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

[IcakethereforeIam]

This is an interesting thought experiment

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/relationships/article-13360727/man-bear-viral-question-domestic-violence-australia-dating.html

The DM nick enough off MN, so no apology for returning the favour.

Definitely team bear here.

There are links to articles regarding DV in Australia.

How utterly ridiculous

Yes it's ridiculous that even today in the western world. Women don't feel safe around men

Bear, obviously. They're more likely to run away if you make a noise, and aren't eating people for shits and giggles/to get their rocks off.

So many men are getting angry at women choosing the bear and not taking the chance to try to understand why that is.

If the man had dangerous intentions toward a woman, I'd like a big carnivorous bear behind him to give 'The Revenant' treatment. This may serve as a deterrent.

A bear won't rape me and then claim I like rough sex, causing all my friends to call me a liar, a 7 month police investigation that ended with the words "some women like rough sex, try not to let this ruin your life", when in fact, my life had already been ruined.
Quit my degree, had a breakdown, got diagnosed with PTSD and to this day, I am too scared to go out on my own 99% of the time. 12 years on and not much has changed.

And that isn't even an isolated incident. That was rape number 5 in my life.

So yeah, bear.

Bear for sure.
Not so many of them lingering without purpose around our local canal tow path.

Team Bear here
One interesting addition was that a woman asked her husband this question and he replied by asking more questions - what kind of bear? how old was the man? etc
When asked if he would rather his daughter was alone in the woods with a man or woman he answered Woman with no questions.
I would have assumed that a man would probably be stronger than most women so more able to protect his daughter and probably more likely to have useful survival skills but it seemed the man didnt have to know anything other than the persons sex.
its almost as if sex matters

Actually, bear.
I've spent time in the kind of countryside where people get eaten by large carnivores. And bears can move surprisingly fast and have form for biting people's faces off.

You could ask men if they would rather there wife, sister, daughter, mother was alone in the woods with a man or a bear and see what they say then

Bear.
And lets face it if it does attack/kill me at least no one will be asking what I was wearing or if I was giving it the wrong impression...

Unlikley to rape you before during and after though and then claim you asked for it

The one I read was she asked if he'd prefer the daughter to encounter a bear or a woman and he answered woman with no hesitation - then realised what he had said as compared to when he was asked to choose between a MAN and a bear.

Me - I'd take my chances with the bear.

This. I’ve seen a lot of TikTok’s where people ask fathers of young daughters whether they’d rather leave their daughter in the woods with a bear or a man. It engages their brain a bit more rather than getting them offended. I’ve yet to see someone choose the man

What type of bear? I'd definitely take an encounter with a panda 🐼

I am genuinely surprised, but also so saddened that so many people feel like this. I would choose the bear (and would also choose if I was asked about my young children) - but while I've had bad experiences with men, I know that many women have experienced horrific things that I have not. I was about to say that makes me lucky but that's in itself awful - it shouldn't be 'lucky' not to have been raped.

SwordToFlamethrower
It was difficult to read about your experiences, so living them, surviving them... I can't even imagine. Sending you strength and healing and whatever inadequate words might carry some meaning for you.

You know exactly what you're getting with a bear. No bear is ever going to put on a very convincing act of being a pacificist or a vegan and then maul you when your guard is down. A bear will either attack you or walk away. It won't spend years abusing you, it won't sexually assault you, it won't spike your drink, it won't fuck with your mind by blaming you for making it maul you, it won't tell tell all your friends and family that you have MH issues to undermine your credibility and it won't self-identify as a human and demand it has a right to share your tent.

Hmm. We have bears that come around our property regularly, and although they are black bears, which aren't especially dangerous under normal circumstances, I would rather meet a man than a bear. It is possible to have a tense run-in with a female when she has cubs, and frankly they are very large and intimidating and unpredictable. The school next door keeps the kids in if there is a bear around.

Now the grizzly bears, out west, are dangerous to humans and I wouldn't go into bear country there without a gun. Even more so with polar bears, they are extremely dangerous and won't usually think twice about eating a person. There's no question of outrunning a polar bear or a grizzly.

I am a little skeptical that most women saying they would rather meet a strange bear have actually ever really met a wild one before.

True. But I suspect a bear is more likely to kill you.

@SwordToFlamethrower
Sending you an unMumsnetty hug.

As to the conundrum, it is easy - a bear.

At the risk of being very boring and logical, doesn't it basically depend on why the man is in the woods?

An adorable little black cub just came trotting through our campus 5 minutes ago, but always the next question is where Mama is, because they can be very dangerous/protective.

What kind of bear?

In Australia it could be a koala......or a drop bear.

I'm a woman I don't tend to go wandering in the woods alone, it's something we learn very early on unfortunately.

I'm so very sorry.