Would a man rather come across a woman or a bear in the woods? Seriously, it’s not even a discussion.
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Surprise! I don’t have specific fears of men related to age or ethnicity. Not even one. It’s men in general. And I’d like all of them to keep their hands where I can see them, and their lewd comments to themselves.
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Statistics show that women should be a lot more worried about their husbands than strangers in the woods.
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They are. The ones who aren’t are called criminals. I would hope we don’t judge all women by the worst of their sex.
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It’s a threat assessment situation. As women go through our lives we constantly assess the threats around us. Men are included in that threat assessment. If you don’t give off creepy stalker rapist murderer vibes we pick up on that and assess you as “probably a cool guy”. Most people are decent – men, women, non-binary, etc. There are creepy women too. Other people are more of a threat to us all than most wildlife is (including bears).
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We’re allowing this thread to do a lot of wandering but leave ethnicity/stereotyping out of the conversation.
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Are posters really saying they “find all men frightening?” ALL men? In ALL situations? Or is this thread about men in the woods, I.e. men young and strong enough to be out hiking in the woods? Nobody is claiming that they are afraid of 95 year old men in nursing homes (I certainly have been groped by old men in nursing homes numerous times, but I’m not afraid of them exactly. I do find the gropers to be unpleasant.)
In contrast, there has never been a single recorded death caused by bears in my state, although there are lots of bears here, and the occasional mauling. Now, I’ll admit we only have black bears, and not brown bears.
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I completely get why you were unnerved, but from how you described it, it sounds like you were safest in their presence.
If there are men not understanding why the vast majority of women here or on TT answered bear, it may help to reword the question from “you” to your daughter. I just asked DH this question; without hesitation he said a bear. After thinking for a second he asked what type of bear. Given we live in SC near the mountains/lakes, I answered black bear; his response was “definitely the bear.”
I personally would rather run into a bear; they’re in our rural neighborhood. Other than fishing at the lake or emptying the bird feeders, they avoid all of us. Now wild hogs…
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!!!
definitely not how I would be feeling or what I get from that description
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I would agree with @hebegebe I would be unnerved as well while talking to them… but honestly, they were most likely just out there hunting and they wanted to make sure she WAS ok. Because what if they saw her, ignored her, and she WAS in trouble, and something happened to her because they didn’t stop and help? They were in a lose-lose situation.
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When my 15 year old 6’3" very muscular son won an award that was presented by a retired NYC detective, the man told my son “When I was working, I’d see someone like you and think to myself ‘Here comes trouble’”.
So it’s not just women!
That son is super gentle, though, which has helped me not stereotype based on looks.
That said, I am on Team Bear, all the way.
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And bears don’t rape women either…
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At risk of improperly reading the room, but to add my light-hearted take anyway:
If I weren’t an ardent Packers fan, I might try wearing a Bears shirt or jersey when hiking. I’d feel awful if someone were ever afraid of me, so in light of this recent poll, hopefully donning some Bears gear would render me Safe.
I’d go whole-hog and wear a furry bear costume, but that would probably be freaky-weird and have the opposite of the desired effect.
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I’ll take the guy in the woods over the bear. On a NY subway I’ll take the bear.
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It’s not an equivalent comparison, nor is it equivalent to the original question. People are far more likely to encounter men than bears, so nearly any stat looking at absolute totals will be higher for men than bears – both good encounters and bad encounters.
A more relevant comparison might be per encounter stats. If you have 1 encounter with an unknown man and 1 encounter with an unknown bear, which of the 2 encounters is more likely to result in major physical harm/death? I’d expect both are extraordinarily low, when expressed on a per encounter basis. I’d be personally more concerned with rattlesnakes than any of the above.
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I completely agree. I understand this on a cognitive level, but my point was an individual’s specific reaction to a simple question like “would you rather happen upon a bear or a man while hiking in the woods“ may trigger a less pragmatic response due to a visceral reaction based on personal experience.
I believe this is true, because most women at some point have felt uncomfortable with unwanted, unsolicited attention. Personally I’ve never been assaulted but I vividly remember feeling “icked out” and a little scared, in broad daylight, just walking down the street in shorts and a plain t-shirt and being catcalled. I was around 12 at the time.
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And I would bet it would be difficult to find a female who hasn’t experienced the “ick” factor once if not multiple times.
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So the reason women aren’t raped by bears is because of low numbers of encounters?
If you don’t think the possibility of rape isn’t part of the “original question” then I’m pretty sure you are not a woman…
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My comment and the text you quoted doesn’t mention rape. It is instead referring to the linked total number of mortalities stats not being equivalent to per encounter stats. For example, if there are 10,000 homicides vs 10 bear deaths, that doesn’t mean you are 1000x more likely to be killed during each encounter with a man than during each encounter with a bear, since the encounters occur at far different rates. The original post frames the question as for a single encounter, rather than lifetime risk. I quoted your post because your post was the one in which I saw the referenced mortality stats.
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