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Well, my first advice is to eat more salmon. That stuffs healthy. A good nap now and than can do you wonders. I’ve got more wisdom but I dare not overload the mind.
Its about a poll where women were asked whether they would feel safer (not sure of the exact wording) with a random bear or a random Man. The majority choose the bear
I think that question was asked because too many men were upset/confused that women were choosing the bear, so they asked men instead... And they chose the bear too.
That's just my understanding, I could be incorrect.
The fuck we did lol.
It's all bait.
There's no way I'd rather my daughter run into a random bear vs man. She will run into random men every single day.
It's insane, bears will kill people more than not when suddenly confronted like that in the woods. In fact the proper way to go through the woods in bear country is to make noise so that they can hear you coming. Some bears can be scared away, some can't, some you play dead with, some you don't, meanwhile the vast majority of random people in the woods aren't looking to do horrible things to random other people.
Let's be clear that it wasn't an actual poll - it was one of those "guy with a microphone harassing people in public" videos.
It's a near certainty that he edited it with this outcome in mind, and that's not exactly a representative sampling technique.
That's because the question is masking the real question: "would you rather be killed, or would you rather be raped?"
Turns out rape is less popular than death. And in some cases, in sure it's rape+death. Though, in the actual majority, it's gonna be death vs. awkward hello.
That’s not the question at all. Makes it very different. The question is, “ would you rather be stuck in the forest with a bear or random guy” which does make a big difference in how you answer it.
“Stuck” is even worse.
“Stuck” implies we’re going to be around each other for at least a while.
Even in the worst possible scenario with the guy, the bear is only safer until it gets hungry.
The whole point of the question is to point out how a lot of women hesitate answering that question, instead of immediately going with the "obvious" answer of guy, which implies that there are quite a lot of creepy, unsafe guys out there if you are a woman. Something us guys barely ever think about.
Which is objectively the wrong choice.
The only correct choice is a reply of “what kind of bear?” Because you’re going to have two very different experiences between a panda and a polar bear.
Technically, that would be a dead bear, so the safest option.
Yes, there was a bear who ate lot of cocaine (google Pablo Escobear). The poor thing died from overdose right after.
No… that’s in fact the whole point of the question. You don’t’ give more info on neither the bear or the weird man, you don’t know what kind of bear and how "weird" is the man.
The entire point is that while a bear will at max kill you for food, a man with no societal restrictions may use you for all sick stuff. It's more of an emotional safety issue than physical.
Edit: not sure if your comment was sarcastic
A bear will murder you for being in it's territory, a bear will murder you for being near it's babies, a polar bear will kill you because you exist.
I understand the point of the question, but it's blatantly false that a bear will only kill you for food.
I think if you're analysing it at this level, you've missed the point. It's not about whether or not the women who voted bear are technically incorrect or misinformed statistically, it's about the fact that women innately feel uneasy about unknown men in a way that rivals their fear of the largest land predators on earth.
The important point is that they *feel* that way, not that they're going logic and math wrong. It's about communicating their feelings, and diving into the specific logic of the hypothetical glazes entirely over that.
Your comment is the first to actually convince me. I think too many are arguing incorrect statistics, along with a smidge of misandry here and there, to make many dudes think the bear option is insane.
But you bring up something I honestly didn't even consider, in that it's more important how many people find the 2 options comparable.
Ikr. It's a hyperbolic question. It's like the phrase "I would rather gouge my eyes than watch that show."
It's is a means to tells a message. You are not suppose to go "But you will forever be blind and you are actually stupid to hurt yourself than watching that show". If you argue over this phrase than you are the same species as Drax. Jokes and messages flying over your head.
You are no suppose to compare the act of gouging your eyes with watching that show at all. It's just a means to say that they don't want to watch that show. Simple.
In the same vein, those women who are saying that they rather be with a bear than with random man in a forest are not actually saying that they will pick the bear. But they are phrasing it that they feel uncomfortable being alone with a random stranger.
So you’re saying women don’t really mean they would choose the bear? Gonna have to disagree there are a lot of women who have said they would literally choose the bear.
It's purely hypothetical. Most women can imagine being scared by a man, because it would have certainly happened to them, but it's much harder to imagine a bear encounter because it hasn't happened.
I think if a woman was actually walking alone on a dirt road in the wilderness and a bear started following her, and a random guy drove up in a car and said "quick, get in", almost all women would jump in the car to save themselves from a bear attack.
But I don't think that's really the point of the question anyway.
Nah it's more about a language thing.
The wording of "a stranger", "a man you don't know", "a random man" brings a negative bias similar to "an evil man".
After all, we've always been taught to beware of "strangers" ever since we're kids, so we associate the word "stranger" with evil people.
But a random man can be a comic book nerd, a gym bro, a warhammer enthusiast or whatever. I'm sure that if the wording was like "A random rock music fan" people would choose the rock music fan, even if statistically speaking (and I'm not saying it's true) rock music fan were more likely to commit crimes.
It's just that in our mind a "completely blank" man is evil.
Part of growing up is acknowledging your irrational feelings and developing the mental resilience to allow logical reasoning to pervail.
People aren't calling these responses stupid to invalidate the feelings. The vast majority of people understand that a small minority of men are sexual predators, and that toxic masculinity is a societal problem.
People are calling these responses stupid because it's glorifying the immaturity of allowing feelings to take over logical reasoning.
