Misogyny and other gender issues. - The Bear and Badger

DrewMerson

I think the idea is a shock tactic. There are still plenty of men who don’t realise how scared women are of men, and it’s a means of pointing out how worried some men are.

Unfortunately, the Venn diagram of men who will struggle to ever grasp the problem, and the men who think they could beat a bear in unarmed combat (they are out there) probably has a pretty big overlap, so I imagine they’ll miss the point.

LivDiv

This is why its stupid.

Has the bear seen you?

Has the man seen you?

Are either chasing you?

Is the bear hungry and the man horny?

What type of bear? What type of man?

Is the man fat or thin?

I took it to mean would rather definitely be mauled to death or potentially raped?

I'd rather meet a chainsaw wielding lunatic in the woods than a bear. A bear will smell you long before a human of any description sees you, they can smell stuff over a mile away, and bears can run as fast as a horse. As a question of which one is the bigger threat, it's a bear every single time and it doesn't matter what's between your legs.

Paul the sparky

The problem is being obfuscated by the introduction of the bear for no real benefit.

I feel like the daft "the bear might walk away" shite could similarly be chucked into the No Subject thread to stop detracting from the point in here. Basically, do a risk assessment on it and you'd sharp realize that you're most likely better off with the man than the bear. Working together is how humanity has survived after all

Paul the sparky

LivDiv wrote:

This is why its stupid.

Has the bear seen you?

Has the man seen you?

Are either chasing you?

Is the bear hungry and the man horny?

What type of bear? What type of man?

Is the man fat or thin?

I took it to mean would rather definitely be mauled to death or potentially raped?

I'd rather meet a chainsaw wielding lunatic in the woods than a bear. A bear will smell you long before a human of any description sees you, they can smell stuff over a mile away, and bears can run as fast as a horse. As a question of which one is the bigger threat, it's a bear every single time and it doesn't matter what's between your legs.

What if I've got a polar bear between my legs, and it's in full battle armour?

But yeah, it's just shite really. Mad that people consider it a decent way to make any kind of point

nick_md

Just posting what I saw in comments, go tell them they're wrong I guess.

Kow

LivDiv

nick_md wrote:

Just posting what I saw in comments, go tell them they're wrong I guess.

What and get accused of mansplaining how bears work?

I think I'll just not base life around social media comments.

DrewMerson

I think it’s fairly safe to say that nobody here needs to be shocked into realising exactly how afraid women are of men, but I do think analysing the exact scenario or explaining how dangerous bears are is missing the point.

hunk

Isn't this in essence why we always advise girls to never go out on their own at night or travel alone?
If they do they'd better go out/ travel and return home with friends in a group etc.

As a guy, I'm comfortable to go out and about on my own. Girls (regardless of cult. background) really don't have that luxury.

Paul the sparky

DrewMerson wrote:

I think it’s fairly safe to say that nobody here needs to be shocked into realising exactly how afraid women are of men, but I do think analysing the exact scenario or explaining how dangerous bears are is missing the point.

Exactly. Bears shouldn't have been brought into it if taking them into consideration missed the point

LivDiv

Paul the sparky wrote:

DrewMerson wrote:

I think it’s fairly safe to say that nobody here needs to be shocked into realising exactly how afraid women are of men, but I do think analysing the exact scenario or explaining how dangerous bears are is missing the point.

Exactly. Bears shouldn't have been brought into it if taking them into consideration missed the point

This.
The whole bears thing is totally ridiculous.

Make a point with evidence, testimony, stats, polls whatever can be referenced to prove the point or argue the case. Don't make stupid hypotheticals.

LivDiv

This reminds me of something I saw on Linkedin a few days back.

Someone had made a post saying that when optimal office temperatures are set they are done so to favour men and don't factor in how women's body temperature run on average 5 degrees lower.

Absolutely fine, nothing wrong with the factoid and for all I know likely true, didn't care to research happy to believe it.

A guy responded giving massive detail about how these temperatures are decided upon.

He then got jump on for missing the point. It wasn't about temperatures it was about how the whole world is built for men etc etc. Which is true for many things and a reasonable topic of debate but it wasn't put over like that at all in the OP. Of course some will click, some won't but if making a point particularly with the barriers of social media I think it's important to be clear of what point is being made. The Bear and the Thermometer might be examples or illustrations of the point but the point should be clarified.

