Man, bear, woman,what's the meme I'm missing?

[nelliebly]

I used to hike alone often when I lived in Wyoming. I had bear bells on my backpack and carried bear spray, as there were grizzlies, black bears, and mountain lions about. I also sang to warn off bears, though it might have made them attack just to shut me up. I saw mountain lion scat but never encountered any critters. A friend did, though, when a black bear, confused by variable winds, came crashing out of the brush and charged her.

I encountered a human or two on almost every hike. Once a guy came out of the bushes with a holstered handgun on his hip. Another time an unsavory-looking guy in a pickup truck followed me. When I stepped off the road, he waved me ahead. Luckily, we were almost at the locked gate that kept vehicles off the property of the man who owned the top of the mountain. (I had permission to hike.)

I’d rather encounter the bear, frankly. There are steps I can take to help avoid a bear attack, but humans are wily and unpredictable, and most of them, especially men, are bigger than I am. A bear has never chased and attacked me. A man has.

[DrDeth]

@Left_Hand_of_Dorkness

I have a wife and two daughters. Their consensus, which I agree with, is:

1. Y’all all really need to spend more time outdoors.
2. Given the choice between encountering a bear alone in the woods, and encountering nobody in the woods, choose the bear! Bears are cool, and it’s super fun to see one in the wild!

We live in black bear territory, and they’re not really scary.

Yes, and of course it is all in the circumstances.

Being alone in a remote wilderness, and some dude comes into your camp out of nowhere? Pretty damn scary.

Stumbling upon a sow bear and her cub at close distance? Also scary.

Seeing another hiker on a trail? No problem. Seeing a black bear at a reasonable distance? Cool!

@hajario

Your daughter/wife/female loved one is alone in the woods far from anyone else. Would you rather have her encounter a bear or a man?

If a black bear- bear. If a grizzly - scary. And how many other campers has she seen?

See- it all depends.

@ZipperJJ

Statistically women are safer with bears then men sorry not sorry. In the last 4 years 7 women were killed by bears and 15 were attacked and survived. Do you wanna know the rape/murder statistics for the same time range of men killing/raping women?

That is a bogus comparison. You dont find bears hanging out in dark alleys or frat parties. Also there are only 300000 black bears (lets skip Alaska). There are about 1.5 million males.

@Spice_Weasel

Here’s the problem with that comparison. We don’t encounter bears as often as we encounter men. To make a true statistical risk comparison we’d have to know how many bear encounters occur and what the likelihood of getting killed by a bear is if you actually encounter one. Because in the hypothetical there is a 100% chance of encountering a bear, not a 7 out of whatever million chance.

Exactly.

@Ulfreida

The demonstrable fact on this very thread, that some men cannot admit what a menace the male human is, to women, is one part of why they are a menace.

Indeed- I did. Alone in the wilderness- the man is more dangerous- unless we are talking polar or grizzly.

@Czarcasm

When you encounter a man in the woods, how the man acts doesn’t tell you jack about whether he is dangerous or not.

If he is drunk or on drugs or waving a weapon- all bad signs.

@Kimstu

I’m willing to bet that almost all of the women who responded that they’d rather encounter a bear than a man when alone in the woods would switch their answer if instead the context was, say, alone in an elevator in a busy office building during the workday.

Yes- I do NOT want to be stuck in an elevator with a bear- any bear. Period.

Hmm, at a drunken frat party- bear or bro?

[Spice_Weasel]

@hajario

Apropos of this entire thing.

This attacker seems particularly cowardly given all the running away he did, but I couldn’t help but laugh when I got to this part:

The victim screamed and hit Ruelas with a ukulele she had with her,

That was… unexpected. I hope it hurt.

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

@Spice_Weasel

That was… unexpected. I hope it hurt.

May it join “Over the Rainbow” and “Tiptoe Through the Tulips” in the list of top ukulele hits.

[Telemark]

@DrDeth

Seeing another hiker on a trail? No problem.

This isn’t accurate, and it’s kind of the whole point. To a woman hiking alone, away from other people, the fact that someone looks like a fellow hiker means very little.

