Over the summer, a question posed by street interviewers to women exploded on TikTok: Would you rather be stuck in the forest with a man or a bear? The majority of responses from men about this hypothetical were aggressive. Overall, they show a profound lack of awareness regarding the daily lives of women and how they incite fear to the feminine population.
The reply from the women when faced with the question was overwhelming, with the majority of women choosing the bear. For them, the answer to the question was simple by weighing the potential of harm from the bear versus the wealth of knowledge surrounding the possibility of masculine violence.
Statistically, a total of 67 individuals have been killed by America’s most common bear, the black bear, since 1990. With 750,000 black bears on average living at any given time, that means that less than one person is killed every year. In comparison, three women are killed by an intimate partner every day, with trans women and women of color facing a disproportionate level of risk.
Although the primary threat facing women concerning femicide tends to be within intimate relationships, the fear of being sexually harassed or abused by any man is extremely prevalent.
Concerning the hypothetical, some TikTok comments from women include, “The bear sees me as a human being”, “No one will say I liked the bear attack” and “The worst thing that the bear can do is kill me.”
As an example, 81% of women have experienced some form of sexual harassment in their lifetime versus 43% of men, and one in three women have been victims of rape versus one in four men. Even within these cases, men are most often the perpetrators of sexual assaults against other men in a staggering 86%.
When analyzing the response to the “man vs. bear” argument, many men seemed either unaware of women’s experiences or dismissive by referencing male victims of sexual harassment. While it is important to recognize male victims, the evidence that men are victims as well should not be used as a counterclaim to women detailing their own prevalent experiences of violence.
Women’s position to choose the bear over a man in the woods is based in fact. Any deflection concerning the hypothetical shows a clear inability to be empathetic of women’s struggles regarding masculine violence. To be ignorant of the factual reality of a woman’s daily existence is a privilege exclusive to men.
Threats against women can be seen by TikTok creators such as Cryptid_Affairs, in which an AI-generated massive bear dubbed “Slipperyskin” is “notorious for its aggressive behavior especially towards women…further research has shown that Slipperyskin is likely to attack people who would rather encounter a bear than a man in the woods.”
The “man vs. bear” trend revealed the lengths that some men would go to rather than accept the truth that women are often victimized in a misogynistic society. Instead of being deflective or violent to the realities that face women daily, men should consider self-reflection and support the women in their lives.
