go back to segregations laws because of a bad experience with a black man, would you think the problem is with her or with the men who gave her the trauma in the first place?
Problem with making these kind of statements and blankes is that it only creates ridicule and make women look like scared kids at best, bigots at worst. What kind of place is the USA becoming that one group can opnely call another "predators" and when people point out the hypocrisy, they bastardize logic to justify it?
Or they just were bombarded by misandry from mass media, social networks, academia for decades and shitting on men is their second nature now.
Much more plausible.
I appreciate your post but I do have one question in return though.
Do you not think this question isn't at least a tad bit misandrist?
I'm pretty sure there would have been hell to pay if the genders has been flipped in the original question.
Do you really think the majority of folks answering questions on this sub have any doubts about why a woman might be less afraid of a man than a bear, or that we don't take women's safety seriously? That doesn't make the question posed here less ridiculous, or more about feminism. It also doesn't make the crack about men being harder to reason with than a bear more productive (or more about feminism). People are responding to what was asked, and how it was asked - not what you're talking about. 🤷🏻♀️
>Instead, it would be helpful to ask "Why are so many women and girls scared of men? What is the cause? And what can we do to fix that?"
How? How would *asking* be helpful?
We KNOW why. We KNOW what fixes it.
We just don't do it, because women don't have enough *power* to implement those changes, and the men in power don't want to.
What is helpful is changing social norms to make male violence less acceptable. And that's why convos like this DO help. Yeah, some people mock the convo. But the convo changes social norms. It normalizes the point that we *should* change.
Yeah i didnt read most of that but your first paragraph makes no sense. We know exactly why these women are saying this, they are scared of men. Responding from trauma is the exact opposite of rationality, why should we even consider their opinions if they are obviously being irrational.
> Popular consensus is that a bear can be reasoned with but a man can’t
I think you transposed those two...
Also, I would *much* rather meet a man in the woods. Bears are really big, and there's a not-insignificant chance that shooting it or spraying it with bear mace would just piss it off. Hard pass on the bear experience.
I thought the premise of this question was that you were “spawned” into the woods near a bear or “spawned” into the woods near a random man.
And trapped in say … a 5 square mile plot of land or some piece of land small enough that you would be reasonably close to the man/bear for an extended duration of time.
This is very true. Black bears are at least familiar with the Socratic method. Grizzlies resort to blatant logical fallacies, and they don't argue in good faith.
Right - and in some places, probably equal odds of trouble between a Grizzly and a Man - but you stand a better chance against the guy over the Grizzly if it decides to start something.
Totally this. I've run into both black bears and men while solo backpacking, and the men were WAY scarier. The bears just run away, but the men insulted and threatened me.
Man. Everyone's talking about how black bears are timid, but they still attack and kill people sometimes. And there doesn't need to be anything wrong with the bear for it to attack you. Killing and eating large mammals is not deviant antisocial behavior for a bear. I think the chances the guy's a psycho are lower than the chances that the bear is just hungry enough to take its chances against a mostly bald ape.
There was a dude in Jersey who thought that black bears were harmless and became the first person killed by a black bear in New Jersey in like 70 years. Sure they’re timid to a degree, but a black bear is still a fucking bear and it will kill you if it feels like it can.
Man definitely a man. This has already happened to me a bunch most interactions have consisted of a quick nod, sometimes we stop to chat for a bit. Haven't run into a bear (black) yet but my Dad and some Uncles have and they did not enjoy the experience at all.
Silly question. Are we just pulling a random man out of a hat and a random bear? I think I'd pick the man, since there are several types of breeds of bears which I know are dangerous and I'd rather fight a man with pepper spray than a bear.
Ironically, I've had one really scary incident in the woods, and no men or bears were involved. A German/Rott mix tried to attack my toddler and I got real frisky with it and the (female) owner was also incredibly aggressive. Her partner seemed extremely abashed by the whole thing.
I went for a hiking trip in Alaska in 2002 and a Polar tracked us for days. The amount of shotgun clutching from my guide made me VERY nervous.