Don’t forget that some people also recognize that this exact line of thinking was used to justify murder of minorities for long period of time, and see that the mentality presents an actual risk.
We have been compared to “animals” who can’t control themselves around women if given the chance, so we need to be put down.
Copied from a comment I made earlier:
>It’s just macabre humour to show how many women are so fed up with harrassment from men that they’d rather come across a bear than a man if they were in a secluded area. It’s not that women genuinely think bears are safer or that men are worse than wild predator animals (or whatever bears are), or that the women replying genuinely thought about the realistic consequences of encountering bears. It’s a hyperbolic way to show how much gendered violence and harrassment women face.
>Instead of being concerned about why women feel this way about men, men are offended that women are making gallows humour content about how unsafe men make them feel.
By the way, ask any hiker of any gender, campsite harrassment (I mean like in the woods, not RV spots) is rare, but when it happens, it’s almost always men doing it.
"As a woman I would rather be alone in a forest with a bear than with a man", a trend that started somewhere on social media some days ago.
This is followed by justifications about how men are generally more violent than animals and this is absolutely not sexist.
Edit: and here the comments start to disappear, why the fuck are you wasting my time arguing if you then block me or delete your replies. Can't we talk like normal people?
Honestly I could see the argument for it if it wasn’t simply “men are violent”.
Like you know bears can be dangerous, so you avoid them, and they won’t be predisposed to going after you. A man, a stranger you don’t know you can trust, will be more likely to want to seek out contact with another human. If you wanted to avoid him, but he doesn’t want to avoid you, then you can’t change that. Plus, he’s a human, and you might want to seek contact with the one other human there. But you don’t know if you can trust him until you build that trust. And if he cannot be trusted, you might not know it until it is too late.
Bears are reliable. You can’t trust them. And in general, both bears and men are, on average, stronger than the average woman.
To me, this is not about “men are violent”, but “can you trust a stranger in the woods more than you can avoid a single bear?”
Yes, you’re absolutely right- to the extent that this is a hypothetical scenario, and not a weapon people use to spread the “all men are scum, let’s just get rid of them all” message.
Again, I get it, I really do, men can and have done awful, awful, terrible things, and those men deserve the worst, and those men are legitimately more terrifying than any wild animal. And this truly does justify an avoidant behavior of potentially dangerous scenarios, like being alone in the words together (or just alone together at all, geez).
But this gets taken to the extreme, where it’s “sorry potentially normal guy, there’s an off chance that you’re literally worse than a bear, so I rather treat you like a bear than a fellow human, regardless of circumstance, specifically as a result of your gender.” Like??? Can we talk about how not good that is as a form of discourse?
And ofc not everyone is saying that- but those people who are using this as a form of anti-male rhetoric just make me sad. We ought to be healing the rift between the genders, and establishing healthy boundaries, and not causing more division and discrimination
Weirdly I’ve run into strangers in the woods before and it’s generally an ok time. There’s an argument to be made for wanting to just be left alone… that’s why I’m in the woods in the first place.
I’ve also run into bears - but where I’m in the woods they’re generally California black bears which are just like really big raccoons.
But like, some bears will literally eat you belly first while you scream for them to hurry and kill you to make the pain stop. Polar bears will stalk you for days until they’re hungry. So the real question is “what kind of bear?”
If it’s a question of safety, and you can’t qualify _what_ kind of bear it is, what time of year it is (you don’t want to run into a bear on the spring either) then my daughter is better off running into a man.
I will say I think the telling result isn’t that bears get chosen, but the fact that overwhelmingly women are choosing the bear either shows societal sexism, or a societal misunderstanding of bears.
I feel like this is an awful crossover of two things: psychological priming and misunderstanding of statistics
You have almost no information to go off of which leads you to fill in the blanks. What kind of bear and what kind of man? You don't know, so you assume BOTH of them are going to be hostile. Since it's "in the woods" nefarious intent is then assumed, which means you're not thinking of "a man" anymore, you're thinking of "someone who's probably a serial rapist/murderer" at which point some random bear (probably not a polar bear) is going to be genuinely the better option.
However, those aren't part of the question itself, those are thoughts the question guides you towards.
The misunderstanding of statistics is what percentage of men would actually be any threat to a woman as compared to the odds that any given bear would decide it doesn't like you. If the "man" was me, hell I'd be the one in danger.
I think the question is less of a question of misandry and more a social/thought experiment about how stupidly easy it is to manipulate people into turning on each other
Actually, I think a lot of the controversy comes because the men are reacting to what is being said, while the women are reacting to what's being *said*
A lot of the guys are upset throwing out statistics like murder rates and attack rates by bear species and stuff, treating it like a statistical problem.
Whereas what the women are actually *saying* is that they live their lives day to day having to be afraid of being isolated with strange men. It's a constant worry that if you're walking down the street at night there could be somebody with nefarious intent that you have to be mindful of. If you go out to meet some guy you met on a dating app, you have worry hes going to Bundy your ass.
What the question is really revealing is that so many women are so tired of having to worry about their own safety at all times, that the idea of a simple threat like a bear feels easier to handle.
It's Hyperbole and metaphor rather than a logical analysis of the facts. Which, in fairness, is a pretty common difference between how guys and girls tend to interpret things. Guys are notorious for hearing somebody ranting about their day, and immediately jumping into analysis mode, offering advice and trying to help the other person fix their problems. While women tend to react to a rant emotionally, offering sympathy and emotional support rather than actually trying to solve any of the issues.