[velomont]

@Kimstu

As a woman, I’m well aware of the dilemma of not being able to assess a random male stranger’s trustworthiness

My sincere apologies, especially if I inadvertently mansplained my assumptions about your lived experiences.

[DrDeth]

@Telemark

This isn’t accurate, and it’s kind of the whole point. To a woman hiking alone, away from other people, the fact that someone looks like a fellow hiker means very little.

My point was that on a well traveled trail, you are seeing hikers all the time. They are usual and normal. You can expect another hiker to appear soonish.

Yes, if he is the only other hiker you have seen in the last hour- maybe a little weird, but if you are on a trail were you see hikers constantly- living in fear every step is crazy.

[Czarcasm]

@DrDeth

If he is drunk or on drugs or waving a weapon- all bad signs.

At least then you know enough to run away. If he is happy, smiling, friendly etc. it could be a good sign or a bad sign. At least a bear isn’t going to pretend to be friendly to lure the victim in closer.

[hajario]

The hypothetical is in the middle of the woods with no one else around.

[Telemark]

@DrDeth

My point was that on a well traveled trail, you are seeing hikers all the time.

Which has nothing to do with the hypothetical in question.

[DrDeth]

@hajario

The hypothetical is in the middle of the woods with no one else around.

What hypothetical? What post? Not the OP. Or here

@ZipperJJ

There is a question going around the internet, the original question is would you rather have your daughter in the woods with a random unknown man or a random bear. Its been morphed a bit now that its been shared to would you as a woman rather be in the woods with a random unknown man OR a bear.

But I did say that in the middle of the woods with no one around a man is more scary- hell- any human. However I was replying to

@DrDeth

Seeing another hiker on a trail?

@Telemark

This isn’t accurate, and it’s kind of the whole point. To a woman hiking alone, away from other people, the fact that someone looks like a fellow hiker means very little.

So, on a well traveled trail you wont be away for other people.

“in the woods” is not very specific. You can be in broad daylight in a camp in the middle of the woods with a couple hundred other campers. Are you scared of those other campers?

You can also be alone, in the dark, and no one else around- and I said I would be more scared of a man.

Too many qualifiers here.

[Telemark]

@DrDeth

Too many qualifiers here.

You seem to be unable to see the forest for the trees.

[Odesio]

The last time I encountered a lone women while hiking was at Pinnacle Mountain State Park here in Arkansas. I was huffing and puffing my way up Pinnacle Mountain when this women came from behind and jogged, she jogged, right past me.

[SmartAleq]

If only there were a way a person might go about researching the topic–you know, the one on the INTERNET that’s been reposted endlessly hither and yon for like a couple weeks now, especially in Reddit threads with literally thousands of replies and comments. If. Only. Because if there were a way for a person to familiarize themselves with the material being discussed in order to have a full understanding of the already hashed over facets of the hypothetical–why, a person might really consider doing that rather than expecting to be spoon fed already known and agreed upon points of the debate.

Also, if a frog had wings it wouldn’t bump its ass on the rocks so often.

[Czarcasm]

@DrDeth

What hypothetical? What post? Not the OP. Or here

Here you go: The hypothetical, and some of the reasons a lot of women are picking the bear over the man.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/06/us/man-bear-safety-tiktok-question-cec/index.html
The question, directed towards women, is: Would you rather be alone in the woods with a man or a bear?

[hajario]

@DrDeth

What hypothetical? What post? Not the OP. Or here

Are you at all interested in the actual discussion?

[wjChia]

i’m pretty sure the people getting offended by this are the same people who got offended by the Gilette commercial from a few years back.

[hajario]

I’m unaware of this. Would you mind explaining?

[wjChia]

I’m referring to this ad campaign:

The Best Men Can Be

I’m not sure if it’s the same for other people, but I remember netizens in my region getting into arguments over it, and it’s usually men arguing with women that it presents men in a bad light, #notallmen, etc etc, which are the same sort of arguments I see when people are arguing about the men vs bear scenario

[Darren_Garrison]

To toss additional gasoline on this fire, I wonder if those answering the question assume cis men? How the equation would be effected if the options were bear, cis man, trans man, or trans woman?