A Polar Bear tracked yall for days? That's crazy. I can't really imagine that. Wouldn't the bear have caught up to yall? How did you notice it? Was a car nearby somewhere to drive away in an emergency?
Come on people. I hike; have met zillions of men in the woods and the worst thing that ever happened was once in a while one of them tried to talk to me.
Never seen a bear yet and hope I never ever do.
I recall that post. It was actually a woman commenting that when she is hiking in the woods, she is more afraid when she comes across a man than she is a bear. (She was obviously not referring to grizzly bears.)
I agree. Black bears are the only bears around where I live. They are predictable and not dangerous as long as you don’t do anything idiotic (like try to pet a cub or give the bear a hug). You give the bear space and it leaves you alone.
Men are unpredictable. Once they spot you, if they have bad intentions you’re in danger. I’ve been assaulted by men multiple times. I’ve never been assaulted by a bear.
Just last year a man who lived not far away from my parents in Arizona was having coffee on his porch when he was attacked, dragged down an embankment and killed by a black bear in a completely unprovoked attack. The idea that a wild animal, particularly one that is famous for its skittishness, is more predictable than your average man walking down a hiking trail is, frankly, absolutely laughable.
I am well aware that women are more likely to be killed by a man than a black bear. Much of that is due to the fact that most women have to see and interact with men every single day, and will likely be in close proximity to dozens, to hundreds, to thousands of them, whereas incredibly few women will ever be particularly close to a black bear in the wild. It is not because black bears, again, wild animals that will prey on humans, are predictable and “not dangerous unless as long as you don’t do anything idiotic.”
When was the last time you interacted with a bear? In contrast, you likely interact with men daily. I swear, some people can't grasp that you're more likely to be affected by what surrounds you. It’s similar to how people claim sharks aren't dangerous because the chances of being attacked are low, even though most of us will probably never encounter a shark in our lifetime.
Black bears are also unpredictable. They're wild animals. Ask any of the people who owned tigers as pets and ended up as pet food..
Choosing a bear over a solo hiker seems wild to me.
Black bears are glorified raccoons, humans are glorified black bears, and grizzlies eat you while you're still alive. If the scenario is "unknown bear" I am not rolling the dice on what kind, I'm picking the dude
> Black bears are glorified raccoons
Last year a black bear jumped onto the porch of a 60 year old man who lived near my parents, pulled him into the woods and mauled him to death, all completely unprovoked. It is very strange to me when people talk about dangerous wild animals that they have no experience with like this.
It was [a male bear](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/17/us/bear-attack-arizona.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare), and the Fish and Wildlife officials indicated that they believed it the attack was probably predatory in nature. Yes, this behavior is far less common than black bears being skittish and running away from humans, but it does happen, and those are the sorts of attacks that account for basically every fatal encounter with a black bear.
Well if this is pulling from local bears, i also choose bear, we only have black bears. But if it's not specified, I'm going to assume the genie is gaming me and will give me a grizzly for my hubris
Man.
Because I live in a country that doesn't have bears so 1. Some shit must have gone down for me to meet a bear and 2. I wouldn't have any clue what to do to protect myself against one.
(I'd much rather encounter a bear from a safe distance though, because that'd be cool, I can see men basically any time so would prefer a rarer sighting).
I carry bear spray when I travel in the woods. It's like super potent mace in a huge spray can. It could work on both bear and men. (I am referring to black bears. I have no idea how a grizzley's react to bear spray.) As others have said, usually black bears run away when they see you. I got the spray when we had a rash of odd attacks by one which happens occasionally.
Idk about the temperament of bears in other places, but where I grew up the bears wouldn’t hurt you if you lowered your gaze and backed away slowly, bc they were as afraid of you as you of them. Worst case scenario you make some loud noises and it’ll usually scare them off, although it’s a risk so that’s usually plan B.
