Guys… This is not a complicated discussion. I’m a trans woman. I’ve been the man. And now I’ve been the woman. I’m telling you without question I’m picking the fucking bear. Men are scary motherfuckers. A sizeable number of you are cruel, calculating, and downright uncaring. If you’re debating women about why they’d pick a potentially dangerous animal to be alone with in the woods instead of you, you have entirely missed the point.
Go talk to every woman you know in your social circles and in your family, and ask them if they have been assaulted or sexually assaulted by men. The number of them that says yes to that question is going to be depressing. Some of them might even confide in you that they’ve been raped. My own sister didn’t tell me until I asked her why she was so upset with my brother one time. She had recently been raped by a boyfriend and when men got angry around her she’d flip out. Those acts, when inflicted on you, poison your default view of your fellow man. If you can’t imagine a man being more dangerous than a bear, then you’ve never had to.
A bear can’t break my trust. A bear can’t gaslight me into thinking all the shitty things he does are because he loves me. And if I told someone I got attacked by a bear, at least they’d believe me. They wouldn’t need to bring out a bear assault kit to prove it. The bear is predictable. Men are not.
I’m also a tran woman. You, me and everyone else spends every single day with random men you don’t know. How often would you chose to walk through a bear enclosure at a zoo if you could?
Yes men sexually assault women. No that does not mean a wild fuckjng animal that can kill you by accident with a singe swipe is the better fucking option.
If given the choice between spending the night alone in the woods with one of two random trans women I saw online in a discussion about bears and men, I’m picking you over that other one.
i feel like the main problems guys have with this that they imagine themselves vs the bear and it hurts their ego and they try to justify themselves because no one wants to be the bad guy
I agree with you there, but I think it’s valid for guys to have emotions.
Saying “I think the average man is more likely to harm me than a bear” is very easy to misinterpret, and then further demonising those people by saying they’re the problem isn’t helping. It just leaves them more confused and isolated.
I’ve had plenty of conversations with men defending themselves, it’s easy enough to help them understand that enough men give women bad experiences that they prefer the bear. It just needs to be done calmly to avoid further getting their guard up
I think this is an important point on the interpretation of the question. For women it seems like “Be in the wild with the worst possible man or the worst possible bear” and then the bear seems to “win”. If you ask a guy he naturally kind of identifies with the man and the question becomes more a “be in the wild with you or with a bear”. And then choosing the bear seems like a judgement about them.
Guys, this is not a complicated discussion: I have spent a decade in the boreal forest, I and I can fucking tell you I’m picking the bear, too, every time. At least I can mace the fucking bear if it annoys me; macing crew assistants requires too much paper work…
Some context: my background is in pre-disturbance biophysical surveys. I (used to) go out into boreal, where they want to build something, and tell them what’s there from an environmental standpoint. Teams are small (maybe 12 people) and split into two-person crews. We were often paired guy-girl teams, since my specific discipline is very physical (not like veg, where you’re just looking at plants). So, I’ve literally been the dude in the woods with some girl, for a 14 day shift, and it’s just her and I. The next crew is maybe 2-3 kms away.
Anyway, the point I’m trying (poorly) to make, is that women really have to deal with a lot of shit. Part of working remotely, is you’re often staying in camps, and camp life for women sucks. Bunch of dude eye raping you as you’re just trying to eat your fucking cheerios, and that’s just the start of it. The other half is they’re treated (when dealing with other workers) as if they don’t know anything. It’s flat bullshit.
But that’s the thing: it is complicated. Men are people, they’re individuals. Constantly treating them like they’re inherently predators just pushes more of them towards becoming predators.
I can sympathize with other women whose experiences have led them to think this way, but it’s still the same gender essentialism that’s served as a feminist to terf pipeline for years.
sorry, but the notion that fear of men pushes them to be predators is absolute bullshit. that’s an argument that’s an insult to anyone who has been victimized by a man and an insult to men as well.
Nothing is predictable when you are assuming the worst case for everything. I don’t think you could reason with cocaine bear. Men can be terrible but it’s not that likely to encounter rapists and killers. It’s easy to cherrypick scary murder stories to be afraid of. Most of the time a lost women has been found and saved in the woods it was by the predominantly male search and rescue. Also why should I leave my kids at a women day care with how often they drown them. Probably be safer leaving my kids with sharks
This has nothing to do with the vast majority of what you said, but I misread “bear assault kit” as "bear assault KILT and now I want a bear assault kilt. To wear in case of bear assault.