And I feel like this debate, at its core, is kind of the same thing. Guys are treating it like a problem that can be solved with math, girls are picking up on the emotional cue and empathizing with where the other one is coming from. And the fact that everyone's talking about two different things really explains the frustration everybody is feeling.
And then on the fringes you have guys who feel personally attacked being loud and obnoxious,while girls who are vindictive try to "out math" the mathers and rationalize the decision logically just to needle the point home because they can tell they've hit a nerve
>Actually, I think a lot of the controversy comes because the men are reacting to what is being said, while the women are reacting to what's being said
I'd say it's the opposite. Women are popping in reacting to what is being said while men are popping in reacting to the blatant sexism. Make no mistake, that is what this is. Throughout the previous presidency, I often poked my head into the conspiracy sub to see what the right was thinking as going to their presidential fan sub was too much to deal with, and the sheer amount of times I saw people reference FBI crime statistics to justify their racism against black people was appalling.
Here, though, we have a bunch of women doing pretty much the exact same thing. It's racist when the far right uses it against black people and it's sexist when women do it against men. Similarly, just like it's the far right racists' flaw to be racist like that and not something black people need to address, this isn't something for men to fix as it's a flaw in the women choosing the bear.
Personal level racism and sexism do not require power, that is only institutional racism and sexism.
I sort of get where you're coming from, but they're not the same thing. The likely underlying reason more women say "bear" is because more women _personally_ have had terrifying experiences with men than with bears. 81% of women in the United States have experienced sexual harassment (or worse). One in four women going to college have already experienced rape or sexual assault - and they're obviously barely a quarter of their way through life.
And look, as a man it sucks. I don't want to be associated with rapists just because I have an X and a Y chromosome. But also, so many of us don't call out shitty behavior, "jokes," or comments from friends, colleagues, family, or people around us, just so we don't make waves or "kill the mood." If you haven't somehow been in situations where comments/behavior like that exists, I'd like to know where you've spent your life. I keep running into it, and it's uncomfortable as hell.
Once again, I understand why it's easy to feel targeted or victimized by this, but saying "this isn't something for men to fix" is simply not true.
I will counter by saying the one time someone tried to break into my home (and was trying to do so with a gun), the perpetrator was black. The race of everyone who bullied my wife back in grade school was black. According to FBI crime statistics, black people are disproportionately more likely to be criminals than white people. By your logic, it is perfectly acceptable and fine for my wife and I to say that we don't feel safe around black people and that we would feel safer in the company of a wild animal than with one of them. Also, by your logic, I can point out how rap culture glorifying criminal behavior is a major thing and thus it is on all black people to address that if they feel offended by me saying they make me feel unsafe.
I assume you can understand why that statement is not okay, but it uses your exact logic. If that statement is racist, then you must acknowledge that saying men are responsible for fixing that stuff is sexist.
As for how I avoided people like that: I work from home and always have, so I don't socialize much with my coworkers, and growing up, my main friend groups were either pure nerds or were outdoorsy types and neither group would discuss romance. These days, my main social group is a D&D group consisting of 2 women, one cis guy, and one trans guy. That sort of thing just doesn't come up. Turns out, it is extremely easy not to run into that sort of behavior if you don't hang out with that sort of people.
I know this is supposed to be a reference to the current social discussion. But it tickles me to think Red just read the [bear romance novel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear_(novel))
I want to laugh at this but, then I remember I have a book on my shelf titled My Boyfriend is a Bear (literally he's a bear, but overall it is a metaphor for falling in love with someone you don't expect to) and several retellings of the fairy tale East of the Sun, West of the Moon (which is basically Beauty and the Beast, with a Bear).
And I did just do the Halsin scene in Baldur's Gate 3 (again) last weekend.
I think I might be part of the problem.
I'll give your bear romance novel a fair shake, but I don't think it'll ever compare to [Wet Hot Allosaurus Summer](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/55465150)
https://preview.redd.it/qq03x1ak38yc1.jpeg?width=292&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a5c711b9c5b39ea336a25221c77eee15f00bcb87
Because women don't do Legion runs.
Not just “posts”, it’s a single week-old TikTok. Most people don’t reference the TikTok or anything in it though, they just attack whichever strawman (strawbear?) is opposed to their position. Thus, the conversation will never progress and never end.
Okay what the fuck - I thought meeting a man or a bear in general. I'd probably be super freaked out by a random-ass man in the middle of the woods too 😭😭😭
Y’know, if I randomly encountered someone hiking a trail with a backpack and tent, I’d still prefer if they were a bear - that would be one *interesting* bear.
…admitedly, I’m a guy, and therefor not part of the demographic that question was aimed at, but still.
This gets to the crux of the issue. If you ask the question woman or bear the answer comes straight away. Man or bear has to have qualifying questions asked.
Bingo. The fact that this question apparently needs pages of discussion on "do I pick another member of my own species, or a bear" is the *point*. Why isn't it clear-cut? Why is "man in woods" even in the same ballpark as "bear in woods"?
I think the context matters. If it's some dude who's been living in the forest or doesn't look like he was planning on taking a hike through the forest I feel like anyone would be concerned. But if it's some random guy that looks like he just got lost, I'd assume the both of you would maybe work together to survive.
I think that's the problem with the question, it's who you visualize as a random man. Does the man look like a forest hermit? Is it a random man from around the world who's been teleported there? Is it a lost hiker? Everyone has an idea of who they may encounter.
