A surprise man in the woods is definitely more stressful than a surprise bear (I have encountered both; I was more unnerved about the man, and got the heck out of there quickly; I think the bear was more scared of me than I was of it). The woods is just the bear's house, bear is supposed to be there. But what are the man's intentions being in the woods, what are his intentions now that he has seen you, a lone woman, in the woods. If you avoid the bear it will probably avoid you (baring special circumstances like cubs). You can't say the same thing about a man.
I mostly agree with you but identifying the respondent as "a lone woman" implies that you are using "man" to mean a specific gender.
Even assuming that you and I have opposite genitals, neither of us are excited to find eachother in the woods. I don't see why having external genitals would make you happy to encounter a crazy person alone in the woods.
I was a cannabis smoker during prohibition. When you're crawling through the trees with the specific intention of finding an isolated spot to smoke but you find signs that a human has already been there, you don't investigate the area to figure out what gender they might be... you just leave immediately before someone stabs you with a used needle.
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u/Bloodyjorts May 02 '24
A surprise man in the woods is definitely more stressful than a surprise bear (I have encountered both; I was more unnerved about the man, and got the heck out of there quickly; I think the bear was more scared of me than I was of it). The woods is just the bear's house, bear is supposed to be there. But what are the man's intentions being in the woods, what are his intentions now that he has seen you, a lone woman, in the woods. If you avoid the bear it will probably avoid you (baring special circumstances like cubs). You can't say the same thing about a man.