Tl;Dr: a meme went around asking women if they’d rather be stuck on an isolated island with a strange man or a strange bear. Most women chose the bear, largely due to the bear being more predictable and easier to deal with than a man inclined to do them harm, which, based on the experience of most women, is a whole lot of men.
Fragile men took this as an attack on all men everywhere and were offended at being “called a predator”.
There’s a pretty good thread in my comment history where I try to address the issue with one such fellow male and their response is about what you’d expect, confirming all the reasons why women chose the strange bear over the strange man
Edit/preface: none of this is intended to diminish the very real and valid sense of fear that women may feel towards unknown/untrusted men. I am in no way trying to gatekeep other people’s emotions, nor saying women should “toughen up” or whatever. If my comment was construed as such, I apologize.
It’s a bit of a silly premise, because I’m willing to bet the VAST majority of answerers have never been in close proximity to an actual, honest to god, “hmmm that meatbag looks tasty imma eat its face” bear.
I have. It’ll bring you a clarity of mind and a knowledge of complete vulnerability that you can’t really find outside of other imminently life-threatening situations.
Sure, random dude could be a psycho. But if there’s not much (or any) food on the island, the bear is definitely going to eat you at some point, and there’s nothing you can do about that.
All that said, as a dude myself, I wish there were less shitty men out there. Why can’t we all just fucking respect other humans?
Why can’t we all just fucking respect other humans?
Exhibit A: The internet.
Exhibit B: Social Media.
I rest my case your honour. No further questions. I object.
I think the question here is, if the bear attacked - would people believe the woman that she was attacked? Would they blame her for what she was wearing?
Well… When a bear ate Grizzly Man and his girlfriend, a bunch of people blamed it on her menstrual cycle, so I think the chances are high that people would blame her for one thing or another. Perhaps they’d blame her for choosing to be alone on an island with a fuckin bear.
It’ll bring you a clarity of mind and a knowledge of complete vulnerability that you can’t really find outside of other imminently life-threatening situations.
Thanks to that experience now you know how women feel very often, sometimes multiple times in the same day. It’s something they learn to live with their whole lives.
It’s not hyperbole. They’re not making light of the danger. When women say “I’d rather meet a bear” they really mean it. It’s the same feeling, but it would happen extremely rarely instead of daily.
Here’s what you’re missing:
A) it’s much less about whether the bear is a bigger threat and much more about how fucking awful men must treat women for the average woman to go “hmmm… Maybe the bear, tbh?” The fact that it’s even something women have to think about for more than a split second is a dramatic failure of our society. THAT is the point, and any discussion of “well you don’t know about bears then…” is reply-guy shit that misses the entire point and simply serves to further solidify how blind most men are to what goes on in the day to day life of women.
B) An aggressive bear is a known quantity. Is it a threat? Obviously. But it’s a threat that we understand extremely well. Like, a quick Google search will teach you everything you need to know about what to do if you see a bear. But a strange, unknown man? Who the fuck knows. They might seem perfectly pleasant and reasonable, act like your friend, and then flip the fuck out when the woman refuses to sleep with him that night in return for all that manly protection he provided during the day or whatever. THAT is why women pick the bear: a known problem is often preferable to uncertainty that could lead to being extremely vulnerable against a really smart attacker.
Remember, the question wasn’t “would you rather be in a locked room with a bear or a man?” It was “would you rather be stuck on an island with a strange bear or a strange man?”
And to your final question, why can’t we just respect other humans? Great fucking question, but the misogynists should be the ones facing that inquiry, not the people on the internet trying to point you towards them. It may be more uncomfortable and even dangerous to confront them, but don’t take the easy way out by asking victims and their allies to be “nicer” instead
Considering no one I’ve met so far that I’ve told “a grizzly bear can bend steel bars” knows that - no, most people don’t know much about bears, or how dangerous a bear is. Heck most don’t know how fast a bear can run or swim. Heck there’s people who constantly get injured or killed because they want to pet a wild bear.
This doesn’t negate point A that you made, but the other huge factor is, most women, men, and everything in between don’t really know much about bears, or have been exposed to bears, and that’s a gigantic reason why so many women picked the bear too. Heck, your point B proves that - you clearly don’t understand the threat, or you’d know that it’s not a threat, it’s a death sentence. You are not, in virtually any scenario of being stuck on an island with a ever growingly hungry bear, going to live. You can’t swim away, you can’t climb a tree to escape. You’d have a much better chance of killing an openly hostile man than surviving a wild bear. You basically just said “yeah, I know how missiles work, they fly in the air and go boom when they land - that’s why I can survive a missile”.
And the question was designed to create this divide, because had this question instead been with something that IS perceived as more dangerous (like, would you rather be stuck in the middle of a large pool with a shark of a man), it wouldn’t have received the same amount of replies, since sharks are seen and portrayed as scarier than bears. It wasn’t designed to actually improve society, it was designed to drive another wedge and make us forget that the real danger is the wealthy and corporations that literally kill and poison us daily.
