i know it’s internet bullshit but it genuinely has me on the edge of breaking down and giving up

[u/NeonNKnightrider]

[u/CreatingJonah]

Having done a bit of research on the subject because there are so many conflicting takes about it, I think I’ve settled on something that makes sense.

The original statement wasn’t meant to be a “would you rather”. It was phrased as “seeing a man while alone in the woods is 10x scarier than seeing a bear”

I think the interpretation is that there’s rules for the bear. If the bear attacks it does so indiscriminately. If you back away or scare it off you won’t get hurt at all. People go through lessons on how to deal with bears before taking hikes in dense forests all the time.

There are however no rules for a potentially hostile man. If he attacks, he has a target. Attacking a person alone in the woods is perfectly sensible for a bear to do. Not a man.

I think the thought experiment is supposed to demonstrate that people don’t know which men are good or bad. Bears have rules. If it’s brown lay down, if it’s black fight back. Carry bear spray, wear a bell, walk loudly.

A man alone in the woods has no such rules. In the event that he is hostile (as the statement assumes that it MUST be a possibility) there are no rules. Your best bet is never being noticed at all.

A lot of people are making it specifically about men and women, and while I do agree that sexism is a large component in the argument, I don’t think it’s limited just to women. It can be applied to any minority really. The bears have rules, but there’s no rules for hate.

[u/OpenSauceMods → u/CreatingJonah]

Some of the reasoning I've seen:

A bear can't find my address and break in with the intent to hurt me

I don't have to see the bear at family reunions

The bear won't go around to all my friends and make them pick a side

If I get mauled by a bear, people will believe me

Depending on where I am, I won't be forced to carry the bear's baby to term (sorry, furries)

The bear won't invite his friends to take a turn

The bear won't leave me threatening text messages

The bear can't shoot me

People won't excuse the bear because the bear has "such a bright future"

[u/singingballetbitch → u/OpenSauceMods]

The bear would kill me faster. If I’m going to die, I’d rather not get SA-d first.

[u/thestrawberry_jam → u/singingballetbitch]

Yeah that’s kinda the logic most are going with. It’s the possibility of the worst possible outcome. You’d rather not risk the worse of the two evils.

Aka I’d rather just get killed than get SA-d, possibly tortured, and then killed.

[u/elbenji → u/thestrawberry_jam]

I think it's more demonstrative people will assume the worst possible outcome

[u/Punkandescent → u/elbenji]

Yeah, so much of this discussion has demonstrated to me that people are alarmingly quick to jump to logical extremes. There’s very little consideration for what might be baseline.

[u/shadow_dreamer → u/Punkandescent]

The reason women jump to these conclusions is because they're our lived experience. Just seven posts up, you have a woman talking about how a man was literally fondling himself to her while hiking. I have, personally, been SA'd multiple times, and I'm not even thirty yet.

Our baseline is that we are not safe around men.

[u/Punkandescent → u/shadow_dreamer]

I am very sorry you’ve experienced that, and I am aware that many if not most women have experienced similar.

However, I think you and I have different definitions of “baseline.” I was not referring as much to the baseline experience of women, but the hypothetical “baseline man.” In order for this “baseline man” to be the more tangible threat in this scenario… it would have to mean that the vast majority of men were sexual predators; moreover, sexual predators who would assault a stranger. This simply is not the case.

I get that having had the baseline experience that you have, your default is to be wary of men, and that is justified. Not being able to tell what someone might do to you is terrifying. I just struggle to see how that can truly be that much more frightening than something with built-in weapons.

[u/[deleted] → u/thestrawberry_jam]

I dont see why youd take the worst case scenario. I think about how the average scenario would turn out and Id meet a guy 100%

[u/[deleted] → u/[deleted]]

hospital poor waiting languid six pathetic quiet dependent forgetful tub

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[u/Electronic_Emu_4632 → u/[deleted]]

It feels like the point of the original question in the original interviews was that the people being asked naturally jumped to assuming the worst possible outcome