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.

A bear cannot be reasoned with.

More man hating nonsense.

I'm choosing the bear every time!

Bear for sure.

With a bear it'll either kill me and possibly eat most of me, or it won't. It won't torture me for days, or force me to perform sex acts or rape and then kill me. It might kill me slowly sure, I've read about what bears can do, but if it's doing that it's not for sexual gratification. It wouldn't kill me then do abhorrent things to my dead body just for its own kicks. It's just doing what's in its nature. Whereas a man could do so many unimaginable horrific things. NAMALT blah blah, but I've read enough about what some men's nature can be to want to take my chances with the bear. Yes the man could very well be a nice non-rapist sort of man, but I'd still rather be alone with a bear, because the chances are better.

I saw an interesting comment on Reddit about this, someone trying to explain to the men why women were answering this way. The thing was basically 'some of these MandMs are poisonous' man asked how could you tell which ones were ok. 'You don't, they all look exactly the same, you can't know which ones are poisonous til it's too late. That's what it's like for women encountering unknown males. So why choose to eat any of them?' I don't know if any of the baffled men got it in the end.

The only plausible answer for a real world scenario is to choose the man.

Bears, presuming they mean brown, black, Kodiak or Grizzly given the mention of "woods" are a lot more dangerous than I think many people realise. There is absolutely no way to defend yourself or protect yourself from one if it decides to attack. So you're relying on a wild animal not being hungry, pissed off with you or just a bit mad.

Those that choose "bear" are not doing so here because they hate men. That's very very obvious from the comments people are making. They have more experience of interacting with men than bears (!), and too many men have hurt them or made them feel like they were going to be hurt by them. That's a real issue, that this viral question highlights. Anyone who is angry at those women for fearing men has really rather missed the point.

Yes. Men are the problem.

No. And how do you even KNOW why he's there?
Bears live there.

You cannot reason with a man intent on raping or murdering you either.

Sending you a hug and hope you have support in your life. I know this was a trivial post in a way, to make a point, but you made the point.

Thank you.

The victims of male predators should have tried reasoning with them, who knew!?

More victim blaming nonsense.

Is your plan just to avoid men altogether?

Seems to me to be a fucking useless question designed to take a certain strata of society offline "debating" it. Presumably to hid bad things elsewhere ?

"a bear" ??????

species ?
sex ?
age ?
protecting cubs ?
in good health ?
habituated to humans ?
on heat/in season ?

When I have all the facts, I can draw some conclusions.

Or was I a fucking idiot to study sciences ?

This viral question really does prove something though.

So many missing the point even on this thread. The point isn’t that women are underestimating bears, or need you to educate us on their deadliness. The point is that we’re choosing potential death at the paws of a bear over the much more horrific events that could be dealt to us should we choose the wrong man to spend time with in the woods.

(Apologies to all those who aren’t ‘what about teh menz‘-ing.)

It's sad and sobering to read if so many women on here who have had bad experiences with men.

I have met a bear with a cub,halfway up a mountain. I'd pick the bear.

It's like you simultaneously understand and are missing the point 😄

As if no women build things, are medics or first aiders, no woman ever was a top university graduate or a soldier or in the police* helping to protect us.

*(mostly) doing a lot of heavy lifting there.

Isn't it men's reactions to this question that's the interesting thing?

I honestly don't know which way I'd go with this, I've met and had trouble with lots of men but no bears, so I can't make a logical choice, or even really an illogical one. But if I were asked this question I'd have to have a long hard think, which in itself would probably shock most men

100%. I was scrolling down and kept thinking how the whole point is so lost on this thread.

I suppose it depends how you interpret the question. For me, the issue is that the bear is meant to be in the woods, so there's every possibility it has no interest in you and your paths will never cross.

The man has a reason to be in the woods. Hopefully he's just walking his dog, but who knows.

I walk in the woods most days with my (small) dog. I see lots of men. 99% have a dog, are clad in running gear, etc. I live in the UK, so no bears. Occasionally I'll spot a man alone dressed in the 'wrong' clothes and I wonder if my luck has finally run out.

What is interesting to me is not whether people chose man or bear (I'd probably choose man, btw) but the fact that 'woman or bear' is not even a question because the answer is so bloody obvious...

@SwordToFlamethrower @rainbowbee @BouleDeSuif 💐💐💐

It would depend on the situation but I'd probably pick a bear. The ones in tourist areas, where I am most likely to encounter one, generally leave ppl alone. If you leave your food out overnight, you might wake up to one enjoying breakfast at your picnic table but after it eats, it leaves to look for another campsite where the humans were silly enough to leave food out.

Men just don't get it. They've more than likely never felt vulnerable or intimidated by an unknown male. They know they're not about to harm you, so what's the problem??! I challenged a male tradesman working in one the cubicles of the female toilets in a pub recently. I asked if a sign could be put on the door advising he was there, so giving females like myself that were uncomfortable with him being there the option not to enter. He looked at me like I'd gone mad. Then DP looked at me like I'd gone mad when I told him. They just don't get understand and that puts us all at risk.

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

Safe with either, as long as they have a big can of bear spray which works on both. 😎

Me, DH and DD were in a large city centre on saturday and as we walked past an alleyway I saw several young men look at us and then go in and just stand there .
DH went to go down saying it was a shortcut back to the car and both myself and DD said no. DH didnt understand why, he hadnt even noticed the men (unlike us) but even after he followed us the long way around he said that we didnt know if they were doing anything wrong. DD asked did he want to risk it?
Its all about mitigating risk as a woman and I doubt most men spend a lot of time assesssing threats and risks like we have to, or even seeing potential ones.

Though surprisingly many women will shack up with a man again, leaving her and her dc vulnerable.

I will not do it again, despite 30 years of mainly safe marriage.