Are women safer if they encounter a bear or a man in the woods?

I think this question is so bizarre. I quite like walking, trails, hikes woods sometimes alone. I come across women regularly walking dogs, going for a run etc etc. Most of the time it's a good morning or good afternoon etc.

The fact is statically women are more likely to be killed by someone they know in the woods than a stranger. Men are far more likely to be killed by another man they dont know.

Presumably people know who you are locked in with? That's your protection. If you were killed they'd know exactly who did it and the chances of being caught or at least investigated if they did anything else is high.

Stranger in the woods? Their risk of being caught is drastically reduced.

Also if it's different men all the time then they are also less likely to be able to build up a relationship to allow "consensual" abuse.

So your circumstance has built in protection.

If you watched to the end you would see he makes exactly those points - it's an opinion question, not a fact one (but the opinions themselves give important information); and it's not one for men to answer.

@carerlookingtochangejob I think I gave it a pretty good go. I did not say I disagreed with it though, I said I had not finished watching it and gave my reasons, which to me are perfectly valid reasons. I don’t have to watch a video you find interesting in order to form my own opinions on a question which is about my opinion. I feel quite worried though that there are a lot of other people out there who have to watch a TikTok/youtube/instagram video to validate their own opinion. I find it utterly baffling that any woman would be extolling the veracity of a man who is telling you what your opinion should be on the matter of whether you can trust a man.

A timely wildlife photo: https://twitter.com/JamesLucasIT/status/1786085562455040374?

I've been watching a few live broadcasts on tik tok and a lot of them (when it's a man hosting or whatever you call it on there) are shouting at women and saying you are wrong. Being aggressive in their language and trying to change the response through aggression and shouting.

It's like ffs you are part of the reason why we are picking the bear but they just can't see that and that is the fucking problem.

Tok tok is full of nonsense but I have learned quite a bit about the 4b movement and again it's men kicking off about how we are wrong.

All about men being right and women needing to do as they are told. It's so depressing that they can't see that if they don't want to offer a solution they are part of the problem.

@backinthebox I'm intrigued ... what on earth is your job?!

@backinthebox so your saying you disagree with something you couldn't even be bothered to watch properly. Ok!!! 🙄

There are more people in cities than there are in forests. There are more criminals in cities than there are in forests. Most criminals are men. This is not the same as saying most men are criminals. And feel free to go back and read my words again carefully. I did not say I feel unsafe all the time in all cities. I feel safer in, say, Basingstoke than I do in Capetown. Same proportion of men in each city, the source of danger in Capetown is not all men, but it is much more uncool to differentiate between sorts of men than it is to differentiate between different sorts of bear. The fact remains though that most men are not threats. A very small number of men are horrible threats. This does not mean that I should assume all men are threats. It becomes impossible to exist in a world where you treat every man as a threat to you at all times.

I did start to watch them, but did not finish. I found the man patronising. Speaking rapidly with a deliberate attempt to bamboozle, some generous interpretation of factored up statistics, liberal use of ‘you don’t wanna know that’ to gloss over facts and statistics that don’t fit his narrative, reinforcement of his superiority by citing his academic qualifications, and above all, the patronising repeated use of the statement ‘listen to women’ to tell me what I should be thinking. I know what I’m thinking, and I was a woman last I checked. I don’t need to take some random internet man’s instructions in how to think. Just because you have found a TikTok video that you agree with, it doesn’t mean everyone has to agree with it or they are stupid.

"a bear would see me as a human being"

"A bear wouldn't take videos and send it to his friends"

"a bear wouldn't clean me up afterwards and tell me not to tell mummy"

Fuck, that's pretty much done for me.

https://vm.tiktok.com/ZGexWmDYa/

But you carry on telling women why they are wrong to feel the way they do

I mean of course it’s based on feels, scared is a feeling, safe is all perception.

You’re statistically more likely to be killed by a cow than a dog, doesn’t help people who are scared of dogs feel safer though.

Yeah, except they don't wonder so much as know exactly whats wrong with women, and feel very free to tell us.
Some of the comments have been literally bullshit (mothers are responsible for the majority of child murders, women are equal participants in DV) and demonstrate the cognitive dissonance we are up against.

Its a thought experiment and the question is 'would you rather deal with' not 'would you be safer.'

A man went on the rampage and targeted women, women don't feel safe around strange men - but its women causing the division?

Of course you are not likely to be attacked by a bear in a city.

