This might be a hot take, but I'm annoyed enough about it to talk about it.

The whole "Man vs Bear" question is the stupidest thing i've seen the internet discuss lately. its such an unproductive topic and is actively damaging and harmful to the discourse between men's and women's issues.

its a question that, by design, is meant to make everyone who answers and hears the answers to it upset and angry. To rile them up for engagement.

It makes women upset, because when asked the question, it forces them to imagine two extremely uncomfortable senarios, pick the least worse situtation (which is almost always the bear), and confront the reality of why they feel this way. Which can lead to reliving trauma or whatever else. And then, after that, they feel like they have to justify why because of course they have to. Knowing that they are going to get backlash from someone for choosing whatever they choose.

And it makes men upset because they get compared to a bear, which is arguably close to a monster, and are considered more dangerous and more scary than something that is considered a monster or a beast. So it makes them upset by either feeling sad and guilty for being something that they cant control 99% of the time, or angry and confused for being something they can't control 99% of the time.

And this damages discourse because it forces everyone to focus on the wrong things. Instead of talking about how to make women feel safer and how to make men better, we are all arguing over how unsafe women should feel and how terrible men could be.

I hope this fucking trend dies already so we can finally have productive and healthy conversations over gender issues again.