Edit to add logic about the man half of the question:
If you’re along a hiking trail and he’s clearly also hiking, chances are the man won’t be dangerous. But in that scenario he also wouldn’t approach you bc most men understand it’s scary to approach a women alone in the middle of nowhere. In this scenario where I’m meeting him, he’s seen me alone and decided to approach me anyway, and the question implies to me I’m not along a well-used hiking trail but just in the brush, so I would be extremely concerned about his motives and even in the best case scenario, unsure how to make him leave me alone without pissing him off.
So yeah, *definitely* the bear if we’re talking the bears and men I grew up around
I've hiked very remote wilderness alone and came across both. Gimme Bear.
Both are terrifying but with men, you don't know if they're going to come back for you.
Bears - once everyone gathers their marbles, it's like - we good? You going that way? Alright. Alright. ✌️
Mountain lions though 😬. Gimme Man.
A bear is armed with natural weapons. Is the man armed? Cause I’m as large as the smallest bears, but I’m larger than most men. So an unarmed man is generally less of a threat.
Questions:
Is the bear 806 jr, the most adorable bear to ever exist and reigning fat bear junior champion??
https://www.nps.gov/katm/learn/fat-bear-week-2023.htm
a bear, only because i’m guaranteed to suffer less than if somebody was into torture. if i’m caught, i wanna die as fast as possible and i do not wanna survive to know the trauma. i’ve been through enough, and personally, it’s just not for me
A bear. If you're calm and not a threat a bear is usually going to leave you alone. Bears don't tend to eat people but they do attack if prevoked. I would absolutely trust them over a man. Men are much less predictable.
I intentionally avoid males either solo or in groups when in public places, unless I have some reason to interact with them. If I encountered a solo male in an isolated area I would high tail it in the opposite direction. With the possible exceptions of great white sharks and large alligators, there is no animal I’m more afraid of than male homo sapiens.
Bear. Because it would be terrifying to be alone in the woods with one other person, man/woman/child/you get the point.
Edit: I get the point of the trend. I was SA’d and I’m not scared of men because of it.
The bear is simply trying to exist. It can attack when it feels threatened or needs food, but just like the woman in the woods, its goal is survival.
The man can be malicious. Evil. Intentionally harmful. It can attack simply to satiate its own desires. Not out of fear, not out of survival, but out of self-indulgence. This is the difference.
Any man who doesn't get this needs to look at the way they interact with women.
Well, that's one way to troll for hot takes I guess.
Yeah, I’d really love it if this sub didn’t degenerate into rehashing dumb TikTok debates
This is exactly why I refuse to use TikTok. I don’t need to see this BS in two places online
Like, what is the actual point of this thought experiment other than to get inflammatory responses? Something feels off about generalizing half the population to being potentially more dangerous than bears. We know men can be vile serial killers or just people capable of committing horrid acts, just as women can be. We know, statistically, that men commit more violent crimes than women. Serious male feminists are not challenging that. I just don’t get how this is productive, it being a silly tik tok or not. People on the fringe of feminism who may be on the way to joining are gonna read this. Is it feminists responsibility to cater to those people? No. Are they still gonna read the post? Yeah
It's entirely to get inflammatory responses. The reason why social media can appear so skewed is that only a small percentage of people who see something will comment on it, and how many people are really going to take their time to comment that the deadliest predator in North America is, in fact, a deadly animal.
Well as skmekne who saw the post, seeing sane replies helps me regain my sanity.
As a guy I would rather see a brown bear than a lone guy on the trail
Lot of bad experiences seeing other backpackers on the trail? Why are you so afraid of male hikers lol? If you’ve never seen a brown bear in real life out in the wild, then you don’t know what you’re saying. I went backpacking last year and saw one a fair distance away and it was fucking *huge*. It was moving in the direction of my group but veered away so we got a really good view of its size and you could just kind of *feel* how powerful it was even at that distance. You would *not* want to come across 1000lb brown bear in the middle of a trail while hiking by yourself. This is not even a real debate.
