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.)

I choose bear. Highly unlikely to cause you any harm, way more likely to just get out of your way. You'd have to be seriously unlucky to be hurt by a bear in the woods, let alone eaten.

A man, on the other hand, is a completely unknown quantity.

But the question is, I think, designed to simply draw attention to the fact that women are scared of men we don't know. Men are bigger than us, stronger than us, and have the potentially to sexually assault us. So we live our lives with awareness of that fact. We are also trained from a young age to not be alone with men we don't know. Not because all men are bad, but just because we have no way of knowing which ones are.

For me, it's the same question as asking who would you tell your child to ask for help if they were lost or in trouble? A man, or a woman? I bet most parents on MN have told their kids what to do if something bad or scary happens - find a woman and ask for help.

I'm choosing the bear 🐻 100 times 😂
Oh, and my husband is a bear, too.
HTH
(Light 💝)

it really depends on the bear
brown bears slightly more dangerous than black ones.

The question is 'would you rather be alone in the woods with a man or a bear'. Not which would you rather meet. The implication is you are trapped for who knows how long and there is no help.

I for one pick bear.

My god people are stupid. All bears would kill you. The vast majority of men are fine

If I was attacked by a bear nobody would ask what I was wearing to make him attack me
A bear wouldn't film the attack and send it to his friends
A bear wouldn't clean me up and tell me not to tell my mum
The bear wouldn't say trust me it's just a game
The bear wouldn't leave me alone if I screamed no because he doesn't understand, not because he doesn't care I said no

Some of you have completely missed the point of the question.

This is a weird one for me - because I actually did come across a real life bear in Canada whilst walking alone in Algonquin Park (and needing the loo). To say I was scared was an understatement....misses actual point of thread and yes - it popped its head over the bush to look at me right in the eyes.....
Soooo...in my opinion - a man would be better!

Exactly, don't know why people are taking it so literally. It's opened up an interesting discussion about how women who are attacked by men are viewed by society.

You'd have to be really unlucky to be killed by a bear in the woods. They have plenty of food, plenty of places to hide, plenty of space. They have no reason to harm you and they're not looking for a confrontation.

Meanwhile, with a man, you just have no idea what he might do to you. Especially if there's no one else around and he thinks no one will find out.

But the vast majority of men don't actually want to hurt you, so they have no reason, just like the bear.

Friend, USA, sent me a photo from her cctv, a Bear in The Basement, picking through the recycling. She didn't introduce herself to it, she made her preference plain by asking her husband what they should do. 'Check that interconnecting door is locked, I'll buy another bolt'.

It's an interesting discussion. I'm going away with a mixed group, including some "enlightened" men this weekend. I shall put the question, using the bit about their daughters, to them after a couple of beers, because much as they appear to want to understand, they don't.

Thing is a bear isn't going to rape you before he kills you

I have ddog who shows me where they are lurking and scares them.

I wouldn't even be walking about in a woods if I was alone. Especially after seeing how many odd men there in them are first hand.

I'd chose the bear every time. Bears very very rarely predate on people for food (polar bear excepted). 1 in 4 women have been raped or sexually assaulted by a man. Fuck that. Bear every time.

I'd choose the man as well OP.

Unless it was Winnie the Pooh. In which case no contest 🤔

And yet, so many men do hurt women. The majority might not, but there's a big enough minority that I guarantee almost every woman on this thread will have a story to tell about a time when a man physically and/or sexually assaulted her.

I was going to say bear and this was basically my logic.

Bears are an unknown quantity to me as I live in UK.

I'm aware many are dangerous but haven't got the situation awareness for them- haven't been taught how dangerous or how to minimise danger.

Pretty sure people living near polar bears don't fuck around with safety and have ingrained behaviors to minimise risks like stay in settlement and carry guns - then I think grizzling bear are also hight risk - again I've no measure for how likely they are to attack me if I leave them alone.

So any answer heavily depend on understanding of bear risk - which in UK is generally poor.

If it a bear that will likely leave me along - then bear - if not then man unless strange man is an escaped prisoner or ex convict in multiple horrific murders and rape of women -then bear looks better - most men will likely be a measure of safe with low likelihood of attack.

My DD has a T-shirt with slogan risk of being killed by larma is low but never zero. This is clearly a risk balancing exercise with limited information and in UK poor understanding of bear behavior risks hampers it.

There are two things to assess here. First the likelihood of a man attacking you. I think it's higher if alone in the woods than in everyday life. This needs to be compared to the likelihood of a bear attacking. I don't actually know how likely this is, I imagine it would depend on the type of bear in the area. So we should specify which woods. For example, I'd always take my chances with a man over a polar bear.

The second thing is the badness of being attacked by either.

But yes, as other have said the point is that for us encountering men is a situation that warrants a risk assessment. It's like asking men if they would prefer to meet a bear or a wolf. We need to stop and assess, because men are a danger to us.

I'd be interested to know how many of those who answered man rather than bear, have had negative sexual or physical interaction with a male.

If you've been assaulted, exposed to, raped, abused or experienced any of the other horrible things that men do to women, I dare say you'd choose the bear. Is the choice of the man just indicative of being fortunate in your contact with men?

This is simply false. There is someone on this very thread who has seen a bear while hiking.

This question came from an American twitter poster. In the US people who like hiking do sometimes encounter bears, they don't all die.

I've actually also seen a bear when hiking. I wasn't alone, I was with DP, but I don't think that's the reason it didn't kill me.

Surely anyone with half a brain would report that man? 😵‍💫 that’s certainly suspicious behaviour that needs investigating.

also, I’m not saying you should have to change your route because you absolutely shouldn’t but if I was walking in areas where I repeatedly came across men crouching in bushes etc then I 100% would not be doing that route anymore.

also - having a dog means very little. If any of these men have a knife or weapon they could easily damage your dog to get to you.

I said man. I have had negative interaction with men, and am not minimising male violence. I still think I have a better chance of surviving with a man than a bear, though of course it depends which bear. May also depend in which country.

Going on a walk in a wooded area during every day life - yes I’d rather walk past a man.

being alone for an extended period of time in a secluded area with either a bear or a man both of whom know I am there and alone? Fucking hell a bear every time. He has easier prey than me and we can stay far away from each other. He might not need to eat.

If a man thought that he could act without consequence or consent - I think a terrifying proportion of them would.

A bear wouldn’t enjoy my terror.

fuck men.