Opinion Why women would prefer to be alone in the woods with a bear than a man

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Why women would prefer to be alone in the woods with a bear than a man​

Would you rather find yourself alone in the woods with a bear or a man? This is the question currently dividing social media. Based on the responses online, it looks like most women answering the question say they would choose the bear, a decision that is shocking many men.

The reactions show some men don’t understand women’s experiences. The assertion that women would prefer to encounter a bear is based on evidence about the rate of male violence against women, and on a lifetime of learning to fear and anticipate this violence. This is especially true of sexual violence, something which would not be associated with encountering a bear.

According to the World Health Organization, one in three women – around 736 million globally – will have experienced sexual or physical violence by an intimate partner or sexual violence from a non-partner in their lifetime. This figure has largely remained unchanged over the past decade.

Being attacked by a bear is much less common, with only 664 attacks worldwideover 15 years, and very few fatal attacks. And bears tend to avoid humans, attacking only when provoked or protecting their young.


This is not about generalising or fearing all men. Women know that not all men are dangerous. But women don’t know which men they should fear, only that male violence and male entitlement to women’s bodies is something that they have to be on guard for.

Women are commonly victims of sexualised violence, and men are overwhelmingly the perpetrators (including against other men). There are enough men who have hurt or are capable of hurting women, and women have no way of knowing which ones these are. While much violence against women comes from men they know, the risk of danger from men they don’t know is something that informs their day-to-day lives.

For example, research shows that women change their behaviour – making certain decisions about the routes they take or what they wear – to avoid harassment or abuse from men in public. Scholars such as Fiona Vera-Gray refer to this as safety work.

Women’s view of men is also coloured by their non-violent actions that harm women. Clearly, bears also do not contribute to or uphold systemic sexism and misogyny, but most men do.

My research on misogynistic online groups has explored how men engage in acts against women that reinforce gender inequality.

Writer Emma Pitman has described this phenomenon using the analogy of a human pyramid. The choices of some men to stay silent about abuse is the base of the pyramid, holding up other men who engage in misogynistic jokes or commit violence.

The overall effect, whether deliberate or via ignorance or indifference, is to normalise and support the actions of male sexual predators and domestic abuse perpetrators.

This culture props up the men who are silent bystanders, observing sexism, harassment or abuse but doing nothing, the men who make or laugh along with the sexist or rape jokes, those who are rape apologists and blame women for their sexual victimisation, those who become aggressive when women turn them down, those who stalk, control and abuse women, and those who are rapists, sexual harassers and murderers. This continuum of misogyny is women’s everyday reality – and at no point do bears feature.

Men on the defensive​

Men are generally surprised, defensive even, when the subject of male violence against women is discussed. This is often where people invoke the response “not all men”.

When women took to social media to express their anger and devastation following the murder of Sarah Everard by a police officer in 2021, #NotAllMen trended online. Meanwhile, police advised womennot to walk alone at night, placing the burden of avoiding violence on women.

This conversation is about privilege, and not recognising it. Many men are able to move through their daily lives not being worried that they are going to be attacked or raped, can walk alone late at night without taking any safety precautions or even not having such thoughts cross their minds, and do not feel their hearts beat faster if they hear footsteps behind them. It may not be all men, but it is all women, who live smaller lives because of the threat of some men’s violence.

These discussions are an opportunity for men to understand women’s genuine fears and to be part of the solution rather than the problem.
 
This isn't the win the feminists are trying to portray it as.

It's just showing how out of touch from reality the average feminazi is.

Yes gals! I am sooo much safer being around a grizzly bear then your average man! A man will attack on sight and we all know that bears are just simple, loving animals who would never ever ever attack, kill and consume me. Men are just plain evil so bring on the bears.

- bitch eaten by a bear 6 hours later.

It just goes to show how fucking nuts so many women have become after years of exposure to TikTok and Instagram. Bitches should go hang out in the woods then if it's so much safer then a city.
 
Virtually all women live in close contact with men. Virtually no women move into the woods to live with bears. Stop lying to yourself, bitches.
Meanwhile, men have a storied history of abandoning society and going innawoods, following the examples of men like Daniel Boone and Theodore John Kaczynski.
 
The bear might eat me. It probably will eat me. I cannot outrun a bear. I cannot hide from a bear well since it has more acute senses than a human. If I am carrying supplies bear will steal them and then I'll die eating poison berries or water filled with brain parasites. It's easier for me to hide my supplies from another human instead of an animal with a keen sense of smell. I have a much better chance getting away from a man than a bear. I'll pick the man.

That said, being followed by creepy guys is indeed terrifying. I'd like to note that most of the guys who have followed or harassed me were foreigners who barely spoke English. I know "But not all immigrants" is what the author of this article would say to me even though she is not too keen on the "Not all men" excuse. I'm more worried about unvetted immigrants than the average guy down the street.

Also bears eat people.

These discussions are an opportunity for men to understand women’s genuine fears and to be part of the solution rather than the problem.

You can't have an open discussion with someone if you come in guns a blazin'. That's why men get mad about these articles. They are automatically accusatory. "Not all men" can be used in a similar way to "I'm not racist but..." in order to try to shut down a discussion with a valid point. But I think a lot of times it's just used by guys who feel attacked for no reason because of the language of these articles.
 
Because the women who answered like this live such sheltered and safe lives, that encountering a bear in the woods is nothing more than an abstract concept for them.
Encountering a man means getting killed and mega-raped, because that's what media says will happen.
 
the part of this that I find reallly confusing is what kind of woods are you in that doesn't have a bear

like if you go in the woods, you know there's bears, right? and you have to put your food in bearproof containers and stuff?

so yes I would rather be in the woods with a bear than a dude because I go in the woods already and sometimes there's not a dude but there's never not a bear
 
I think "The Cult of Progress" has been trying to condition women to think of guys as being inherently potential rapists -- and straight male sexuality as being inherently "misogyny" -- as part of the overall push to deem some as "marginalized groups" and others as "oppressors", to keep people divided. Like how divisive "race relations" got.
 
What it shows is that the women answering the question are retarded and don't understand how to properly parse statistics.

Yes, more women are killed by men than bears. No, the average encounter with a random man is not more likely to result in your death than the average encounter with a random bear.
 
bear attack dreama.jpg
The two sexes.
 
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