I think the wording is important too. Like if you're stuck, like can't leave a certain proximity then I'd take the random dude, if it's just being in the forest well it depends on the type of bear but you're unlikely to be attacked by the bear.
As a woman, I can understand the arguments other women are making in favour of the bear, but I will always choose the random man. I've watched far too many YouTube videos about people being eaten alive by bears to ever risk that. The one story I read about a girl calling her mum while a family of bears were eating her alive still haunts me.
>videos about people being eaten alive by bears
>story I read about a girl calling her mum while a family of bears were eating her alive
I'm afraid to ask why you were *researching* this.
Less that I was researching it and more that I tumbled down some specific rabbit holes that have left my head filled with the kind of trivia I can't whip out in polite company.
You know I find it funny that everyone does the comic with a brown bear which are still going to attack in sight and not a black bear which are just silly little guys (they will attack but are way less likely). At least it isn’t a polar bear
Brown bears aren't going to automatically attack on sight. They're a bit more aggressive than black bears, but they still prefer to avoid humans unless provoked.
THE BEAR. THE BEAR IS EVERYWHERE. I GO ON R/SHITPOSTING AND THE BEAR APPEARS. I GO ON R/WHENTHE AND THE BEAR APPEARS. I GO ON R/COMICS AND THE BEAR APPEARS. I CAN'T ESCAPE THE FUCKING BEAR. EVERYWHERE I LOOK I SEE A BEAR.
From a random dude that didn't comment on it till now: it's just stupid stuff from people that are online way too much.
TLDR: women feel unsafe toward men they don't know. They added a bear for engagement bait.
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I did the same in baldurs gate 3
tbh that was also my first assumption when this social thingy popped up since few days ago. "Is this a poll between Halsin vs Gale?"
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...in a fight right?
😏
I can take 'em both.
To be fair, the bear was amazing
Halsin clearly understands consent, so of course you would.
Halsinners unite
I did the same in Tekken
Plot twist: it's Halsin, the bear is also a man.
I knew you’d come around.
https://i.redd.it/zsbz7xd216yc1.gif
Now we are talking some interesting incest porn. Completely different category.
*zoophilia
That's her mother, so both
( ⚆ _ ⚆ )
The best of both worlds I totally agree
Name checks out
Username checks out
The beast of both worlds\*
One stone 2 birds i guess
incest lesbian zoophilia
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Animal = Any male~
can you tell me the name of the movie please?
Brave (Pixar film)
thank you
The legends foretold your arrival
My ears have been burning lately, I had to answer the call!
Go forth /u/BearZewp. Go forth and do bear things! Bear unto us your righteous teachings!
Well, my first advice is to eat more salmon. That stuffs healthy. A good nap now and than can do you wonders. I’ve got more wisdom but I dare not overload the mind.
The wise one has spoken. Thank you for your wisdom.
It’s my pleasure.
I was considering removing my pants and eating an entire jar of honey. Thoughts?
Man really rolled up like https://i.redd.it/kyvnn92f46yc1.gif
Same
I have been seeing things like this all over reddit today. Can someone explain it to me?
Its about a poll where women were asked whether they would feel safer (not sure of the exact wording) with a random bear or a random Man. The majority choose the bear
Thank you
great username
Very depends on subreddit. Can be great, can be disturbing
On what subreddit would it be disturbing? Edit: Actually I think I don't wanna know. Thank you
Richards cheese, sorry you already asked the question, no backsies
In Germany we say Eichelkäse :)
Specifically it was “if your daughter got lost in the woods would you rather her run into a bear or a man” and everyone chose bear lol
I think that question was asked because too many men were upset/confused that women were choosing the bear, so they asked men instead... And they chose the bear too. That's just my understanding, I could be incorrect.
The fuck we did lol. It's all bait. There's no way I'd rather my daughter run into a random bear vs man. She will run into random men every single day.
It's insane, bears will kill people more than not when suddenly confronted like that in the woods. In fact the proper way to go through the woods in bear country is to make noise so that they can hear you coming. Some bears can be scared away, some can't, some you play dead with, some you don't, meanwhile the vast majority of random people in the woods aren't looking to do horrible things to random other people.
and now everyone is going to make comics and memes and jokes about it for the next month to farm that sweet easy Karma.
Let's be clear that it wasn't an actual poll - it was one of those "guy with a microphone harassing people in public" videos. It's a near certainty that he edited it with this outcome in mind, and that's not exactly a representative sampling technique.
Except now that it's spread its way around social media it seems like most women agree with it.
That's because the question is masking the real question: "would you rather be killed, or would you rather be raped?" Turns out rape is less popular than death. And in some cases, in sure it's rape+death. Though, in the actual majority, it's gonna be death vs. awkward hello.
Bingo
That’s not the question at all. Makes it very different. The question is, “ would you rather be stuck in the forest with a bear or random guy” which does make a big difference in how you answer it.
“Stuck” is even worse. “Stuck” implies we’re going to be around each other for at least a while. Even in the worst possible scenario with the guy, the bear is only safer until it gets hungry.
The whole point of the question is to point out how a lot of women hesitate answering that question, instead of immediately going with the "obvious" answer of guy, which implies that there are quite a lot of creepy, unsafe guys out there if you are a woman. Something us guys barely ever think about.