Of course it's social media so the guy didn't get it and dug in, tens of posts and nobody was really explaining it properly to him. Shit show. (Why do people do this on Linkedin?)

DrewMerson

Ah, yes. I can see how a detailed lecture would be better at delivering a short sharp shock than seeing a brief video with a number of women saying they’re more frightened of men than bears. That’ll be why the flip charts are trending.

LivDiv

Why does it need to be a detailed lecture.
"90% of women have said they felt uncomfortable walking alone in the past month*"

*From a survey of XX people

Or "SHARKS WONT RAPE YOU LIKE MEN DO!"

Paul the sparky

DrewMerson wrote:

Ah, yes. I can see how a detailed lecture would be better at delivering a short sharp shock than seeing a brief video with a number of women saying they’re more frightened of men than bears. That’ll be why the flip charts are trending.

This isn't trending for the right reason though. It's trending because it's stupid, like most trends

DrewMerson

Because the men who need to learn won’t be shocked by ‘90%’ or ‘felt uncomfortable’. ‘Men are scarier than wild animals’ is pretty shocking.

LivDiv

They won't be shocked by this bears shite either.
Mainly because men aren't scarier than bears unless you don't know anything about bears.

It's hyperbole and it's dumb so it's easily dismissible.

Honestly it sounds like something from Brass Eye.

DrewMerson

Paul the sparky wrote:

This isn't trending for the right reason though. It's trending because it's stupid, like most trends

If that was true (and I’m entirely unconvinced that it is) there would be a blissful irony in it trending because men are explaining to women why it’s stupid.

Paul the sparky

LivDiv wrote:

They won't be shocked by this bears shite either.
Mainly because men aren't scarier than bears unless you don't know anything about bears.

It's hyperbole and it's dumb so it's easily dismissible.

Honestly it sounds like something from Brass Eye.

Hahaha it really does

Brooks

They were just trying to lock the thread.

LivDiv

I think the campaign that was run a few years back about men being mindful about crossing the road or not running up behind women without warning and the like was a really good one.

It didn't treat men like villains it asked a small favour for the benefit of women's sense of security. Everyone was treated like a grown up and from what I can gather it was quite successful. I remember talking about it with male friends and I'm more aware now and take action, I wasn't jump scaring random women but didn't think twice about passing on the same side of the street for example.

Grown up conversations can get results. Shock tactics just put people's backs up and entrench views. Or worse lead to confused young men who look for answers from the wrong people like Tate.

poprock

The bear thing worked though. We might be taking the piss out of the bear thing, but we’re also talking about the issue. Which can’t be a bad thing, can it?

b0r1s

I’ve always said Pop is a sane sensible chap. Nailed it.

Rev

poprock wrote:

The bear thing worked though. We might be taking the piss out of the bear thing, but we’re also talking about the issue. Which can’t be a bad thing, can it?

When my daughter talks about all the precautions she needs to take walking from her house to anywhere, all the things she needs to look out for when she goes to the pub, the fact she feels she needs to keep an eye on all the women around her to keep them safe too, when the bear thing came up she said that it takes something so ridiculous to get a conversation going, then it's a good thing.

LivDiv

It's a very good point. I had no idea of the ignorance around the power of bears until this question came up.

RedDave2

I feel all this negative talk about bears reflects unfairly on some of the hairier members of the gay community.

Kow

I don't think it's a particularly good way to bring the subject to people's attention, really. I mean we're not really talking about the issue at all, we're talking about bears and how dumb the question is. It's an issue that everybody should be behind really, but the actual result is division, ridicule and stupid arguments. I don't think you can apply marketing principles here and say all publicity is good publicity. The bottom line for me in this is how stupid social media is.

g.man

I like Questor. Hope he comes back.

hunk

Cudly panda bear/brown paddington bear or potentially rapey male stranger(s). Of course women and girls will always choose teddy bears! Especially if the males feel they're entitled to sex for having saved her from a bear in the first place.

Having said that it's good to be aware of the issue especially if you have a daughter.

GooberTheHat

Or a bear.

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