this post was submitted on 14 Jun 2025
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Text:

Panel 1 Man and woman in office clothes in a break room.

Man: So, if you were alone in a forest, would you rather run into a strange man… or a bear?

Panel 2 Woman: Oh, hmm… I think the bear.

Man (angry): How can you say that?

(Bear looking quizzically through the window)

Panel 3 Man (angry): You're demonizing men! It's misandry!

Panel 4 Woman: Good point. Why would I ever hear men's reactions?

Man: Exactly! …where did the honey go?

Panel 5 Woman and bear sharing tea

Woman: At least if you maul me, pepper won't say I made it up or I'm misinterpreting.

Bear: I hear you

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[–] [email protected] 10 points 19 hours ago

I've been reading manga on a site that allows comments after each chapter and holy shit @ the comments any time a female character is in a role even slightly villainous, or even if there's a possibility she might be interested in anyone other than the male protagonist. Comments calling for rape, torture, murder... It even happens in romance genre mangas, where the stakes should only be as high as "will they get together and navigate their issues?"

It's no wonder women choose the bear because with some men, they are one misunderstanding away from the man who supposedly loves them wondering if he "needs" to get extremely violent with them. And somehow they convince themselves that "love" is involved.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 19 hours ago (1 children)

Still choosing the bear! But I think the point of this comic might be lost in the exaggeration...

[–] [email protected] 2 points 14 hours ago

Well you suck enough that you came into a space that was explicitly listed as "women-only" and "please only women comment or reply" and expressed your butthurt view. This clearly demonstrates the degree of respect you show women's choices; why should we not look askance at your other choices in life?

Also, given that this very objection has been addressed AT LEAST THREE TIMES IN THIS FATHERMUCKING SET OF THREADS ALONE it appears that you don't actually care enough about the opinions of women to actually READ WHAT WE HAVE TO SAY, indicating—again—that your disdain for women kind of puts you into the "sucks" crowd.

Have a nice day. Don't post here again.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

My thing with the man and bear has always come down to motivations. If a bear rapes me, it's because it's horny. If a bear mauls me, it's because it's scared or defending its territory. If a bear eats me, it's because it's hungry. Dominance and cruelty will not come into it. The bear will not keep me alive in its basement.

The other thing is that bears don't lie. You might not understand their language, but they absolutely will not act like they're friendly and safe only to lure you or groom you. If it wants to kill you, it'll just do it without any fucked-up mind games.

I haven't posted here before because I'm never sure how to feel about gendered spaces, but this particular issue is one of those ones where I can't help but identify as a woman. I think it's probably all the trauma. :D

[–] [email protected] 2 points 18 hours ago

Those are really good points. I particularly like what you said about lying, a bear won't lie, deceive and gaslight people afterwards to discredit you.

[–] [email protected] 51 points 1 day ago (1 children)

"I've never been sexually assaulted by a bear" tends to shut this BS down pretty fast in my experience.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Tragic but valid point. Plus more women are killed by men than bears....

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Sorry for all the trolling everyone, and massive thanks to admins who've been protecting us you're amazing 👏

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 day ago (1 children)

I really am very sorry for posting this at some level. I thought it was a good take on the thought experiment (further enhanced by some pretty nifty artwork). But really, just mentioning the meme is enough to get all the CHUDs out of the sewers and into the comments and I should have known better.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago

No victim blaming in our group ZDL! It's not your fault at all , it's not 1% your fault.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago (2 children)

At least I get to watch them fly into my blocklist like mosquitos into a bug zapper lol

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 day ago

Yeah, I added a few more bugs into my Cornell Drawers from this.

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[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 day ago (2 children)

Men's responses to the "man or bear" question perfectly illustrate the point of the question but they just. Don't. Understand. That.

It's not necessarily that a woman is answering the question "man or bear?", it's that everyone in the conversation when she does so can answer "do you respect me or what I have to say at all?" and the answer from men is often a resounding "no!" A bear would just accept someone's answer as her answer and leave it at that.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 day ago

Thank you for voicing the thoughts I was having such trouble putting into words

[–] [email protected] 34 points 2 days ago (7 children)

It's fun watching how many people aren't reading the rules before they comment.

Rule #1 isn't all that unclear.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 day ago (2 children)

The real beliefs I think a lot of the people responding secretly hold:

A blonde woman is embracing a very large bear.  Text is placed atop the picture reading: "They look so cute and cuddly, but the slightest thing can turn this beautiful creature into something so dangerous and violent that the toughest of men could be killed or maimed for life.  Here you can see it cuddling a bear."