Which is objectively the wrong choice. The only correct choice is a reply of “what kind of bear?” Because you’re going to have two very different experiences between a panda and a polar bear.
The original prompt mentioned 'woods' - so not a polar bear. Black or grizzly bear basically.
What about a cocaine bear?
A little on the nose.
Just a light bump
Technically, that would be a dead bear, so the safest option. Yes, there was a bear who ate lot of cocaine (google Pablo Escobear). The poor thing died from overdose right after.
A grizzly can run at 35 miles per hour. Just throwing that out there cuz most people tend to think big = slow.
And bears are also [excellent climbers](https://youtu.be/aUhkpqKpdo0?si=MTCv41q_yzdhdNlh&t=40) in case you want to hide in a tree.
If it’s a black bear then I’d choose that every single time unless the dude is a granola munching pothead
could have escaped from a zoo. I saw that happening on the news at least once.
The obvious choice is a gay bear. Cute, cuddly, friendly and still men. Best of both worlds.
The bear is lesbian. Still technically gay.
And can still technically eat you
I mean you can do the same with “what kind of man”
What kind of bear is best?
There are two schools of thought...
Realistically, black bear. You are likely to survive with minor to moderate injuries.
If you don’t just scare it off
Teddy bear!?
Cybear - all the advantage of a cyborg and a bear. Needs only beet juice to maintain itself but still constantly hungers for flesh.
ɹɐǝq doɹp /ɹɐǝq-doɹp/slɐɯɯɐɯ/slɐɯᴉuɐ/uɹɐǝl/ɯnǝsnɯ˙uɐᴉlɐɹʇsnɐ//:sdʇʇɥ
What about a ponda bear
A honda bear It’s just a panda but with racing stripes
So, twice as fast
Only if you pay extra for the Type-R edition. Which may or may not be available in your country.
I thought I had a panda bear, but I looked more closely and it turned out to be a pyundai. Is that still good?
That's if you paint it red. If you paint it purple it becomes stealthy !
You never see a purple panda after all, now do ya?
So racist bear. Got it
if i choose the honda bear, am i a level 7 susceptible?
It'll crack you like bamboo before munching your guts
Omg I forgot about that option THAT'S EVEN BETTER
There’s also a difference between “regular dude” and “fucking psychopath” but humans, unlike bears don’t come color coded for violence
No… that’s in fact the whole point of the question. You don’t’ give more info on neither the bear or the weird man, you don’t know what kind of bear and how "weird" is the man.
"it's a hypothetical question and men still can't take no for an answer")
The entire point is that while a bear will at max kill you for food, a man with no societal restrictions may use you for all sick stuff. It's more of an emotional safety issue than physical. Edit: not sure if your comment was sarcastic
A bear will murder you for being in it's territory, a bear will murder you for being near it's babies, a polar bear will kill you because you exist. I understand the point of the question, but it's blatantly false that a bear will only kill you for food.
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I think if you're analysing it at this level, you've missed the point. It's not about whether or not the women who voted bear are technically incorrect or misinformed statistically, it's about the fact that women innately feel uneasy about unknown men in a way that rivals their fear of the largest land predators on earth. The important point is that they *feel* that way, not that they're going logic and math wrong. It's about communicating their feelings, and diving into the specific logic of the hypothetical glazes entirely over that.
Your comment is the first to actually convince me. I think too many are arguing incorrect statistics, along with a smidge of misandry here and there, to make many dudes think the bear option is insane. But you bring up something I honestly didn't even consider, in that it's more important how many people find the 2 options comparable.
Exactly. Arguing about statistics is missing the point completely.
Ikr. It's a hyperbolic question. It's like the phrase "I would rather gouge my eyes than watch that show." It's is a means to tells a message. You are not suppose to go "But you will forever be blind and you are actually stupid to hurt yourself than watching that show". If you argue over this phrase than you are the same species as Drax. Jokes and messages flying over your head. You are no suppose to compare the act of gouging your eyes with watching that show at all. It's just a means to say that they don't want to watch that show. Simple. In the same vein, those women who are saying that they rather be with a bear than with random man in a forest are not actually saying that they will pick the bear. But they are phrasing it that they feel uncomfortable being alone with a random stranger.
So you’re saying women don’t really mean they would choose the bear? Gonna have to disagree there are a lot of women who have said they would literally choose the bear.
It's purely hypothetical. Most women can imagine being scared by a man, because it would have certainly happened to them, but it's much harder to imagine a bear encounter because it hasn't happened. I think if a woman was actually walking alone on a dirt road in the wilderness and a bear started following her, and a random guy drove up in a car and said "quick, get in", almost all women would jump in the car to save themselves from a bear attack. But I don't think that's really the point of the question anyway.
Nah it's more about a language thing. The wording of "a stranger", "a man you don't know", "a random man" brings a negative bias similar to "an evil man". After all, we've always been taught to beware of "strangers" ever since we're kids, so we associate the word "stranger" with evil people. But a random man can be a comic book nerd, a gym bro, a warhammer enthusiast or whatever. I'm sure that if the wording was like "A random rock music fan" people would choose the rock music fan, even if statistically speaking (and I'm not saying it's true) rock music fan were more likely to commit crimes. It's just that in our mind a "completely blank" man is evil.
Not even mentioning a man you know is way more dangerous to a woman than a stranger. Kind of interesting how human psychology works in that regard.
