First, please be respectful in the comments. I have no idea what the topic was, but apparently it caused a lot of divide. I prefer just the claims and facts, backed by citations, and let me draw my own conclusions. I can think for myself. 😅
I’m curious because it seemed to have happened about a year ago, and then there were concerns of Lemmy being a worse place for women than Reddit.
I don’t really see that now. Granted, I’m new, and maybe it’s the specific communities I subscribed to, but I haven’t really seen much women-hating in posts or comments. If anything, I’ve seen a bias towards liberal viewpoints (many of which I personally agree with, but sometimes the justifications use poor reasoning and almost comes off as a bad defense or covert sabotage).
I’m hoping Lemmy changed for the better in the past year, and I’m not about to be side slammed with some misogyny. 🙏🏼
They asked Women if they’d rather be alone in the woods and come across a bear, or a man; and many of them chose bear because they thought men were untrustworthy.
It’s more an expression of misandry than misogyny. Men are defaulted in many minds to be violent sexual predators.
A viewpoint from someone who would choose the bear:: I don’t think all men are by default violent sexual predators. It’s much more about the fear that we won’t be believed.
Nobody questions whether you wanted to be attacked by a bear. Nobody makes the case that the bear just made a mistake and we don’t want to ruin his future. Nobody suggests that you lead the bear on then changed your mind. It behooves us to be wary of being vulnerable with men until we have more information about the specific man we’re engaging with because of things go sideways there’s a good chance we’ll be blamed.
A viewpoint from someone who is a man and not a sexual predator:: this statement is so incendiary because the odds of being mauled to death by a bear you meet are so high, while the odds of being sexually assaulted by a man you meet are so low.
As someone who doesn’t live somewhere that has bears I don’t really know how it works, at first glance the phrase “come across a bear” implies a certainty of a revenant style bear fight, but I suppose if you know something about bear behavior can identify the type of bear maybe it’s not a big deal?
Alternatively, how many encounters between lone women and lone men in the woods result in sexual assault? There’s some places in my area where people walk daily. There would be dozens of such encounters, and IDK the “sexual assault rate” but it would be a big deal if someone had been raped in the woods. Notwithstanding unreported assaults, I don’t think it’s something that’s happened? I’m guessing but I wouldn’t be surprised if the rate is less than 1 encounter in a million.
As someone who spends nearly every weekend in the backcountry of vancouver island, most bears aren’t going to mess with you. But I’ve also been charged by a bear before like 10 years ago and I still sometimes have nightmares about it. When they are having a hard time finding easy food you bet they will spend the energy to eat you.
Every single person I’ve ever come across outdoors has been good. I mean someone stole booze from my cooler while I was asleep one time. But that’s the worst that’s ever happened. But I guess I am a man so I can fight back.
It’s really just a rage bait question because it lacks any detail. I think it would be a better question to ask would you rather be in an empty room with a random bear or with a random man.
Like, are we talking about solo hiking and encountering people on the trail? People you find in the woods are chill. Or are we talking about a random man from anywhere in the world spawning in?
It just pisses me off actually because it changed the way I act around solo lady hikers because now I just think I’m viewed as some creep. I don’t small talk anymore I just say hi and make it clear I don’t want to associate. My last solo trip to a remote beach had another solo lady camping there and I kept wondering if she was scared I was there even though I was like 200m down the beach. In the past I might have went to the bear food cache when she did and just say hello, ask if they forgot any gear they might need to borrow, etc etc, maybe make a new friend. Ask if they saw any bears on the way down, you know, lol.
Almost every woman I personally know who answered this question said they would rather come across a bear and that really sucks.
Bears aside, I was looking at satellite imagery of this area a few weeks ago. It looks dreamy.
I live in the south west corner of Western Australia which is obviously different but still a sparsely populated wilderness.
I spawned into a very small ultra conservative racist village in Alberta and managed to move out this way. I am grateful to say the least.
Have you ever been to Tasmania? It is a dream destination for me. Show me ya map of tassy
Yeah I have indeed been to Tasmania.
I managed to see a platypus in the wild which is not that easy to do in the last 30 years.
It’s probably more similar to Vancouver Island than Western Australia is just because it’s a few degrees cooler than here. We both have epic forests.
I always thought Tasmania is similar to Vancouver Island in many ways but the main difference is that Tasmania is like 10 hours ferry and Vancouver Island is 1.5 hours directly from Vancouver itself
The person you’re responding to entirely missed the point and the accusation of misandry is misguided
Sadly, the reverse has come to be true for a lot of men.
Anyone who says bear literally doesn’t know what a bear is and lives in some concrete jungle
A common thing I’ve heard is “well the worst thing a bear can do is kill me”. Are we actually this stupid? Do these people actually believe what they say or is it just shock value?
Anyone so convinced of this has never been raped.
I have in fact encountered a bear in the wild, a mama bear with her cub. They weren’t interested in me, just crossing my path trying to get to the river. I stopped walking and started talking so they’d know I was there. They went on their way, I waited a little bit to make sure they weren’t coming back, and then I went on mine.
I’ve also been raped by a man I thought was my friend.
Wow you encountered one bear. How many men did you cross paths with just yesterday? Were they interested in you?
Wow.
The vast majority of men are not bad. Your single bear encounter was probably in yosemite or something where a bear is a tourist attraction and is used to people.
So your stance is that you would rather be eaten alive than raped?
You sure do assume a lot, huh? I’m not going to explain it better than the top comment of the thread already did. You should read it. You should also take some time to think about how you come across.
Yeah I understand this concept but it comes down to the simple fact that you have a substantially better chance making out alive being with a man rather than a bear.
Would you rather in trapped in a room with a random man or a random bear?
You and I both know that men are statistically less dangerous than bears so if you answer bear to this question it is just misandry.
Edit: and I don’t care about how I come across because all that matters here is facts.
And if you are suicidal that’s another thing I guess. Sometimes I wish a bear would eat me. Lol.
If you’re lost in the woods, would you rather run into a bear, or a man who is 10% larger than you and wants to have sex with you?
Hopefully this rephrasing of the question helps you understand the answer women tend to give a little better
See, this is a perfect example – this person very clearly thinks that all men only want to have sex. It paints that picture absolutely perfectly.
I’m really curious where I said that. Wanting something doesn’t mean you only want said thing, and the vast majority of men generally want to have sex with women. You can ask them, and they’ll tell you as much.
Besides that, you’ve managed to miss my point entirely: that the original question is different on a fundamental level when you ask a woman versus a man. Meeting a random man in the woods is significantly more dangerous if you are a woman than it is if you are a man, and that’s a bit of nuance that a lot of guys don’t consider. Instead of taking it personally, and feeling like women think you specifically are evil, you should try to understand why women are so cautious around men. It’s not some irrational prejudice against us.
You’re not going to get dinner and a movie out of a bear.