Comment on What was the 'bear vs man' controversy?
null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 week agoA viewpoint from someone who is a man and not a sexual predator:: this statement is so incendiary because the odds of being mauled to death by a bear you meet are so high, while the odds of being sexually assaulted by a man you meet are so low.
As someone who doesn’t live somewhere that has bears I don’t really know how it works, at first glance the phrase “come across a bear” implies a certainty of a revenant style bear fight, but I suppose if you know something about bear behavior can identify the type of bear maybe it’s not a big deal?
Alternatively, how many encounters between lone women and lone men in the woods result in sexual assault? There’s some places in my area where people walk daily. There would be dozens of such encounters, and IDK the “sexual assault rate” but it would be a big deal if someone had been raped in the woods. Notwithstanding unreported assaults, I don’t think it’s something that’s happened? I’m guessing but I wouldn’t be surprised if the rate is less than 1 encounter in a million.
rabber@lemmy.ca 1 week ago
As someone who spends nearly every weekend in the backcountry of vancouver island, most bears aren’t going to mess with you. But I’ve also been charged by a bear before like 10 years ago and I still sometimes have nightmares about it.
Every single person I’ve ever come across outdoors has been good. I mean one time someone stole booze from my cooler while I was asleep one time. But that’s the worst that’s ever happened. But I guess I am a man so I can fight back.
It’s really just a rage bait question because it lacks any detail. I think it would be a better question to ask would you rather be in an empty room with a random bear or with a random man.
Like, are we talking about solo hiking and encountering people on the trail? People you find in the woods are chill. Or are we talking about a random man from anywhere in the world spawning in?
It just pisses me off actually because it actually changed the way I act around solo lady hikers because now I just think I’m viewed as some creep. I don’t small talk anymore I just say hi and make it clear I don’t want to associate. Almost every woman I personally know who answered this question said they would rather come across a bear and that really sucks.
null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 week ago
Bears aside, I was looking at satellite imagery of this area a few weeks ago. It looks dreamy.
I live in the south west corner of Western Australia which is obviously different but still a sparsely populated wilderness.
rabber@lemmy.ca 1 week ago
I spawned into a very small ultra conservative racist village in Alberta and managed to move out this way. I am grateful to say the least.
Have you ever been to Tasmania? It is a dream destination for me. Show me ya map of tassy
null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 week ago
Yeah I have indeed been to Tasmania.
I managed to see a platypus in the wild which is not that easy to do in the last 30 years.
It’s probably more similar to Vancouver Island than Western Australia is just because it’s a few degrees cooler than here. We both have epic forests.