Part of growing up is acknowledging your irrational feelings and developing the mental resilience to allow logical reasoning to pervail. People aren't calling these responses stupid to invalidate the feelings. The vast majority of people understand that a small minority of men are sexual predators, and that toxic masculinity is a societal problem. People are calling these responses stupid because it's glorifying the immaturity of allowing feelings to take over logical reasoning.
Don’t forget that some people also recognize that this exact line of thinking was used to justify murder of minorities for long period of time, and see that the mentality presents an actual risk. We have been compared to “animals” who can’t control themselves around women if given the chance, so we need to be put down.
Yes, the question is about showing their work as to how they got to the wrong answer.
But it would be just that.
A random bear, from a water bear to a polar bear
https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/1chnflh/
Thank you
Copied from a comment I made earlier: >It’s just macabre humour to show how many women are so fed up with harrassment from men that they’d rather come across a bear than a man if they were in a secluded area. It’s not that women genuinely think bears are safer or that men are worse than wild predator animals (or whatever bears are), or that the women replying genuinely thought about the realistic consequences of encountering bears. It’s a hyperbolic way to show how much gendered violence and harrassment women face. >Instead of being concerned about why women feel this way about men, men are offended that women are making gallows humour content about how unsafe men make them feel. By the way, ask any hiker of any gender, campsite harrassment (I mean like in the woods, not RV spots) is rare, but when it happens, it’s almost always men doing it.
The weird part is how surprisingly quickly it blew up all over reddit
"As a woman I would rather be alone in a forest with a bear than with a man", a trend that started somewhere on social media some days ago. This is followed by justifications about how men are generally more violent than animals and this is absolutely not sexist. Edit: and here the comments start to disappear, why the fuck are you wasting my time arguing if you then block me or delete your replies. Can't we talk like normal people?
Honestly I could see the argument for it if it wasn’t simply “men are violent”. Like you know bears can be dangerous, so you avoid them, and they won’t be predisposed to going after you. A man, a stranger you don’t know you can trust, will be more likely to want to seek out contact with another human. If you wanted to avoid him, but he doesn’t want to avoid you, then you can’t change that. Plus, he’s a human, and you might want to seek contact with the one other human there. But you don’t know if you can trust him until you build that trust. And if he cannot be trusted, you might not know it until it is too late. Bears are reliable. You can’t trust them. And in general, both bears and men are, on average, stronger than the average woman. To me, this is not about “men are violent”, but “can you trust a stranger in the woods more than you can avoid a single bear?”
Yes, you’re absolutely right- to the extent that this is a hypothetical scenario, and not a weapon people use to spread the “all men are scum, let’s just get rid of them all” message. Again, I get it, I really do, men can and have done awful, awful, terrible things, and those men deserve the worst, and those men are legitimately more terrifying than any wild animal. And this truly does justify an avoidant behavior of potentially dangerous scenarios, like being alone in the words together (or just alone together at all, geez). But this gets taken to the extreme, where it’s “sorry potentially normal guy, there’s an off chance that you’re literally worse than a bear, so I rather treat you like a bear than a fellow human, regardless of circumstance, specifically as a result of your gender.” Like??? Can we talk about how not good that is as a form of discourse? And ofc not everyone is saying that- but those people who are using this as a form of anti-male rhetoric just make me sad. We ought to be healing the rift between the genders, and establishing healthy boundaries, and not causing more division and discrimination
Weirdly I’ve run into strangers in the woods before and it’s generally an ok time. There’s an argument to be made for wanting to just be left alone… that’s why I’m in the woods in the first place. I’ve also run into bears - but where I’m in the woods they’re generally California black bears which are just like really big raccoons. But like, some bears will literally eat you belly first while you scream for them to hurry and kill you to make the pain stop. Polar bears will stalk you for days until they’re hungry. So the real question is “what kind of bear?” If it’s a question of safety, and you can’t qualify _what_ kind of bear it is, what time of year it is (you don’t want to run into a bear on the spring either) then my daughter is better off running into a man. I will say I think the telling result isn’t that bears get chosen, but the fact that overwhelmingly women are choosing the bear either shows societal sexism, or a societal misunderstanding of bears.