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 day ago

This bear in particular is maybe not much better than a dude. He's gettin a little handsy.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 day ago

Yep which flies in the face of evidence as few adult men are killed by adult women. But the misogyny that some men hold is just pure bigotry

[–] [email protected] 41 points 2 days ago (5 children)

I’d choose the bear, cus they avoid humans, and with certain types of bears, you can make yourself look bigger than them to scare them away (don’t think you can do that with a man)

[–] [email protected] 30 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

He specifically says "strange" man.

I don't know that I'd pick that over the wild animals of the forest even as a guy.

In the middle of a forest, the only other humans I'd feel 100% safe running into are ones I already know.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 2 days ago (7 children)

It is truly amazing to me how few people understand even the elementary aspects of risk management.

A known danger is easier to manage than an unknown one.

Bears are dangerous, but largely predictable. They usually don't go after humans at all (and indeed usually go the other direction). And if they seem angry, there's simple things you can do (it rhymes with "back away slowly" because identical rhymes are still rhymes) that will defuse the situation almost immediately.

Men are for the most part decent human beings. Most men you meet will not be monsters. The problem is that there's really no way to distinguish the monsters from the decent men until it's way too late. And extricating yourself from an interaction with a strange man in the forest is not as straightforward as it is for a bear. Backing away slowly might work, or it might trigger that silicon chip inside their brain and slip it to "overload" and make them get angry that you don't trust them. And the penalty for making a bad choice is serious bodily harm as the good outcome. There are worse ones after that.

So just from straightforward risk assessment it's better to meet a bear in the woods than a strange man. Because a bear is more predictable and easier to manage.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (4 children)

Yep, in North America, that works with black bears, generally.

Not brown/grizzly/kodiak bears though, as drawn in the comic.

They'll just maul you to death.

...

If you are in forests, in areas you're generally likely to encounter any kind of bear in the wild:

With black bears, if they are not with cubs...

...you puff yourself up and shout at them to indimidate them, assuming they are approaching you, and you can scare them off.

If they do attack, the general recommendation is to fight back. Aim for the eyes and snout, and usually they'll retreat.

With brown bears, if they are not with cubs...

...you can wave your hands and talk a normal volume to indicate you are a human and not their common prey... and often they will stand up on their hind legs to scan for, and identify you, and then just avoid you...

... but sometimes they won't, and they will now aggro on you. Brown/kodiak/grizzlies are generally much more aggressive than black bears, and are more likely to attack you.

Also, don't scream shout or shriek at them, thats more likely to make them think you are prey, or that you are trying to intimidate them, which will anger them.

If they do attack you, the advice is play dead.

If you fight back, without some seriously powerful firearms, you'll die.

Even if you do shoot them multiple times with high powered rounds, sometimes, even often, they'll still kill you.

The advice is to play dead, because more people who've been in such an attack encounter who've played dead have survived than those that fought.

Its not guaranteed to work, just better odds.

If you encounter any kind of bear, and they are with their cubs, GTFO as fast and as quietly as you can, without breaking into a sprint, and always keeping your eyes on them.

Any kind of bear is much more likely to be much more aggressive when with their cubs.

...

Also I have found that screaming at, and making aggressive postures and gestures toward men does in fact scare a good number off them off.

Broken up a few bar fights and gotten some guys roofying drinks out of bars that way.

...

Everyone in this thread treating brown and black bears as equivalent, largely predictable threats... does not actually know enough about bears to know how to predict their behavior.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (2 children)

Edit: Oh this is not 196, ignore. But everyone please keep in mind this community does not allow participation by men.

Also, I will still ban misogyny.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 2 days ago (3 children)

this community does not allow participation by men.

Also, I will still ban misogyny.

...

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago) (2 children)

Really cute art style here, I love the pooh-bear thing at the end. It's the man that asks for the honey, heh.

I feel like this thought experiment is a shiri's scissor. My take on this is that the worst humans are more dangerous than a wild bear. Here's the quantitative version: what percentile of dangerousness in man would you pick over the bear? For me, I would switch from man to bear at the 90% percentile -- I think the 10% worst men are a riskier proposition than the bear.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Point is you don't know whether the man is a good one or not when you bump into him.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 21 hours ago (1 children)

Right, this is why the quantitative version is more revealing.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 19 hours ago

I think the quantitative version is too fantastical for me to think about. We would never have enough information to know the percentile of the individual man in front of us.

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 day ago

I really like this comic and sadly it's true. I know nothing about bears and I'm physically disabled so I'm gonna pick the man. I can talk to him, and I know a bit about men but the bear I'm fucked.

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