Women would rather come across a bear than a man in the woods

I saw the opinion that a man would change his behavior based if he knew if you were alone or not but a bear would act as a bear whether there was witnesses or not.

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In theory would not every stranger be a threat though? It’s a threat becuase it’s not 100% but there’s still a possibility

Under that assumption every living thing you encounter is a threat. Maybe you could live like that, I do not.

Maybe if there wasn’t an overbearing theme from half the population people wouldn’t feel like they need to live in fear. Isn’t it better to fix the root cause then to blame the people who are trying to keep safe?

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I don’t think anyone is blaming anyone. If you feel threatened, do what you wish to stay safe. Your practices may differ from mine. All good. While I wish there were less crime in general, the relative level of my precautions, compared to yours, are unlikely to influence that outcome.
You are entitled to be as worried as you wish about anything or everything, and act accordingly.

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I would respectfully disagree because predatory people tend to target others based on what they observe. I know as a minority I fear that if something were to happen to me that it wouldn’t be payed attention to as much or brushed over. I do not think that the whole thing is over exaggerated because I’ve seen first hand some of the predatory and disgusting worldviews a lot of men hold. Because they do not face accountability, they can pretty much do whatever they want as long as they’re not caught or if it’s legal.

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The media does seem to have a hierarchy of preference for victim stories, to those involving beautiful young blonde women.

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And quite frankly I do not fit that category. It’s not paranoia, it’s a literal way of survival. I should not have to live like that

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Most of us don’t fit that criteria, and of course we all shouldn’t have to worry about crime. But in this century, we do.

I think we need to shift the way men are portrayed and how women are presented. In my class we chose the topic of toxic masculinity from various angles and even as like children a lot of ideas are pushed.

However to the bear thing, I genuinely do not understand the way some men’s minds works to be comfortable in their own skin

Definitely seemed to be lost, and it was hot. But I’m not so sure about single, as this bear had a cub with him/her. But it was exciting to see them :wink:

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Beautiful! Where was this?

I’m my lifetime I’ve been catcalled, groped at work, clubs, on the train and at school. I’ve been called all sorts of foul words for not responding ā€œappropriately ā€œ to unwanted sexual advances. I’ve been followed and harrassed. I could share dozens of stories and so could all my friends. So could my mother. My grandma shared some years ago. I witnessed my niece at age 12, years ago, being sexually harassed by men her dad’s age. Women aren’t living in fear / they’re living smart.

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Big Bend National Park a couple of weeks ago (we were in Texas for the eclipse)

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I never said it was positive.

Oh, I must’ve misunderstood it then. That’s absolutely awful though. Do you think it has something to do with a sense of attachment?

I can’t possibly tell you why. I’ve never known someone, even tangentially, that was murdered by their spouse or intimate partner. Statistically, though, the most likely perpetrators of female murders fall into this category.

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A quick google (so I didn’t thoroughly vet the sources) shows at least 800,000 women are attacked by strangers every year. I would not call that rare. On the other hand - and I say this as someone who sees bears on my walks occasionally - bear attacks are vanishingly rare. I would call it appropriate wariness upon seeing a man in the woods when alone. Doesn’t stop me from walking alone (with my dogs) nor from saying hello / other pleasantries but I’m definitely wary. I wouldn’t call it living in fear or anxiety just an appropriate calculus of risk. My daughter has adopted my habit of walking alone in the woods and I do worry about her (esp as she doesn’t have dogs with her) but I’ve never told her not to do it.

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I also walk alone in the woods. In my case, though, any person I would see would be trespassing, thus ratcheting up the perceived risk.

That said, I have several times confronted and run off men with guns (i.e. hunters) who were trespassing. In that case, paradoxically, I felt safer as a woman. I felt (rightly or wrongly) that a man might get more aggression by another man.

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