Really? Because it was pretty clear to me what the point was.
It reminds me of the Black Lives Matter thing – some people just refused to get it, but it was immediately clear to me what the point was.
Wow. Seriously?
The point was immediately clear to me, too. It was also immediately clear to me that the point was being made in a stupid, distracting, counterproductive way. And when a point is being made in a stupid, distracting, and counterproductive way, it bugs me no end when the stupidity is glossed over. Because it makes the underlying point seem insincere. Yes, women have a right to be wary of men. That’s a very important fact that all men should be aware of. No, the average guy plucked off the sidewalk is, in all likelihood, not more dangerous than the 800lb killing machine with claws that could rip through the hood of a car, and the more you insist that he is the more you trivialise the point you’re trying to make.
The fact that you want to “correct” and ridicule women over it is why women are so often appropriately sick to death of dealing with men.
Women would rather bump into a bear than you because the bear is most likely going to leave her alone, and you would try to “educate” her on the right way to adjust her pack and hold her trekking poles and then call her a bitch when she wasn’t nice enough to you for helping.
ETA: The bear is a momentary worry, YOU have ruined her entire day.
I’ve been discussing this with a close friend of mine. She’s a 30 year old, very intelligent and rational PhD candidate.
To quote her:
“If most women’s gut reaction is men, isn’t that scary to realize how fucking afraid of men women are? But instead it’s just mansplaining to women why they’re wrong rather than being horrified by the fear we have of men“
When someone says something completely ridiculous, like the idea that the average man is factually as dangerous as a wild bear, then if they get ridiculed it’s on them. If they get corrected it’s on them. If the point they’re trying to make is obscured by the stupidity of its framing then, no matter how valid that point may be, the fact it’s been obscured is on them. It’s not on the person pointing out the stupidity of the original framing. I’m tired of people making this point - this important point - in this deeply stupid way and then whining about people “not getting it”. No! Make your fucking point properly!
The average man isn’t going to do any of those things. The statements “Women have a right to be wary of men” and “The average man is less dangerous than a goddamn bear” are not contradictory. Using such absurd claims to make your point only ensures that you fail make your point.
I love the juxtaposition of this post with the one immediately under it.
Never mind.
A post was merged into an existing topic: SyncoSmalls trocking thread
Haha! Pretty perfect.
I could easily be wrong, but I suspect that you’re overestimating the average person’s bear knowledge, and that many people don’t even know what different kinds of bears exist, let alone what threat levels they pose.
I will admit that over the course of this debate, I learned much more about bears than I did about men.
People are willing to discuss one and not the other.
Which of those species has in most areas been wiped out by the other?
You and I both know that’s not the kind of dangerous I’m talking about.
Care to guess how many people per year get murdered on hiking trails vs. get killed by bears on hiking trails? I’d be shocked if the ratio were less than 10:1.
750,000 multiplied by 167 = 125,250,000, which is fewer than the number of men in the US; so it’s mostly just the fact that there’s a lot more men than bears.
Also pushing the idea that bears are harmless is how you get people deciding to pet the cute bear cub and getting mauled.
No body is pushing this, so drop the off-topic strawman hijack immediately.
MODERATING
And that’s why you are missing the point. Because you are willfully blind to more important dimensions of danger.
Let’s try the math again.
750,000 bears kill <1 person per year
165,000,000 men kill about 20,000 people per year.
If men (of all ages) killed people at the same rate as black bears, the US would have 220 murders per year.
Anyway, the point isn’t about acktually getting the math just right, it’s about the fact that women fear being alone with strange men. Because she won’t know if that man is a black bear who will run away, a brown bear who might become violent, or a polar bear who sees her as prey.