Guys… This is not a complicated discussion. I’m a trans woman. I’ve been the man. And now I’ve been the woman. I’m telling you without question I’m picking the fucking bear. Men are scary motherfuckers. A sizeable number of you are cruel, calculating, and downright uncaring. If you’re debating women about why they’d pick a potentially dangerous animal to be alone with in the woods instead of you, you have entirely missed the point.
Go talk to every woman you know in your social circles and in your family, and ask them if they have been assaulted or sexually assaulted by men. The number of them that says yes to that question is going to be depressing. Some of them might even confide in you that they’ve been raped. My own sister didn’t tell me until I asked her why she was so upset with my brother one time. She had recently been raped by a boyfriend and when men got angry around her she’d flip out. Those acts, when inflicted on you, poison your default view of your fellow man. If you can’t imagine a man being more dangerous than a bear, then you’ve never had to.
A bear can’t break my trust. A bear can’t gaslight me into thinking all the shitty things he does are because he loves me. And if I told someone I got attacked by a bear, at least they’d believe me. They wouldn’t need to bring out a bear assault kit to prove it. The bear is predictable. Men are not.
I’m also a tran woman. You, me and everyone else spends every single day with random men you don’t know. How often would you chose to walk through a bear enclosure at a zoo if you could?
Yes men sexually assault women. No that does not mean a wild fuckjng animal that can kill you by accident with a singe swipe is the better fucking option.
If given the choice between spending the night alone in the woods with one of two random trans women I saw online in a discussion about bears and men, I’m picking you over that other one.
i feel like the main problems guys have with this that they imagine themselves vs the bear and it hurts their ego and they try to justify themselves because no one wants to be the bad guy
I agree with you there, but I think it’s valid for guys to have emotions.
Saying “I think the average man is more likely to harm me than a bear” is very easy to misinterpret, and then further demonising those people by saying they’re the problem isn’t helping. It just leaves them more confused and isolated.
I’ve had plenty of conversations with men defending themselves, it’s easy enough to help them understand that enough men give women bad experiences that they prefer the bear. It just needs to be done calmly to avoid further getting their guard up
I think this is an important point on the interpretation of the question. For women it seems like “Be in the wild with the worst possible man or the worst possible bear” and then the bear seems to “win”. If you ask a guy he naturally kind of identifies with the man and the question becomes more a “be in the wild with you or with a bear”. And then choosing the bear seems like a judgement about them.
Guys, this is not a complicated discussion: I have spent a decade in the boreal forest, I and I can fucking tell you I’m picking the bear, too, every time. At least I can mace the fucking bear if it annoys me; macing crew assistants requires too much paper work…
Some context: my background is in pre-disturbance biophysical surveys. I (used to) go out into boreal, where they want to build something, and tell them what’s there from an environmental standpoint. Teams are small (maybe 12 people) and split into two-person crews. We were often paired guy-girl teams, since my specific discipline is very physical (not like veg, where you’re just looking at plants). So, I’ve literally been the dude in the woods with some girl, for a 14 day shift, and it’s just her and I. The next crew is maybe 2-3 kms away.
Anyway, the point I’m trying (poorly) to make, is that women really have to deal with a lot of shit. Part of working remotely, is you’re often staying in camps, and camp life for women sucks. Bunch of dude eye raping you as you’re just trying to eat your fucking cheerios, and that’s just the start of it. The other half is they’re treated (when dealing with other workers) as if they don’t know anything. It’s flat bullshit.
But that’s the thing: it is complicated. Men are people, they’re individuals. Constantly treating them like they’re inherently predators just pushes more of them towards becoming predators.
I can sympathize with other women whose experiences have led them to think this way, but it’s still the same gender essentialism that’s served as a feminist to terf pipeline for years.
sorry, but the notion that fear of men pushes them to be predators is absolute bullshit. that’s an argument that’s an insult to anyone who has been victimized by a man and an insult to men as well.
Nothing is predictable when you are assuming the worst case for everything. I don’t think you could reason with cocaine bear. Men can be terrible but it’s not that likely to encounter rapists and killers. It’s easy to cherrypick scary murder stories to be afraid of. Most of the time a lost women has been found and saved in the woods it was by the predominantly male search and rescue. Also why should I leave my kids at a women day care with how often they drown them. Probably be safer leaving my kids with sharks
This has nothing to do with the vast majority of what you said, but I misread “bear assault kit” as "bear assault KILT and now I want a bear assault kilt. To wear in case of bear assault.
Or is it an assault kilt made of bear skin?
Oh.ffs. here we go