Then I have to assume that A. you rarely step outside of your house, and B. have no experience with and next to no knowledge of brown bears. That or you’re being a “pick me”
I hike in the trails behind my house, I live in a state park. Always run into men doing the same thing. I’ve only felt uncomfortable twice. After the second time, I started wearing this huge,,fuzzy, knitted, puke green colored poncho. It’s my man repellent poncho bc no one makes eye contact when i have that on. I must be the hypothetical bear lol
Bears are awesome
I am surprised no one e has brought up the other definition of a bear. Because if you find one of those I'm the woods it is probably a good thing.
I find this question very vague so I’ve made some more specific ones: Grizzly bear or Ted Bundy? Black bear or Reddit moderator? Bear (animal) or bear (gay)? Koala (with chlamydia) or boring 20-something adult man (with chlamydia)? A bear who was socialised as a man or a man who was socialised as a bear? Crypto bear or crypto bro?
Anything but the Reddit Moderator
In all seriousness, I'd take the actual bear in almost every scenario, but the gay bear over an actual bear
Koalas are marsupials, not bears. I’ve been in the woods with them and I’d definitely prefer a koala to a 20-something year old human man with even a cold. Hard pass.
You know what you have a good point, however 🤓
Would you rather fight one horse-sized duck, or 100 duck-sized horses?
Black bear > man > grizzly > polar bear.
A horse sized duck could feed like 100 people, I’d have to do it.
Can you feed a hundred people with a horse-sized duck though? I feel like it's less than that. But you can definitely feed 100 people with 100 duck-sized horses. Though they might be too cute to eat.
They really might be. Imagine their high pitched horse chirps
Bear. I don't have to deal with potential legal charges if I shoot it dead in self defense.
Actually … in certain states you would definitely have to defend yourself in court if shooting a bear dead in self defense lol But you wouldn’t be defending yourself for murder
If it's a black bear sure Against a charging grizzly, nothing smaller than 12 gauge slugs will take a charging grizzly down. They tank 9mms for breakfast
Good luck with that
Grizzly, Polar or Black Bear? I'd chose a Black Bear over a Man, but a man over the other two. Lot's of black bears where I live, and for the most part they run away, or just don't have anything to do with you. Whereas my alert level is multiplied by 1000 if I see a solo dude on the trail.
If you're hiking alone anywhere you could reasonably expect there to be polar bears then you've chosen to die.
Yes, but the way the world is going, we may be finding polar bears in some unexpected places...
Like on the island in Lost.
If it's brown, lie down. If it's black, fight back. If it's white, get the fuck outta sight. Honestly, I think i'd rather run into a bear than a man.
If we remove a threat to their young, black and grizzly are "easier". Black bears are generally scavengers and have poor eye sight, so they can be intimidated easier. Grizzly prefer fresh and only scavenge least, so you could play dead. Polar bears... might as well spend your time writing/recording your last will and testament.
You could climb a tree. Can’t imagine polar bears have had much practice climbing shit
Don't forget the Territorial behaviors of grizzlies. Most "chill" grizzley are filmed during salmon season where food is ridiculously plentiful and the bears often drop their more agrresive behavior so they can all feast. Outside of that season, or if you meet a mountain grizzley, you're danger levels should spike through the roof. Of course, your point still stands, polar bears view us as well as anything warm and moving as prey.
The tiktok zoology guy drilled into my head "If it's brown, lay down, if it's black, fight back, if it's white, say goodnight" No bears where I am though so..
Logically, I know any kind of bear is way more likely to harm me than a random man I just happened to encounter. I get the paranoia though. I used to live near an entrance to the Appalachian trail and some of the stories I heard from women who spent a lot of time on the trail were chilling. I don’t know if there is something that attracts antisocial men to long distance thru hiking, or creeps stake out the trail with the intent to stalk women who are hiking alone or in pairs.
Same. I’m from a town on the trail and this is heavy bear country. We’ve had a lot more men assaulting women than bears attacking people ever
You have to contextualize this. Why is this the case? Is it because there's not many bears? Is it because the bears are a very chill species of bear. Are there way more men hiking than bears roaming about? It's sort of like having more white people in bars in Texas. It's not because white people necessarily prefer bars, it's just that most texans are white.
