Unless you\u2019re one of those sensible people who actually succeeds in not spending too much time online, you\u2019ve probably seen something somewhere about the man versus bear debate.<\/p>\n
I gather it began on TikTok (which I don\u2019t watch on account of not being into video when words work just fine) but I\u2019ve seen it on all the social media that I do read. Basically, women were asked whether, if they were hiking on a trail, they\u2019d rather run into a bear or a man.<\/p>\n
A vast majority of women said bear.<\/p>\n
Some percentage of men were upset by this and proceeded to explain to women just how dangerous bears really are, on account of they assumed women couldn\u2019t possibly understand that bears were dangerous.<\/p>\n
Most of the posts I read about this were by women dunking on such men. Many shared a quote from someone \u2013 I only saw it in meme form so I don\u2019t know who \u2013 to the effect of \u201cIf I were attacked by a bear, no one would ask what I\u2019d been wearing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Which is to say that a lot of women used this bit to hammer home the fact that most women are conscious all the time that they\u2019re at risk from men. It brought out the lists of things that most women do to protect themselves.<\/p>\n
Note to the men out there: that list does not usually include \u201cfind a big strong man to protect me\u201d because most women are well-aware of just how badly that can go.<\/p>\n
While these days I usually go backpacking with my sweetheart, on account of the fact that we both like it and also that he is willing to do the part of setting up the tent that involves crawling around on the ground, an activity that my knees do not care for, I have in the past done such trips both by myself or with another woman.<\/p>\n
I have not had a problematic run-in with either a bear or a man on those trips. I attribute the lack of bear problem to the fact that I used to hang my food in trees, as you are instructed to do when doing backcountry hiking in the Shenandoah National Park.<\/p>\n
And one good way to avoid the man problem is to camp out of sight of the trail, which is also the accepted practice (or was back when I did it) in that park. If you can\u2019t see people on the trail, they can\u2019t see you.<\/p>\n
Here in California, perhaps because of greater worry about fire, you are instructed to camp at designated campsites. There are shelters in Shenandoah National Park and people do stay in those as well. But I always used the camping off the trail system on the East Coast.<\/p>\n
The closest I ever came to bears was one night when I was car camping in West Virginia and heard much snuffling outside my tent. I was sure it was bears. I was terrified. I finally summoned up the nerve to peek out of the tent and saw a large herd of deer. I\u2019d apparently pitched a tent right in the middle of their salad bar. <\/p>\n
On the East Coast, and in fact in most of the United States, the only bears you\u2019re going to meet are black bears (some of which are brownish in color) and as long as you aren\u2019t, say, between a mother and her cubs, you can probably scare them off by making lots of noise.<\/p>\n
Grizzly bears are much more dangerous. Apparently polar bears are even more dangerous than grizzlies, a fact that I didn\u2019t know until this subject came up.<\/p>\n
If we\u2019re talking black bears, I\u2019d probably rather meet one of those than a man on a trail \u2013 assuming no cubs. I mean, it would be really cool to see a bear. I see men every day, but not bears.<\/p>\n
But I\u2019m not a good candidate for this discussion, because the truth is I\u2019m not particularly afraid of men. Spending half your life training in martial arts will do that for you.<\/p>\n
That doesn\u2019t mean I\u2019m not sensible about them, as anyone should be. The apex predator for human beings is, in fact, other human beings, and crime statistics will bear out that men are much more dangerous than women.<\/p>\n
Women kill occasionally, but men kill much more often.<\/p>\n
There are several things that might concern me about a man on a trail. Is he armed with something more than a hiking stick and a pocket knife? (Both those things can be weapons, but they are practical tools.) Is he part of a group of guys, especially a group of rowdy guys? I tend to avoid men hanging out in groups in the city, at least, because if one of them is a bad actor, he might encourage the rest to do something they wouldn\u2019t otherwise do. Also, I\u2019m pretty confident that I can handle one unarmed guy; a group of guys, not quite so much.<\/p>\n
But here\u2019s the thing that bothers me about this whole discussion. It emphasizes stranger danger. If you\u2019re out hiking and meet someone, chances are it is not someone you know.<\/p>\n
We hear a lot about stranger danger in our society. Maybe it\u2019s always been a concern. We humans do tend to clump in groups and can be suspicious of someone who\u2019s not part of our particular group.<\/p>\n
But when it comes to male violence against women, the problem isn\u2019t strangers but men you know. It\u2019s not just intimate partners, though that\u2019s a big part of the problem; it\u2019s also acquaintances and even friends.<\/p>\n
Now I\u2019m not saying that strangers never attack women \u2013 I once defended myself from a rape attack by a stranger \u2013 only that it is less of a problem than the attacks on women by people they know.<\/p>\n
According to a Bureau of Justice Statistics report from 2009, ten percent of women homicide victims in 2007 were killed by a stranger. 64 percent were killed by an intimate partner or other family member; 25 percent by someone else they know.<\/p>\n
That same study reports that 29 percent of male murder victims were killed by strangers, so even though men are also more often killed by people they know, they are at greater risk from strangers than women.<\/p>\n