Dare I ask what the man vs bear meme is all about and why it seems to be upsetting men so much? [CW: sexism]
I don't go on social media so I don't really get it but I have seen memes here and there of women getting mauled by bears presented in a "heh, serves her right" kind of way.
So weird that dudes complain that they can't get women when the message they put out there is they hate women and make images of them being brutally mauled.
EDIT: I did not expect to see people I trust minimise SA here. I'm disappointed, that's something I expect from a random chud blowing in from another instance, not you guys. Most of you were extremely cool in your answers, but to the one or two that weren't. Do fucking better.
Imma be honest picking the bear feels like True Crime Brain, unless your point is only “Bears aren’t dangerous and it would be cool to see one”
It is the exact same as the white women who have told me they felt afraid for their lives and don’t feel safe in this city because homeless man talked to them in the park once (to be clear this is not an exaggeration, this is a story one of my friends has told me about “almost” getting attacked walking through the park, it was just a homeless man spoke to her once and then walked on the same path for a few minutes)
If I’m walking through the woods and I come across a man, I assume he’s in the woods for the exact same reason I am. Are y’all panicking every time you pass another hiker going the opposite direction?
Bears aren’t scary, but neither are people and if you get scared upon seeing a random guy you need to go to therapy and to stop listening to My Favorite Murder
actually that other comment wasn't enough, are you seriously suggesting that the only reason women are paranoid about SA and the culture around us permitting that is because they are too gullible? got too much anxiety from listening to podcasts and forgot about the real world?
seriously, Hexbear was the last place I expected to run into an argument trying to put it on women for being paranoid, this actually feels like a fucked comment to be making, i would genuinely reconsider what you're trying to put forward here
It's wild that people think women just make this kind of shit up or exaggerate.
By the time I was 16, two of my underage friends had been raped. And I know it was true because one of them came from a very regious Christian family that forced her to keep the baby.
And that was just two close friends that I know about. Most people obviously aren't going to tell people they were raped.
Women are being killed, raped and left in dumpsters like trash all the time and people are still like "lol stop being hysterical". It's wild.
it's actually insane to me too, you can very literally ask any femme-presenting person and they will have some experience of assault, and yet we still have to hear talk about 'you're just watching too much tv/listening to too many podcasts/need to live in the real world'
and that's not even getting into what you've touched on, which is that so many of those sexual assault experiences occur underage, but no it's mass hysteria to be even slightly worried about it
I think Americans, (well, white Americans,) are much more paranoid about other people harming them than they should be.
“I’d choose the bear” feels to me like the same impulse that convinces white people to live in car dependent gated communities to make sure outsiders can’t attack them.
I can’t count the number of times white people have told me stories where they “narrowly avoided harm” where there was literally no danger and the story is just “a homeless man was near me” or “a guy on the bus was talking to himself”
I’m genuinely surprised to see this much fear of others in a Hexbear comment section, to the point I feel like I must fundamentally misunderstand something. I thought we were all in agreement on “Most people are good.” As communists, are we not driven by a love and compassion for others? Meeting a stranger should not be an immediate cause for fear.
I think Americans, (well, white Americans,) are much more paranoid about other people harming them than they should be.
I agree
As communists, are we not driven by a love and compassion for others?
One hundred percent, absolutely
I can’t count the number of times white people have told me stories where they “narrowly avoided harm” where there was literally no danger and the story is just “a homeless man was near me” or “a guy on the bus was talking to himself”
What I can't then square is this - as far as I can tell, this is an attempt to tar 'women being afraid of SA' with the same brush as an oppressed, reactionary group reacting in reactionary ways. My point was that you were actively trying to minimise the very real experiences of many victims of assault, and then you've gone on to do it again here
don't get me wrong, i get WHAT you're trying to say here, I understand what your concerns are but so far you've been unable to separate that concern from your opinion that women are exaggerating, or are at the very least being too receptive (?) of other's stories of assault. just about every comment of yours in this thread references the idea that women are paranoid because of 'True Crime Brain'. In this comment, you liken it to an oppressor being scared because of their very own propaganda about the people they're oppressing. Surely you can see how that's a bit off right?
I'mma keep it an entire band w/ you: I do not trust white folk to not be on some harmful shit anymore. I believe most folk who's not a settler is good; I don't extend that out to those who cape or cosign; and I've especially stopped extending it to white men. To quote a bunch of the women I've seen chatting this subject on TikTok, I'd rather the bear.
At least I know the worst a bear can do is eat me; a man? A white man? There ain't no telling what he could do or how he could spin it after the fact. And with the color of my skin, there's no telling if said white man will even do any kind of time or have to pay any kind of restitution for what he did to me. Might find me swinging off a branch, coroner found SA evidence, and two bullet holes in the back of my spine and good ol' Troy Michael Hunter the last verifiable person who saw me sittin there like "iunno how they got up there, musta been s/!" I'd rather the bear.
That’s not what I’m saying at all. But if that’s your fear you should be scared coming across a friend in the woods much more than a stranger, which is what makes that risk so much more insidious to me. A random stranger in the woods is not likely to assault you, that would be your friend Brad.
This trope is just recycled racist propaganda and “stranger danger”
I’m reading through, and definitely some of my points aren’t great, but I do still think “You should not be immediately afraid of strangers” stands. That comment you replied to was particularly not great, I’ve deleted that one. Bad take.
It's not about being afraid of strangers or "what are you most afraid of: a dragon bear demon or a man?" It's about the real concern that women have and stated about the intentions of a man and potential long-duration of suffering that he could inflict, possibly out of pure pleasure. Women just don't know what the man is up to or planning, could just be walking around thinking about how much the Naruto movie sucked and what he should get for dinner later or he could be walking around planning some cruel shit—the ambiguity itself could be terrifying. But a bear is just out there being a bear so there's at least some clear understanding there, and if the bear attacks then it's far more likely motivated by some defensive instinct or calculation—not pure cruelty or misogyny.
A bear never calculatingly chained a woman up in its house and tortured and raped her for years just for fun.