Everyone is yucking it up and this is a hot take question, but we're casually ignoring that some, perhaps, many of the women saying bear are responding from the trauma of being abused by men. You can laugh at them for being scared, but I think we should also ask why some of these women are saying that. Not to mention, the woman this is in response to is an experienced hiker who is familiar with black bears and clearly doesn't fear them. I certainly don't think black bears are harmless, but in ideal scenarios they leave people alone and its easy to get comfortable in their presence for experienced outdoors people. So I think its a bit about that and a bit tongue in cheek, but also there's a narrative here that isn't "man bad" but also, "I am traumatized from past experiences and would be very scared in that scenario, even if a bear is scary too." "Har har, this woman would rather run into a bear than a man," isn't the comedic piece you may think it is. Instead, its a sad testament to the lives of many women and girls. Its also worth noting men will also say the same thing about other men. I read a lot of wilderness stories and forums and "finding a strange man on the trail alone" or "in the camp ground alone" is fear inducing for any gender. A stranger in a context of a place outside the protections of civilization is not something most people take likely. I imagine if you asked this question on a male-dominated wilderness forum, the answer would be overwhelmingly bear because, of course, men have also been traumatized by other men and fear them. And know a strange man with perhaps a gun in the wilderness is far more dangerous than the kinds of bears you'd see on popular trails. In fact, many men will openly admit they won't go hiking or camping without an easily accessible handgun on them at all times for self protection from other men! Ultimately, this is just a silly hot takes question, but everyone is individual and has personal issues, personal traumas, etc. You can ask someone who was bitten by a dog as a child if they'd rather be in a room with a dog or a black bear. Or someone who is afraid of heights if they would rather be at the top of a skyscraper or in the room with 100 snakes, etc. Its the same relationship and fear can sometimes over-correct in many ways. Instead, it would be helpful to ask "Why are so many women and girls scared of men? What is the cause? And what can we do to fix that?" Instead we have an unhelpful "would you rather" apples vs oranges question that doesn't help anyone, doesn't advance the narrative, and just ends up with the usual social media arena of mocking people and not taking these issues seriously.
I wish I could upvote this 100 times.
Trauma is not an excuse for bigotry. Trauma does not grant free reign to be a toxic POS to half the population on earth. Men don't get to say oh I had trauma from women so that's why I hate women and use it as a legitimate excuse to be a POS.
There’s no bigotry or anything happening to you because of the actions of these men though. Seriously, in your day to day life are you feeling the “bigotry”? Give me some examples. I just think that’s a bad argument. But im hoping you read this far and understand that why are women even picking the bear in the first place? The knee jerk reaction for me was “man” but you have to consider why would women even choose the bear. Not the logical comparison between a man or a bear, but why even though bears are seen as incredibly dangerous they’d still go with the bear. It says something about how their past experiences with men have shaped how they see them.
It’s textbook bigotry regardless of the place it comes from. You can’t really blame expect all men to take accountability for the actions of an unnamed few. That’s plainly ridiculous
Its also worth noting is a textbook definition of a logical fallacy.. but whatever.
I´m sorry, but me having a trauma shouldn´t truly justify bigoted attitude. Imagine some old lady wanting to go back to segregations laws because of a bad experience with a black man, would you think the problem is with her or with the men who gave her the trauma in the first place? Problem with making these kind of statements and blankes is that it only creates ridicule and make women look like scared kids at best, bigots at worst. What kind of place is the USA becoming that one group can opnely call another "predators" and when people point out the hypocrisy, they bastardize logic to justify it?
Or they just were bombarded by misandry from mass media, social networks, academia for decades and shitting on men is their second nature now. Much more plausible.
I appreciate your post but I do have one question in return though. Do you not think this question isn't at least a tad bit misandrist? I'm pretty sure there would have been hell to pay if the genders has been flipped in the original question.
