WomensStuff

Stanzi made this as a skit basically: https://youtube.com/shorts/9MdYx9vFnYU

Bears generally avoid people. They're naturally afraid of humans, which makes them pretty safe. Things are different when bears become familiar and comfortable around people, or discover that humans are a source of food. Then they get close to people which makes them much more of a threat.

By contrast, strange men are not naturally afraid of people, and most have learned that humans are a source of food. That makes strange men far more dangerous. Pick the bear every time.

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

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.

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

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

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)

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

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.

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.

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.