I didn’t mean to diminish any of that. I agree - the fact that so many women would answer that way is distressing.
a bear will kill you, perhaps horribly.
a bear will not kidnap you, rape you, and keep you in a cage.
I’m frankly amazed I have to keep explaining the order of magnitude difference in the horror of wildlife vs. horrible humans.
Maybe I’m misunderstanding, but it sounds like you are trying to say that kidnap and rape are magnitudes more horrible than being horribly murdered?
I’m pretty sure that almost none of the men who were offended have spent time in an enclosed area with an angry human who is a foot taller and 100 pounds heavier than they are.
On the contrary I think you’ll find close to 100% of them were indeed children at one point.
While I don’t want to diminish the problems of the interactions between men and women in our society, I think there’s a point that’s not been discussed here yet: what does STRANGE bear entail? Is it sick? Is it like an eldritch horror bear? Does it just behave weirdly sometimes? Does it just wear a hat?
I find this concerning.
That gender disputes reached such an explosive level, that women say they’d rather a bear join them than a man and that man get super upset over this. There’s a little truth in everything. Imagine trying your hardest as a man and still being told ppl prefer a wild animal over you. Imagine knowing as a woman you can’t trust men to the point where you’d prefer a wild and dangerous animal keep you company. And also imagine hating another gender with such a deep passion that a meme becomes a toxic war of insult and discrediting.
I don’t like this timeline, I want a do-over.
I think you hit on something that is a pretty big part of the problem: Men taking it personally. As far as I know, no specific man is mentioned, but a lot seem to insert themselves into the situation.
I try to do my best in life to be a good person, to be a good man, but I completely get why a woman would be worried about being in the middle of nowhere with a strange man, even if that man was me, because they don’t know what that person is capable of.
Oh so if someone says ‘black people are dangerous thugs, I’d rather encounter a bear than a removed’, it’s all good, a black person shouldn’t take it personally? After all, no specific black person is mentioned. Come on, just be a good ally, stfu and nod.
I am willing to bet many, many people wouldn’t be ok with that, and rightfully so. I know I would not.
THIS is EXACTLY the point of the meme. If you understand this, and are a man, you stfu and nod along, or support the women talking about it as a good ally should. The men who don’t understand this are the reply-guys trying to explain how all the women are unreasonable and this is discrimination against men and blah blah blah
Non-misandry/-sexism version:
A meme was made posing the humorous rhetoric of whether sex A would rather be stuck on an island with sex B or a bear. No distinction was made about the character of the sex B persona or the bear persona, it was left as a fill-in-the-blank for those who respond to rhetoric.
Sex B largely understood this to be stereotyping and hate speech directed towards them at large without any distinction about whom the rhetoric was implying. Audience was then divided between those who recognize equality and sexism versus those who believe either only apply to marginalized groups
with love, from an agender
Don’t forget it’s literally a very slight rewording of a common racist one, but that’s different. For reasons. “Rather run into a black man or a bear (or wolf, or other dangerous animal)” has been asked by racists for years.
Punching up and punching down are extremely different and your comparison is deeply disingenuous.
Black men don’t hold positions of power in society simply by being black. Black men don’t get off with nothing but a slap on the wrist for serial sexual assault because “we don’t want to ruin the promising life he has ahead of him”.
Knock it off with the false equivalence.
Because the stereotype of crossing the street when heading towards a black men isn’t a thing? Just because you don’t believe it don’t make it untrue. I bet if you’d honestly be surprised. But your probably still shocked when a priest molests a child.
So youve never seen a bear in the woods? Hint: if you see a bear, its probably brown, and you’re in a heap of trouble. Best hope you’re in a car or something like that. They will eat you alive if they can get at you.
Gods, it’s like some people never passed 10th grade English. Sometimes the important part of the text isn’t the literal meaning. There’s like metaphor and hyperbole and shit.
When you meet a bear in the woods, there is a 0% chance they will notice how the situation bears a resemblance to the popular meme and proceed to mansplain about how bears are more dangerous.
This is and has always been the one and only reason women choose the bear. But one question yet eludes us: how did the cycle start?
Dude was going around asking if theyd rather meet a man or a bear in the woods. There isnt much hidden meaning behind it, its not a 4deep2me tumblr post
Depends on where you live… Northeast us most likely a black bear, as long as its not a mother protecting its cubs make some noise and it will leave you alone. If your in the artic, how the hell are you in woods but ignoring that’s and it’s likely a polar bear and you are dead.
Holy shit you laid the bait brilliantly cause look at all the dipshits in this comment section. Fuckin dumpster fire.
It was perfectly crafted ragebait. Your feedback will be used to improve future psyops.
People who don’t understand why she would pick the bear don’t deserve bears.
Many men would prefer to be a momma bear’s cub. That sort of protection and care is one of the most valuable treasures out there.