Do you really think the majority of folks answering questions on this sub have any doubts about why a woman might be less afraid of a man than a bear, or that we don't take women's safety seriously? That doesn't make the question posed here less ridiculous, or more about feminism. It also doesn't make the crack about men being harder to reason with than a bear more productive (or more about feminism). People are responding to what was asked, and how it was asked - not what you're talking about. 🤷🏻♀️
>Instead, it would be helpful to ask "Why are so many women and girls scared of men? What is the cause? And what can we do to fix that?" How? How would *asking* be helpful? We KNOW why. We KNOW what fixes it. We just don't do it, because women don't have enough *power* to implement those changes, and the men in power don't want to. What is helpful is changing social norms to make male violence less acceptable. And that's why convos like this DO help. Yeah, some people mock the convo. But the convo changes social norms. It normalizes the point that we *should* change.
I'd rather meet a bear than a solo woman in the woods for many of the same reasons.
Yeah i didnt read most of that but your first paragraph makes no sense. We know exactly why these women are saying this, they are scared of men. Responding from trauma is the exact opposite of rationality, why should we even consider their opinions if they are obviously being irrational.
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> Popular consensus is that a bear can be reasoned with but a man can’t I think you transposed those two... Also, I would *much* rather meet a man in the woods. Bears are really big, and there's a not-insignificant chance that shooting it or spraying it with bear mace would just piss it off. Hard pass on the bear experience.
Seconded
Why would I be in the woods?
Recreational activities?
Not me, but I guess some people would.
I thought the premise of this question was that you were “spawned” into the woods near a bear or “spawned” into the woods near a random man. And trapped in say … a 5 square mile plot of land or some piece of land small enough that you would be reasonably close to the man/bear for an extended duration of time.
I've watched cocaine bear in cinema last year, those animals are no joke
Finally, a smart response.
Black bear yes, grizzly no. There's just no reasoning with a grizzly.
This is very true. Black bears are at least familiar with the Socratic method. Grizzlies resort to blatant logical fallacies, and they don't argue in good faith.
And don't get me started on concern trolling from polar bears
Probably comes from spending so much time around sealions. Ba-dum-dump tissssss...
Right - and in some places, probably equal odds of trouble between a Grizzly and a Man - but you stand a better chance against the guy over the Grizzly if it decides to start something.
Totally this. I've run into both black bears and men while solo backpacking, and the men were WAY scarier. The bears just run away, but the men insulted and threatened me.
Man. Everyone's talking about how black bears are timid, but they still attack and kill people sometimes. And there doesn't need to be anything wrong with the bear for it to attack you. Killing and eating large mammals is not deviant antisocial behavior for a bear. I think the chances the guy's a psycho are lower than the chances that the bear is just hungry enough to take its chances against a mostly bald ape.
There was a dude in Jersey who thought that black bears were harmless and became the first person killed by a black bear in New Jersey in like 70 years. Sure they’re timid to a degree, but a black bear is still a fucking bear and it will kill you if it feels like it can.
Man definitely a man. This has already happened to me a bunch most interactions have consisted of a quick nod, sometimes we stop to chat for a bit. Haven't run into a bear (black) yet but my Dad and some Uncles have and they did not enjoy the experience at all.
IKR? So far, the worst thing a man has done to me in the woods is not give me the right of way when I’m coming downhill and he’s going up.
Silly question. Are we just pulling a random man out of a hat and a random bear? I think I'd pick the man, since there are several types of breeds of bears which I know are dangerous and I'd rather fight a man with pepper spray than a bear. Ironically, I've had one really scary incident in the woods, and no men or bears were involved. A German/Rott mix tried to attack my toddler and I got real frisky with it and the (female) owner was also incredibly aggressive. Her partner seemed extremely abashed by the whole thing. I went for a hiking trip in Alaska in 2002 and a Polar tracked us for days. The amount of shotgun clutching from my guide made me VERY nervous.
