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this post was submitted on 09 Feb 2026
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If you are a woman alone in the woods, would you rather come across an unknown man, or a bear? It's a thought experiment. As a human woman, which represents a greater immanent threat?
Are there non human women?
See Pam Bondi.
I would have given Kristi Noem as an example. Fun fact: her full name is Kristi Lynn Arnold Noem
It's a stupid thought experiment, though, because I think that woman who chose the bear have not seriously considered the possibility that it might be a polar bear!
(Like, if it's a regular bear then you are probably fine, but you have to think about the worst case scenario here!)
Wow are you entirely missing the point.
All I am saying is that if polar bears were wandering around the forests then people might have responded differently.
But having said that, arguably the thought experiment is not meant to be taken too literally in the first place. It is really more like meme mean to be shared and responded to than a serious scientific assessment of the actual risk involved in running across a man versus a bear, especially since the risk posed by the bear depends on the region and what species live there.
But of course, all of this is besides the point, because what is important about the thought experiment is not that so many women choose the bear by that it expresses a collective sentiment of general severe distrust towards men, which came about because enough men have regularly abused their position of strength and power—which, unlike assessments of the relative risk of men versus bears, is definitely backed up by statistics—to impose themselves physically on women, and this is a big societal problem regardless of whether it actually literally makes more sense to prefer running into a bear over a man in the woods.
And just to be clear, I am not criticizing the thought experiment so much as that I love the image of polar bears wandering around in the woods.
Yeah bro. It's obviously a grizzly because polar bears are going extinct soon.
My point is that global warming is going to drive them down south, and I don't think that any of us are prepared for this.
I for one am trying to do my part by correcting one thought experiment at a time!
You didn't correct it though. You added a random element to an existing thought experiment based on the way the world is as we currently know it. That's like "correcting" the trolley problem by saying "but what if aliens appeared with a second switch that saved everyone!?"
Polar bears do not live in the woods
Well then where the fuck do they shit?!?
I think those are the ones that shit on the pope?
Ah so the bears are catholic
They rip off your head and shit down your neck.
The question always struck me as dumb. Because it doesn't make any attempt to clarify what geographic region this question takes place.
I don't care what you're afraid of a man doing, a polar bear is ALWAYS the worse choice.
But not all bears are as aggressive as polar bears. Some bears will run away from you if you chase them. Some bears will end you if you chase them.
Of coarse you can't determine how dangerous a man is based on region. But you can likely determine which regions have dangerous bears.
Without wading into all the technicalities, could we perhaps agree that if you have to say, "what kind of bear tho'," that we are already in troubling territory?
Do polar bears occupy habitat that could realistically be called “the woods”?
I always assumed this question was referring to a brown bear - black bears are pussies and polar bears are instadeath. Pandas are adorable, obviously better than meeting a man. Other species are unlikely for most english speaking people to meet in the woods. Brown bears are the only species that make this question interesting.
Where I'm from, you're just as likely to get a polar bear as a black or brown bear in the woods. So it's all unrealistic.
You forgot the Dropbears. Want to reassess relative threat levels of the various species of alpha predator?
A polar bear in the woods? They're an aquatic mammal that lives on sea ice... Where are you from?
Australia mate. We have no black bears and no polar bears.
Derp. Now I get it. In my defence, I'm also an Aussie so understandably thick. But I live in the Arctic now, where we've got all three bears. But the scary white ones stay away from the woods.
Stay safe, mate
It presumes black bear. You're over thinking it.