TikTok has been amidst a tense argument for months about whether it would be better to be caught in the woods with a man, or a bear. The consensus among women on the internet is that a bear would be preferable to a man. And, of course, the men are offended.
The thing is, the conversation is much more symbolic than anything else.
The idea is that if you’re stuck with a bear, your chances of walking away with long-term trauma are much smaller. In the best-case scenario, nothing happens; in the worst-case scenario, the bear kills you. Not ideal, but for many women it’s preferable to any outcome a man might bring them.
Maeve Tale is one of few women who chose the man, and commenters think she may have missed the point. In her video, Maeve said the choice seemed obvious to her, and pointed out that the argument “the worst the bear could do is kill me” is exactly the reason she wouldn’t choose it.
On a surface level, Maeve is right: presented with worst-case scenario with a bear, vs. the best-case scenario with a man, the right choice is pretty obvious. But as her commenters pointed out, death would be preferable to many of the worst possibilities that a man could bring them. Several people made fun of her for how severely she missed the point, and others said in their most condescending internet tones that not everything is literal.
Dozens of women have taken to the internet to defend their choice after so many people have hit back. Their lines of reasoning are seriously devastating, and give a little more insight than Maeve seems to have on the deeper context of the situation. The number one theme is that a bear wouldn’t sexually assault a woman. If a bear attacked a woman, she wouldn’t be accused of asking for it. No one would defend the bear after the attack. Surviving a bear attack wouldn’t culminate in lengthy court cases, people coming to the defense of the attacker, or to any victim-blaming.
Sure, there’s no guarantee that any of those things would happen if it were a man in the proverbial woods. But this is where people take issue with Maeve saying she’d take any man over the bear. If you could choose your dad, or your brother, or your best friend, the choice would be clear. But all bears behave the same. All men do not.
That’s exactly what commenters are attempting to explain to Maeve.