Women Feel Safer with Bears than Men Because They are
When it comes to men and women, it doesn’t take much to set off a firestorm of ridiculousness online. That happened recently when women were asked if they said they felt safer alone in the woods with a man or a bear. Most women said bear, and a lot of men got really angry.
The problem with men’s outrage is that women are right. A solo woman alone in the woods would most likely be safer with a bear than a man. The stats support that idea. If you’re one of those guys who got angry, you might want to have some real conversations with the women in your life.
Going for a Walk
Just in case this is your first time joining me on one of my adventures, I am a straight, white, middle-aged man who is about to be very single. And I will likely be single for the rest of my life. I don’t hate women or anything like that. I honestly just find being on my own easier and more calming.
As a single, straight man, this whole thing about bears and dudes quite naturally caught my attention. It was another one of those social media thought experiments that asked a broadly specific question with an answer that got everyone talking for about three days.
Essentially, Tik Tok “interviewers” asked women whether they’d feel safer in the woods with a bear or a man. The type of bear was rarely specified. I freely admit that did occur to me since different types of bears have different responses to people. That really wasn’t the point, though.
The vast majority of the women’s responses, at least the ones included in the video packages, indicated a strong preference towards the bear. Hopefully, no one was thinking about hugging said bear, regardless of the species. Just because they are friend-shaped doesn’t make them friends.
Fake Righteous Fury
Unsurprisingly, a large contingent of men dog piled on those responses. It was a healthy mix of Right Wing men crying “woke bulls#!t” and Left Wing men crying “Not me! I’m a feminist!” Both sides were highly disingenuous, sounding like nails running across a chalkboard.
Let’s lay this out there right now. According to the National Parks Service in the United States, there is a one in 2.1 million chance of being attacked by a bear. While that isn’t a zero percent chance of it happening, it’s still not likely, even if you wear a meat coat into the woods. Please don’t do that.
In America, one in four women is a victim of domestic abuse at the hands of their male partners each year. Approximately one in nine women experience some form of sexual assault each year in America, with the vast majority of perpetrators in those cases being men.
Making this situation even worse is the fact that a significant portion of those same perpetrators in all forms of assault will never see the inside of a jail cell. When I say significant, I mean most. Stats like that are consistent and are frequently worse around the world.
Grow Up, Gentlemen
The numbers are what they are. A woman alone in the woods with a man is statistically in a lot more danger than she would be in the same scenario with a bear. Keep in mind that wild bears don’t like being around people. They usually just mind their business and wander away.
Men all too often don’t mind their business. We are statistically likely to commit acts of violence and sexual assault against the women in our lives. When we get called out on it, we throw tantrums instead of asking why women quite accurately are voicing those concerns.
Yes, most men aren’t going to abuse a woman when left alone with her. At the same time, men have to understand why a woman wouldn’t want to take that chance alone in the woods or anywhere with a man. The odds are not in their favor. Why? Because enough men would. That’s the problem.
The bear/man question was tongue in cheek Tik Tok fodder. Yet, it continues to reveal the very rational fear many women live with every day. For some reason, there are far too many men who are more offended by that fear than they are the number of potential perps walking among us.