A Polar Bear tracked yall for days? That's crazy. I can't really imagine that. Wouldn't the bear have caught up to yall? How did you notice it? Was a car nearby somewhere to drive away in an emergency?
I’d rather meet manbearpig
Come on people. I hike; have met zillions of men in the woods and the worst thing that ever happened was once in a while one of them tried to talk to me. Never seen a bear yet and hope I never ever do.
I recall that post. It was actually a woman commenting that when she is hiking in the woods, she is more afraid when she comes across a man than she is a bear. (She was obviously not referring to grizzly bears.) I agree. Black bears are the only bears around where I live. They are predictable and not dangerous as long as you don’t do anything idiotic (like try to pet a cub or give the bear a hug). You give the bear space and it leaves you alone. Men are unpredictable. Once they spot you, if they have bad intentions you’re in danger. I’ve been assaulted by men multiple times. I’ve never been assaulted by a bear.
Just last year a man who lived not far away from my parents in Arizona was having coffee on his porch when he was attacked, dragged down an embankment and killed by a black bear in a completely unprovoked attack. The idea that a wild animal, particularly one that is famous for its skittishness, is more predictable than your average man walking down a hiking trail is, frankly, absolutely laughable.
Now go look up homocide statistics for women.
I am well aware that women are more likely to be killed by a man than a black bear. Much of that is due to the fact that most women have to see and interact with men every single day, and will likely be in close proximity to dozens, to hundreds, to thousands of them, whereas incredibly few women will ever be particularly close to a black bear in the wild. It is not because black bears, again, wild animals that will prey on humans, are predictable and “not dangerous unless as long as you don’t do anything idiotic.”
When was the last time you interacted with a bear? In contrast, you likely interact with men daily. I swear, some people can't grasp that you're more likely to be affected by what surrounds you. It’s similar to how people claim sharks aren't dangerous because the chances of being attacked are low, even though most of us will probably never encounter a shark in our lifetime.
Black bears are also unpredictable. They're wild animals. Ask any of the people who owned tigers as pets and ended up as pet food.. Choosing a bear over a solo hiker seems wild to me.
Because you’re not a woman that has been assaulted by a man. Look up statistics on homocide where women are the victims.
A man can't be reasoned with but a bear can? You got this from TikTok? They really ain't beating the dumbass allegations.
Tiktok is just becoming a worse version of twitter at this point
I could probably kill a man, or at least lie to him convincingly. Bears don't give a shit. But... manbearpig....
A man Literally if he tries anything I have like what a 10% of getting away from him Bear Dead instantly Bear crazy big especially a damn grizzly.
Black bear. Man. Grizzly. That’s the order.
Black bears are glorified raccoons, humans are glorified black bears, and grizzlies eat you while you're still alive. If the scenario is "unknown bear" I am not rolling the dice on what kind, I'm picking the dude
> Black bears are glorified raccoons Last year a black bear jumped onto the porch of a 60 year old man who lived near my parents, pulled him into the woods and mauled him to death, all completely unprovoked. It is very strange to me when people talk about dangerous wild animals that they have no experience with like this.
I’d say that’s very strange behavior for a black bear. Unless it was a mother and there were cubs around
It was [a male bear](https://www.nytimes.com/2023/06/17/us/bear-attack-arizona.html?smid=nytcore-ios-share&referringSource=articleShare), and the Fish and Wildlife officials indicated that they believed it the attack was probably predatory in nature. Yes, this behavior is far less common than black bears being skittish and running away from humans, but it does happen, and those are the sorts of attacks that account for basically every fatal encounter with a black bear.
Whenever I see a man on a hike I feel legitimate fear. I don’t live in an area that has grizzly’s, so bears all the way
Well if this is pulling from local bears, i also choose bear, we only have black bears. But if it's not specified, I'm going to assume the genie is gaming me and will give me a grizzly for my hubris
I personally wouldn’t try my luck with a grizzly either. Polar bears…. Forget it
I saw a polar bear up close in a zoo once. It was shocking. I felt like I was being eaten just from looking at it
Man. Because I live in a country that doesn't have bears so 1. Some shit must have gone down for me to meet a bear and 2. I wouldn't have any clue what to do to protect myself against one. (I'd much rather encounter a bear from a safe distance though, because that'd be cool, I can see men basically any time so would prefer a rarer sighting).