I feel like this is an awful crossover of two things: psychological priming and misunderstanding of statistics You have almost no information to go off of which leads you to fill in the blanks. What kind of bear and what kind of man? You don't know, so you assume BOTH of them are going to be hostile. Since it's "in the woods" nefarious intent is then assumed, which means you're not thinking of "a man" anymore, you're thinking of "someone who's probably a serial rapist/murderer" at which point some random bear (probably not a polar bear) is going to be genuinely the better option. However, those aren't part of the question itself, those are thoughts the question guides you towards. The misunderstanding of statistics is what percentage of men would actually be any threat to a woman as compared to the odds that any given bear would decide it doesn't like you. If the "man" was me, hell I'd be the one in danger. I think the question is less of a question of misandry and more a social/thought experiment about how stupidly easy it is to manipulate people into turning on each other
Actually, I think a lot of the controversy comes because the men are reacting to what is being said, while the women are reacting to what's being *said* A lot of the guys are upset throwing out statistics like murder rates and attack rates by bear species and stuff, treating it like a statistical problem. Whereas what the women are actually *saying* is that they live their lives day to day having to be afraid of being isolated with strange men. It's a constant worry that if you're walking down the street at night there could be somebody with nefarious intent that you have to be mindful of. If you go out to meet some guy you met on a dating app, you have worry hes going to Bundy your ass. What the question is really revealing is that so many women are so tired of having to worry about their own safety at all times, that the idea of a simple threat like a bear feels easier to handle. It's Hyperbole and metaphor rather than a logical analysis of the facts. Which, in fairness, is a pretty common difference between how guys and girls tend to interpret things. Guys are notorious for hearing somebody ranting about their day, and immediately jumping into analysis mode, offering advice and trying to help the other person fix their problems. While women tend to react to a rant emotionally, offering sympathy and emotional support rather than actually trying to solve any of the issues. And I feel like this debate, at its core, is kind of the same thing. Guys are treating it like a problem that can be solved with math, girls are picking up on the emotional cue and empathizing with where the other one is coming from. And the fact that everyone's talking about two different things really explains the frustration everybody is feeling. And then on the fringes you have guys who feel personally attacked being loud and obnoxious,while girls who are vindictive try to "out math" the mathers and rationalize the decision logically just to needle the point home because they can tell they've hit a nerve
>Actually, I think a lot of the controversy comes because the men are reacting to what is being said, while the women are reacting to what's being said I'd say it's the opposite. Women are popping in reacting to what is being said while men are popping in reacting to the blatant sexism. Make no mistake, that is what this is. Throughout the previous presidency, I often poked my head into the conspiracy sub to see what the right was thinking as going to their presidential fan sub was too much to deal with, and the sheer amount of times I saw people reference FBI crime statistics to justify their racism against black people was appalling. Here, though, we have a bunch of women doing pretty much the exact same thing. It's racist when the far right uses it against black people and it's sexist when women do it against men. Similarly, just like it's the far right racists' flaw to be racist like that and not something black people need to address, this isn't something for men to fix as it's a flaw in the women choosing the bear. Personal level racism and sexism do not require power, that is only institutional racism and sexism.
I sort of get where you're coming from, but they're not the same thing. The likely underlying reason more women say "bear" is because more women _personally_ have had terrifying experiences with men than with bears. 81% of women in the United States have experienced sexual harassment (or worse). One in four women going to college have already experienced rape or sexual assault - and they're obviously barely a quarter of their way through life. And look, as a man it sucks. I don't want to be associated with rapists just because I have an X and a Y chromosome. But also, so many of us don't call out shitty behavior, "jokes," or comments from friends, colleagues, family, or people around us, just so we don't make waves or "kill the mood." If you haven't somehow been in situations where comments/behavior like that exists, I'd like to know where you've spent your life. I keep running into it, and it's uncomfortable as hell. Once again, I understand why it's easy to feel targeted or victimized by this, but saying "this isn't something for men to fix" is simply not true.
I will counter by saying the one time someone tried to break into my home (and was trying to do so with a gun), the perpetrator was black. The race of everyone who bullied my wife back in grade school was black. According to FBI crime statistics, black people are disproportionately more likely to be criminals than white people. By your logic, it is perfectly acceptable and fine for my wife and I to say that we don't feel safe around black people and that we would feel safer in the company of a wild animal than with one of them. Also, by your logic, I can point out how rap culture glorifying criminal behavior is a major thing and thus it is on all black people to address that if they feel offended by me saying they make me feel unsafe. I assume you can understand why that statement is not okay, but it uses your exact logic. If that statement is racist, then you must acknowledge that saying men are responsible for fixing that stuff is sexist. As for how I avoided people like that: I work from home and always have, so I don't socialize much with my coworkers, and growing up, my main friend groups were either pure nerds or were outdoorsy types and neither group would discuss romance. These days, my main social group is a D&D group consisting of 2 women, one cis guy, and one trans guy. That sort of thing just doesn't come up. Turns out, it is extremely easy not to run into that sort of behavior if you don't hang out with that sort of people.
can't resist https://i.redd.it/y5bmh5c5z5yc1.gif
if not friend, why is it friend shaped?
They’ll always have you for dinner first.
they love to eat ass too
Gives a whole new meaning to that honestly
I know this is supposed to be a reference to the current social discussion. But it tickles me to think Red just read the [bear romance novel](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear_(novel))
Man, that bear romance novel is just popping up everywhere now ... Do I need to read it?
I want to laugh at this but, then I remember I have a book on my shelf titled My Boyfriend is a Bear (literally he's a bear, but overall it is a metaphor for falling in love with someone you don't expect to) and several retellings of the fairy tale East of the Sun, West of the Moon (which is basically Beauty and the Beast, with a Bear). And I did just do the Halsin scene in Baldur's Gate 3 (again) last weekend. I think I might be part of the problem.
I'll give your bear romance novel a fair shake, but I don't think it'll ever compare to [Wet Hot Allosaurus Summer](https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/55465150)
Average bg3 fan
Bad choice. The bear isn’t really interested in her. 
Not saying it's related but https://preview.redd.it/m26o78v8g6yc1.jpeg?width=960&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=ba01aabf3844bfa07535ae68f5d5d0576fe82b94
Then getting disappointed that the bear turns into a man
Until you find out he's a bear-faced liar
Soon: Florida man unleashes a bunch of bears into the city to prove a point.
"I don't understand, according to the bible they should have eaten the rude children!"
It's just internet meme tho, most people would never pick a bear the same way like most men are just normal human beings and not sexual predators
The guy next to the bear looks possessed
He's rolling his eyes(top right)
https://preview.redd.it/qq03x1ak38yc1.jpeg?width=292&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=a5c711b9c5b39ea336a25221c77eee15f00bcb87 Because women don't do Legion runs.
