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The Bear vs. Man debate has been trending all over social media. TikTok is flooded with ‘Man or Bear’ interviews and there are 30+ active threads on Reddit with heated debates ongoing on this very subject.
If you’ve been living under a rock, allow us to explain. In this trend, plenty of women are being asked this question: Would you rather be alone in the woods with a man or a bear? And, as it turns out plenty of people are appalled that a lot of these women are picking — you guessed it — a bear!
Shocker.
Needless to say, this has riled up several keyboard warriors and the internet has a LOT to say. In this article, we’ve unpacked this can of worms so you don’t have to (you’re welcome). So, grab a coffee, and read on!
Trigger Warning: The discourse involves discussions around sexual assault, murder, harassment, etc.
#IChooseBears
It comes without surprise that plenty of women are choosing bears. In their defence, some are bringing up the sky-high numbers of crimes against women and pointing out that bear attacks are rather rarer. Others say that if they got mauled by a bear, they wouldn’t be asked about what they were wearing, if they were drunk, or if they did something to provoke the bear.
A person in the comments aptly brings up the fact that this is a question at all speaks volumes about how society has failed women. We couldn’t agree more!
Um actually, statistically speaking…
There is a Reddit thread titled ‘The man vs. bear in the woods debate shows people don’t understand probability’. It then goes on to explain how one cannot use statistics to defend choosing a bear because there are more men on the planet than there are bears, hence the stats are skewed against them.
Yeah, tell me you missed the point of the conversation without telling me you missed the point of the conversation.
After countless movements and women opening up about their experiences, you’d think they’d understand that this is not a conversation to be taken literally but one that needs them to pay attention to the pretext. Apparently not. As it turns out, women would pick bears over men, and men would pick giving a lecture on statistical sampling bias over empathising with women and their experiences.
Some worry the question promotes misandry. (Yikes!)
As you’d expect, plenty of men are not happy with the response. Instead of looking at this as an opportunity to inspect society and how it treats women, they’re taking it as a personal attack. History is repeating itself as we are seeing a lot of the same recycled “Not all Men” arguments being used in defence. Some are going as far as to say that this discourse is promoting misandry.
A Reddit user wrote, “I don’t think I will get over the insecurity that women hate my very guts.”
To this, another user responded, “If you think man vs. bear was about women hating men, you are part of the problem. If society is so unsafe for women that they feel safer with literal bears, isn’t that important to talk about even if it makes you uncomfortable?”
Man vs. bear: from someone who has experienced both
TikTok user @mandina.blue.eyes shares her two cents on the subject as someone who has experienced both scenarios. She goes on to talk about how adults in her life were able to successfully fend off a bear attack against her but they failed to do so when the threat was a man.
“If you survive a bear attack it is pretty easy to avoid bears without really having to go out of your way. Chances that you encounter one ever again are slim. If you get raped, you can’t just avoid being alone with men without changing your entire life. I think it is sad that humanity came this far… or maybe didn’t better itself at all,” another user chimed in.
In response, yet another woman shared her experience of being drugged at a concert and subsequently never being able to bring herself to attend a concert again.
“My joy was stolen”, she said.
What about woman vs. bear?
In an interesting video, a woman is seen asking her partner if he would rather have his daughter be alone in the woods with a man or a bear. He asks several questions about whether he knows the man or anything about a bear then reluctantly chooses the man. Then, when asked if he would rather have his daughter be stranded alone with a bear or a woman, he immediately responds, “Woman”.
We can all agree that this was a wonderful way of putting the point across!
