Man or Bear

Last year I kept seeing posts on Instagram and hearing about a debate. It went like this: would you rather (as a woman) be alone in the forest with a man or a bear? When posed to a man it would be: would you rather your daughter be alone in the woods with a man or a bear? Not once did anyone online, that I read/saw, or the people I asked in real life, choose a man. 

These were some of the comments on posts about the debate that left me shuddering:

• If I survive the bear attack, I won't have to see the bear at family reunions.

• The worst thing the bear can do is kill me.

• The bear sees me as a human being.

• After what those men did to that monitor lizard, the bears are not safe with men either.

• The bear doesn't get enjoyment out of it.

• The bear didn't pretend to be my friend for months beforehand.

• No one will say that I liked the bear attack.

• No one will talk about the bear's "bright future".

• If the bear and the man both wanna hurt me and I scream loud enough, there's a better chance that the bear will actually run away.

• A bear wouldn't film it and send it to all of his friends.

• The men getting angry at this don't realise that there are fates worse than death.