The point is about where you said you feel safe and unsafe. You feel unsafe in cities. The source of danger in cities is not bears.

@backinthebox did you bother watching the two video clips I posted? I'm guessing not!

It is absolutely based on facts!

‘Man vs bear’ is a hypothetical question which doesn’t stand up to scrutiny. It is all based on feelings, not facts. And that is rather the point of my post. Of course you are not likely to be attacked by a bear in a city. Your point just highlights the futility of this comparison - women would rather face something they have no real knowledge of and have no likelihood of ever meeting than a man (who are present more or less everywhere women are, and the majority of whom are ‘safe’) because a small number of men are bad. It’s not an argument that is based on facts, it’s based on feels, which renders it pointless, and the division it is creating is not constructive.

Statistically, you are more likely to be attacked, killed or raped in a city.

And not by a bear. Which is rather the point.

This is such a weird debate.

I work in an environment where I am locked, on my own, for hours at a time with a man I do not know. It’s a different man each time I go to work. The place I am locked in is a small bulletproof box only 10ft square. I will eat and sometimes sleep in close proximity with this man I do not know. Sometimes I have to sleep in a bunk which is even smaller still, and the only thing separating me from the man is a curtain down the middle of the bed.

In over 25 years of working like this, I’ve never felt threatened. I realise this puts me in a lucky position, but statistically, I should have encountered a threat somewhere along the way, and I haven’t.

I also take part in 2 sports which see me on my own in a forest, with men also taking part. They are there for taking part in the sport too. I feel comfortable asking them for help, and frequently run or ride with them. I’ve been in forests with wild animals in at night, and would rather take my chances with a man than a wild bear.

For me, a forest is generally a safe and welcoming place, I don’t feel uncomfortable in them. I feel a lot more threatened in a city walking on my own. This is despite there being more people around. I walk in a city in a state of alertness to people around me, because I don’t always feel safe. Statistically, you are more likely to be attacked, killed or raped in a city. Random attacks in the countryside make headline news precisely because they are so rare. We had one several years ago at the bottom of the hill from us. I still feel safer in my forest than in a city.

People’s perception of ‘safe’ is very much dependent on their regular surroundings, their comfort zones, and as has already been stated numerous times the argument ‘man vs bear’ is very much dependent on the man and on the bear. Jack the Ripper vs a koala bear? I’ll take the bear. My Mr Menno vs a grizzly? I’ll take the man. In general, stood in a forest confronted by a random bear and a random man? I would still assume the man was a safer bet than the bear.

The whole of biology is built on males and females forming partnerships. And for the most part, this works because for all the men who attack women, there are still millions and millions more who don’t. The rapists and the killers are aberrations, and even in prison these men are treated as aberrations by the other (male) prisoners. Most men are disgusted by men who attack women.

I think this is a sad and divisive argument that will have no winners.

Yes, I Imagine they wonder whats wrong with Women rather than looking at their own sex

❤I am so sorry.

Humans, like other animals, do judge and assess risk instinctively based on classes of people. I’m guessing if you were in the woods and encountered a small child alone you wouldn’t be scared and would know as an adult that you needed to help. Likewise a very elderly person. In the same way, women know that men do present a certain degree of risk that is much greater than the risk from other women. It doesn’t mean there’s zero risk from women but it’s so much smaller that it does make a difference and is the reason we have sex segregation in some situations. Especially where the situation raises the risk like where you’re going to be asleep, undressed, incapacitated etc.

I agree there are other ways of classifying people where it isn’t reasonable to be more scared of one class - like ethnicity, hair colour or people wearing hats. That doesn’t mean all cases of assessing the risk of a class of people are wrong. It’s a false comparison. Statistics back up the hugely greater risk from men than from women. With bears, it’s more complicated as there are so many different factors making it harder to compare. But I bet you’d be more scared of a bear than a dog - even though a dog could kill you. Making a class-based risk assessment is not inherently some kind of terrible prejudice.

They simply defend their privilege as they have always done. It doesn't affect them, so we must be wrong.

Yes, come on ladies.
Lets just all calm down and not be so hysterical, having opinions and expressing them like a bunch of "crackpots".
We can't risk upsetting mens feelings so its just better if we just keep quiet

Sorry you what????

Now women who are standing up and raising the issue of male violence are as bad as the vile men who rape, assault and murder women??? WTAF???

No it's not ALL men! But it's enough of them!