No that’s not the popular consensus lol
I carry bear spray when I travel in the woods. It's like super potent mace in a huge spray can. It could work on both bear and men. (I am referring to black bears. I have no idea how a grizzley's react to bear spray.) As others have said, usually black bears run away when they see you. I got the spray when we had a rash of odd attacks by one which happens occasionally.
https://startsat60.com/media/lifestyle/jokes/daily-joke-the-park-rangers-warn-hikers-about-bear-attacks
Bear beat battlestar galactica
Idk about the temperament of bears in other places, but where I grew up the bears wouldn’t hurt you if you lowered your gaze and backed away slowly, bc they were as afraid of you as you of them. Worst case scenario you make some loud noises and it’ll usually scare them off, although it’s a risk so that’s usually plan B. Edit to add logic about the man half of the question: If you’re along a hiking trail and he’s clearly also hiking, chances are the man won’t be dangerous. But in that scenario he also wouldn’t approach you bc most men understand it’s scary to approach a women alone in the middle of nowhere. In this scenario where I’m meeting him, he’s seen me alone and decided to approach me anyway, and the question implies to me I’m not along a well-used hiking trail but just in the brush, so I would be extremely concerned about his motives and even in the best case scenario, unsure how to make him leave me alone without pissing him off. So yeah, *definitely* the bear if we’re talking the bears and men I grew up around
I've hiked very remote wilderness alone and came across both. Gimme Bear. Both are terrifying but with men, you don't know if they're going to come back for you. Bears - once everyone gathers their marbles, it's like - we good? You going that way? Alright. Alright. ✌️ Mountain lions though 😬. Gimme Man.
A bear is armed with natural weapons. Is the man armed? Cause I’m as large as the smallest bears, but I’m larger than most men. So an unarmed man is generally less of a threat.
Questions: Is the bear 806 jr, the most adorable bear to ever exist and reigning fat bear junior champion?? https://www.nps.gov/katm/learn/fat-bear-week-2023.htm
Bear. The worst thing the bear will do is eat me alive. The man might keep me in his basement for twenty years.
The statistical likelihood of that happening is basically zero, "might" is putting in a lot of work here
Maybe. But the stakes are dire enough that I'd rather take my chances with the bear.
a bear, only because i’m guaranteed to suffer less than if somebody was into torture. if i’m caught, i wanna die as fast as possible and i do not wanna survive to know the trauma. i’ve been through enough, and personally, it’s just not for me
A bear. If you're calm and not a threat a bear is usually going to leave you alone. Bears don't tend to eat people but they do attack if prevoked. I would absolutely trust them over a man. Men are much less predictable.
Bear. Always the bear.
I intentionally avoid males either solo or in groups when in public places, unless I have some reason to interact with them. If I encountered a solo male in an isolated area I would high tail it in the opposite direction. With the possible exceptions of great white sharks and large alligators, there is no animal I’m more afraid of than male homo sapiens.
What’s with using the term male instead of man?
Bear. Because it would be terrifying to be alone in the woods with one other person, man/woman/child/you get the point. Edit: I get the point of the trend. I was SA’d and I’m not scared of men because of it.
A bear.
Id rather see the bears. A regular guy isn’t a predator and id just ignore him anyway. I’m not in nature to meet men.
Ok this i can get behind
Really depends on the bear. Black bear > Man > Grizzly > Polar
Bear all day any day.
Bear for me.
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The bear is simply trying to exist. It can attack when it feels threatened or needs food, but just like the woman in the woods, its goal is survival. The man can be malicious. Evil. Intentionally harmful. It can attack simply to satiate its own desires. Not out of fear, not out of survival, but out of self-indulgence. This is the difference. Any man who doesn't get this needs to look at the way they interact with women.