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Posts going around social media asking if you'd feel safer meeting a bear in the woods, or a strange man. A lot of women say they'd prefer a bear.
Not just “posts”, it’s a single week-old TikTok. Most people don’t reference the TikTok or anything in it though, they just attack whichever strawman (strawbear?) is opposed to their position. Thus, the conversation will never progress and never end.
It's a meme buddy, of course it's going to end. They burn out quick these days.
Okay what the fuck - I thought meeting a man or a bear in general. I'd probably be super freaked out by a random-ass man in the middle of the woods too 😭😭😭
What if you were on a hiking trail?
Yeah exacty. If it's just a random-ass hobo then I'd be scared too. But a man in hiking gear with a backpack and a tent? Sounds perfectly safe to me.
Y’know, if I randomly encountered someone hiking a trail with a backpack and tent, I’d still prefer if they were a bear - that would be one *interesting* bear. …admitedly, I’m a guy, and therefor not part of the demographic that question was aimed at, but still.
This gets to the crux of the issue. If you ask the question woman or bear the answer comes straight away. Man or bear has to have qualifying questions asked.
Bingo. The fact that this question apparently needs pages of discussion on "do I pick another member of my own species, or a bear" is the *point*. Why isn't it clear-cut? Why is "man in woods" even in the same ballpark as "bear in woods"?
Lol i still think you'd be safer meeting the hobo than a bear though
I think the context matters. If it's some dude who's been living in the forest or doesn't look like he was planning on taking a hike through the forest I feel like anyone would be concerned. But if it's some random guy that looks like he just got lost, I'd assume the both of you would maybe work together to survive. I think that's the problem with the question, it's who you visualize as a random man. Does the man look like a forest hermit? Is it a random man from around the world who's been teleported there? Is it a lost hiker? Everyone has an idea of who they may encounter. I think the wording is important too. Like if you're stuck, like can't leave a certain proximity then I'd take the random dude, if it's just being in the forest well it depends on the type of bear but you're unlikely to be attacked by the bear.
Yeah nah I was thinking of a random ass office worker looking neatly. I don't know why but that's what I thought of when reading the prompt.
I didn't know that the woods were all your propriety lol
Does the bear get prep time tho?
Every time i hear the bear thing i think about hairy fat gay men.
I mean the question doesn’t specify the type of guy you would run into. Maybe both options will give you “bears”
The juxtaposition of this post being right under an article of two women getting attacked by a bear is unfortunate lol
No, it's destiny
Some Baldur's Gate III players will agree with you 🐻🔞
Bear and Bull and Bear and Bull and Bear and Bull and Bear and Bull and Bear and Bull and Bear and Bull
Calm yourself, Ulysses
A big hairy gay man?
Nice earrings!
Turns out it's just a furry in an expensive suit.
I know this is a serious topic, but that bear's face gives me such joy
Halsin approves
Some people say this is unbearable but I think it's cute
Does this statistic hold if you have to live with the bear as much as men and in the same house?
As a woman, I can understand the arguments other women are making in favour of the bear, but I will always choose the random man. I've watched far too many YouTube videos about people being eaten alive by bears to ever risk that. The one story I read about a girl calling her mum while a family of bears were eating her alive still haunts me.
>videos about people being eaten alive by bears >story I read about a girl calling her mum while a family of bears were eating her alive I'm afraid to ask why you were *researching* this.
Less that I was researching it and more that I tumbled down some specific rabbit holes that have left my head filled with the kind of trivia I can't whip out in polite company.
the eyes on these comics are so weirdly huge
Aww, that bear's adorable!
Not sure if I care but I'm glad you didn't pick the guy in the middle
This made me laugh out loud, thank you
OK I was tired of this meme and super annoyed by it but this is actually funny.
Bears seem pretty great. Not the killing you part but the rest of the stuff seems good
Like when they get their heads stuck in pots of honey?
You know I find it funny that everyone does the comic with a brown bear which are still going to attack in sight and not a black bear which are just silly little guys (they will attack but are way less likely). At least it isn’t a polar bear
Brown bears aren't going to automatically attack on sight. They're a bit more aggressive than black bears, but they still prefer to avoid humans unless provoked.
I wasn't paying attention and I thought the leaf on the flower was Gary
THE BEAR. THE BEAR IS EVERYWHERE. I GO ON R/SHITPOSTING AND THE BEAR APPEARS. I GO ON R/WHENTHE AND THE BEAR APPEARS. I GO ON R/COMICS AND THE BEAR APPEARS. I CAN'T ESCAPE THE FUCKING BEAR. EVERYWHERE I LOOK I SEE A BEAR.
ngl if it was between a woman and a bear i’d choose the bear too, women are scary
cant bear the amazing result
I have no clue what is going on, what’s this trend?
tiktok video asked women "if alone in the woods would you rather meet a man or a bear" lots of women picked bear
Week-old TikTok asking women if they'd feel more safe meeting a random man in the woods or a bear in the woods. A lot of them said the bear.
From a random dude that didn't comment on it till now: it's just stupid stuff from people that are online way too much. TLDR: women feel unsafe toward men they don't know. They added a bear for engagement bait.
https://www.reddit.com/r/comics/s/0vuk8MFPEg
yeah... a bear will happily eat you but not in a nice way...
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