0.0 Would you rather be stuck in a forest with a man or a bear? Man or bear is this week's idiotic waste of time, and the answers people are giving are very predictable because they're, frankly, stupid.
13.0 People say a man is scary, but with a bear, what I've heard is they don't always attack you, so maybe a bear. Probably a bear—or 100% a bear—which is terrifying to say, but definitely a bear. Some men are very scary out there; even some men are saying bear.
34.0 Although we could predict that this man's opinion will be whatever makes women approve of him. If I were alone in the woods, would you rather me encounter a bear or a man? I feel more like bear. I don't know, because I feel like I know what the outcome would be with a bear.
51.0 So here's the thing: I have met bears in the woods. I am bear-aware, that's what they say in bear country. Bears are a big deal in bear country, and they want you to keep them to a bare minimum. Bear spray costs 50 bucks. I've also met men in the woods, and I have to tell you, it's not as stressful.
68.0 And I know what you're thinking—I'm not a woman, men are not women, please tell me you were thinking that—so therefore a man would not be a danger to me. Well, let's take a look at some statistics: who gets murdered by strangers more? A larger percentage of males (21%) were murdered by a stranger than females (12%).
91.0 So as a man, I would be in roughly 21/12ths as much danger, which is almost double. And yet, even though I have more to fear when I encounter a man in the woods, I experience no adrenaline response. I fear not for my very life; I reach not for my man spray—no, I carry only bear spray, upon which I place five fingers during each encounter of bear awareness.
116.0 A lot of people have been providing fuzzy logic about bear versus man. Again, note the level of masculinity. To be clear, the answer is unequivocally a bear. In the United States, there are 340,000 bears and about 57 million hikers, 26 million of which are female. Since 2020, there have been exactly seven women killed by bears.
139.0 There are also 165 million men and 168 million women. Since 2020, there have been 8,000 fatal attacks on women by men. To adjust for population, the number of bears would have to increase by a multiplier of 48 to equate to the same population of men. In this hypothetical, that's 3,395 deaths—still a lot more than seven. Women are still more than twice as likely to be killed by a man than a bear in the U.S.
166.0 But wait, you have to be where bears are to be in a bear attack. Are you suggesting that if there were more bears, they'd all be taking Ubers? I did the math for you. This divided by this starts with three zeros, and this divided by this starts with four.
181.0 The reason this is all so stupid is that the only way to figure out who's more dangerous is total attacks divided by total encounters—and how are you going to count the number of encounters you have with strange men every day? Isn't it thousands if you live in a city? When was the last time you bumped into a thousand bears? They thrive in Grand Teton National Park, and I saw zero. So "I'd rather run into a bear" is clearly dishonest; they're arguing in bad faith. Why would they do that?
210.0 Let's revisit "Who is a 10?" If you haven't seen the video, it's on YouTube—when you're done here, it explains that men compete for status and power out in the open, while women disguise their power games as equality and fairness while making power moves in secret. One of those power moves is the accusation.
230.0 Just like a lot of women are saying, "I'm a 10, you're a 10, we're all 10, everyone is beautiful," even though they don't believe it. Do you think Lizzo is beautiful? I mean, yeah, Lizzo is hot. Yeah, 100%. Molly, has anyone ever told you that you look like Lizzo?
244.0 Women also like to say that men are dangerous, because that turns you into a threat that needs to be managed—worse than a bear, worse than a bear with Uber. So if it can be agreed upon that you are more dangerous than a bear, then that justifies excluding you from the power hierarchy. And then you become this little fellow who's not having a good time.
271.0 Even though it's not a realistic threat evaluation—remember, this is the chance of it happening per year, and it's even lower when considering if it's a stranger like a man in the woods—the collective negotiation appears to be working. More and more men are reporting feeling excluded from the job market, the dating market, and pretty much everything. I know so many men who are significantly above average, and they go out in the world to do something and get told, "Yeah, no, we're saving that for someone else."
304.0 This was going to be me if I didn't blow up on TikTok. There's a smaller one on the back—he doesn't have a mouth. That's kind of more accurate. So the math doesn't make much sense, but we don't really need it anyway, because nobody actually believes that anybody would be more frightened to meet a man in the woods than a bear. And if you do believe that, try it—and bring 50 bucks.
327.0 Once you understand the pattern, it becomes a little more clear when large numbers of women are saying things they clearly don't believe, like "men are more dangerous than bears" or "Lizzo is a 10." It's just a performance—it means "I'm nice and I'm sweet and I'm not competing for unearned advantages."
352.0 Whenever a group of people votes itself unearned advantages at the expense of another group, those people eventually stop doing productive things, and then society collapses. This is what every city looks like right now.
367.0 It doesn't have to be this complicated. It doesn't need to be a 7-minute video. All you need to know is lying is bad. When people start to say things like "Lizzo is hot" and "I feel safe around bears," just go, "What's your ulterior motive?"
381.0 Nobody knows how dangerous men are compared to bears, but I do know that I would rather see another bear in the woods than another woman in human resources.
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Man or Bear?
Bear versus Man in the Woods
hoe_math breaks down the viral claim that women would rather run into a bear than a man in the woods. He looks at real stats on bear attacks versus male violence and exposes how fear of men gets blown out of proportion for social clout. The real issue isn’t safety—it’s about power, perception, and signaling.
order|x_px|y_px|Left_Right_Above_Below|text 1|163|692|R|Should he pack bear spray or man spray? 2|816|594|A|Plenty of women say they’d rather run into a bear. Sounds safer! 3|816|713|A|But why? In a city, women pass hundreds of strange men every day. 4|16|159|R|hoe_math runs the math: bears are at least 10x more dangerous. 5|399|148|R|So what’s the real reason? Saying “the man” might be a power move— to imply they are more dangerous than bears. 6|399|287|L|Another way to push the idea that men are the threat… and must be controlled! Sounds like "Human Resources" speak!order|x_px|y_px|Left_Right_Above_Below|text 1|278|90|R|Women throughout history have sought men who could "provide". 2|612|127|B|So men worked hard to support their wives and children. As a result, they typically earned more. 3|294|188|L|The Equal Pay advocates said this wasn't right. Why are men earning more? 4|296|318|R|The Equal Pay women demanded the government intervene and force equal pay. 5|515|449|R|Now many men can't be a superior provider. Thus, the date to "just meet for coffee." 6|229|439|L|Now many women are confused why they can no longer "find providers" and are "raising their standards."Enjoyed this article?
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