Surely I am not the only woman who would chose the man, not the bear?

[Idpicktheman]

You know that, would you rather meet a man or a bear in the woods thing?

I would choose the man.

I've hiked in the Rockies where there are bears. If you come across a bear, you have surprised and startled it. All the stories I heard of people being attacked in the Rockies were of people who have surprised bears with their appearance. I blew a whistle every couple of minutes when I hiked to make sure a bear was not surprised by my appearance. Therefore I think if I met a bear in the woods, there is a good likelihood it would attack me.

I also walk in the woods a lot in the UK as I live in a semi-rural area. I regularly come across men and they either ignore me or say hello as they pass and carry on walking their dog/ cycling/ or mountain biking.

So whilst there is a chance a man would attack me, I think the probability is that they would not.

But whilst there is a chance the bear would amble off and leave me alone, the probability is that it would attack me.

So I would chose the man.

( I realise the point of this though experiment is to show that women think this through, because both can be dangerous to them, whereas men instantly say' well, I'd chose the woman obviously' because women are not a danger to them : but I have seen a lot of women instantly saying ' the bear!' but, being literalistic about the actual answer, in all honestly, the bear is more likely to attack you than the man.)

Yes, I've obviously sailed through life with amazing good fortune, but I've never met a man I felt threatened by. I know it happens, but it's never happened to me and the men I know are decent enough. They have their faults, there's plenty I wouldn't want to be married to, but I'm not scared of them.

If I men a man in the woods, I'd assume he was out for a walk like me, say good morning and keep walking with no concerns. As I've done on countless occasions without any issue.

Hmm. If it was just any random man or a bear I'd say a man. If it was definitely a man with bad intentions then I'd rather be killed by a bear.

Isn't that the point of the question, you don't know the intentions of either the bear or the man, you need to make your decision based on your perception of the risk.

Congratulations to men for being slightly more appealing than a wild animal.

I literally had this conversation with my husband yesterday. I’d absolutely pick the man.

1, because statistically the bear is more likely to harm me than the man if we cross paths and 2, the bear would likely do more damage than the man if they both encountered me maliciously.

I’m in no way diminishing SA by saying this, but my personal choice if between being SA’d by a man or mauled by a bear, I still pick the SA. In fact if it was between being murdered by a man and mauled to death by a bear, I think I still pick the man (as the odds of him being a sadist serial killer who tortures me over an extended period before killing me is small).

And I say this as someone who is hypervigilant about when alone in the street with strange men and I take steps daily to avoid being abducted which is probably up there as one of the greatest fears of my life.

oooh I change my answer! If the woods are bamboo forests in China where Pandas live I pick the Panda 😂🐼

In every other scenario, man.

Depends on the bear

If its brown, lay down
If its black, flight back
Its its white, its goodnight

At least if I got attacked by a bear, people would believe me.

So bear.

Yeah it really is a daft question with the usual anti men brigade posturing.

Useful bear lore, should I meet a bear.

Me roo. All bears are dangerous. Most men are not.
If you get stuck with the bear a friend of mine visiting the Rockies was advised by the group leader to sing loudly at it as bears hate singing.
My friend disobeyed another instruction and went into the forest on her own and of course encountered a very tall bear. She tried to sing but couldn't get a note out so she recited 'Know ye not Agincourt. Etc'. Fortunately the bear didn't like Shakespeare either and it ambled away
it might come in handy to know that..

Incorrect. I am not surprised because there are plenty of misandrist and sexist zealots on this site who jump at any opportunity to demonise men collectively. Obviously there are lots of decent posters here too who don’t do this.

😂Loving this thread and the Shakespeare hating bear.

A more relevant thought experiment would be 'would you rather encounter a man on your morning commute or a bear'.

I didn’t think meeting the bear was the question. More, knowing there’s a man or a bear there somewhere.

If there’s a bear there, it’s going about bear business and uninterested in tracking me down. It’s not malicious or ill intentioned, it’s just doing bear stuff. As long as I don’t bump into it, no worries. If I see it I sneak off/run/hide/make like a statue or whatever the advice I’ve been given suggests.

The man however, may well have nefarious plans. He may well actively target me. If I see him I don’t know the best way to react.

Yeah this. Obviously I'd rather walk past a random man than a random bear as the majority of men aren't going to hurt me. But I'd rather be eaten by a bear than raped and murdered by a man. At least there's no malice to it if a bear kills you, and you're contributing to the circle of life inside a bear.

Yet you've survived ALL these men you have come across. It's unlikely you would survive a single bear

I think some people aren't aware of how dangerous bears can be, as if they think they're cuddly and friendly or something. Like a pp, I've always thought being mauled to death one of the most horrifying ways to go.

What if it was, you're swimming alone, would you rather encounter a man or a shark?

Or you're lost in the bayou, would you rather meet a man or an alligator?

You really can’t speak on behalf of other women.

I would prefer to meet a man. I am a secondary school teacher and have met thousands of adolescent young men. They are lovely, kind and polite.
We sold something on EBay once and I was on my own when a man had arranged to collect it.I had been reading too much Mumsnet and felt a bit anxious until the slightly older than adolescent young man arrived and he was so polite that I insisted on driving him to the station with the item. In my experience and I am not a teenager, men are very kind and helpful. I have never met a bad adolescent male.
I would much rather meet a man than a bear. I visited Yellow Stone Park and I couldn't concentrate on gentle hikes because I was afraid of the bears.
Has anyone else seen the Twix advert?

Yeah lol there was one man who made a gruesome graphic of what he thinks a woman would look like after an encounter with Bear 🤣 I can’t believe he thinks this will convince women to change their mind

Yes it is about risk. Maybe the fact we don't live in a country with any types of bear roaming wild, yet a regular amount of men acting weirdly in woods that has skewed my perception of the "risk".

However there are safeguarding ways to deal with various bears - climbing trees etc - yet we aren't taught how to safely deal with a man with bad intentions. Far more men than bears. Increasingly more men attacking women.

Bears don't care if their prey is dead or not. See Grizzly Man. Gruesome stuff.

I'd take my chances with a black bear, but would rather never see a polar bear or grizzly anywhere near me.