"Man or bear" (also called "man vs. bear") is a viral social media debate in which women consider whether they would prefer to be alone in the woods with a man or a bear. The meme originates from a TikTok video by Screenshot HQ posted in April 2024. The prominence of responses choosing the bear has been attributed to the widespread occurrence of

violence against women Violence against women (VAW), also known as gender-based violence (GBV) or sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV), violent, violence primarily committed by Man, men or boys against woman, women or girls. Such violence is often considered hat ...

Background

The debate originated from a

TikTok TikTok, known in mainland China and Hong Kong as Douyin (), is a social media and Short-form content, short-form online video platform owned by Chinese Internet company ByteDance. It hosts user-submitted videos, which may range in duration f ...

video published by Screenshot HQ in April 2024 which interviewed eight women on the question, with seven out of them picking the bear. The post went viral and gained over 16 million views in two months.

Response

Online reception

The online reception to the Screenshot HQ video was divided. Most women responded to the debate saying they would also choose the bear. One of the main reasons they chose this answer was that men are able to commit

sexual violence Sexual violence is any harmful or unwanted Human sexual activity, sexual act, an attempt to obtain a sexual act through violence or coercion, or an act directed against a person's sexuality without their consent, by any individual regardless of ...

against women. Other popular arguments included that bears are unable to commit acts worse than murder, that they are more predictable, and that they treat women as people. When posed the same question, many men also chose the bear. Many men also negatively responded to the common choice of the bear among women. Later in July, the influencer Amanda Wylie shared a video to TikTok about her encounter with a bear in the woods. She compared it to the "man or bear" debate, saying she would still "choose the bear".

Commentary from journalists

Some journalists compared the response of women sharing their assault experiences online with the #MeToo movement. Femi Oluwole of ''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

'' argued that the debate showed that men need to be more informed about the dangers women face in society. Journalists highlighted various murder cases such as those of Grace Millane and Junko Furuta. Rachel Ulatowski of the feminist magazine ''The Mary Sue'' called men's backlash to women picking the bear "bizarre" and "laughable" due to weak arguments with misused statistics and claims of

misandry Misandry () is the hatred of or prejudice against men or boys. Earliest recorded use: 1885. "No man whom she cared for had ever proposed to marry her. She could not account for it, and it was a growing source of bitterness, of misogyny as wel ...

. Some journalists compared it to the #NotAllMen movement. Clarissa-Jan Lim of

MSNBC MSNBC is an American cable news channel owned by the NBCUniversal News Group division of NBCUniversal, a subsidiary of Comcast. Launched on July 15, 1996, and headquartered at 30 Rockefeller Plaza in Manhattan, the channel primarily broadcasts r ...

argued that discussion focusing on the actual hostility of bears misses the point, which she said was the "dangers that women experience in world" with men. The

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Gen ...

states that one in three women face sexual or physical violence in their lifetime. In contrast, there have been 664

bear attack A bear attack is an attack by a bear on another animal, although it usually refers to a bear attacking a human or domestic pet. Bear attacks are of particular concern for those who are in bear habitats. They can be fatal and often hikers, camper ...

s over fifteen years with most being non-fatal, which means bear attacks are far less common. Bear expert Jean-Jacques Camarra says that bears have evolved to fear humans, and would therefore most likely run away.

Wilfred Reilly Wilfred Reilly is an American political scientist. He is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Kentucky State University. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Southern Illinois University and a J.D. from the University of Illino ...

of the ''

National Review ''National Review'' is an American conservative editorial magazine, focusing on news and commentary pieces on political, social, and cultural affairs. The magazine was founded by William F. Buckley Jr. in 1955. Its editor-in-chief is Rich L ...

'' criticized the bear-favoring statistics people shared as an example of the

base rate fallacy The base rate fallacy, also called base rate neglect or base rate bias, is a type of fallacy in which people tend to ignore the base rate (e.g., general prevalence) in favor of the individuating information (i.e., information pertaining only to a ...

that he stated was widespread in modern American politics.

Megan McArdle Megan McArdle (born January 29, 1973) is an American columnist and blogger based in Washington, D.C. She writes for ''The Washington Post'', mostly about economics, finance, and government policy. McArdle began her writing career with a blog, " ...

of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'', locally known as ''The'' ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'' or ''WP'', is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C., the national capital. It is the most widely circulated newspaper in the Washington m ...

'' argued that those statistics were a

confusion of the inverse Confusion of the inverse, also called the conditional probability fallacy or the inverse fallacy, is a logical fallacy whereupon a conditional probability is equated with its inverse; that is, given two events ''A'' and ''B'', the probability of ...

fallacy that "reinforce harmful stereotypes" of women being "irrational, neurotic and bad at math". Kayleigh Donaldson of ''

Paste Paste is a term for any very thick viscous fluid. It may refer to: Science and technology * Adhesive or paste ** Wallpaper paste ** Wheatpaste, a liquid adhesive made from vegetable starch and water * Paste (rheology), a substance that behaves as ...

'' associated the novel ''

Bear Bears are carnivoran mammals of the family (biology), family Ursidae (). They are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans. Although only eight species of bears are extant, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats ...

'' (1976) by Marian Engel with the debate. According to Tamlyn Avery of ''

The Conversation ''The Conversation'' is a 1974 American neo-noir mystery thriller film written, produced, and directed by Francis Ford Coppola. It stars Gene Hackman as a surveillance expert who faces a moral dilemma when his recordings reveal a potential ...

'',

Julia Phillips Julia Phillips (née Miller; April 7, 1944 – January 1, 2002) was an American film producer and author. She co-produced with her husband Michael (and others) three prominent films of the 1970s—''The Sting'', ''Taxi Driver'', and ''Close En ...

's 2024 book ''Bear'' alludes to the debate during a scene with the main character Sam at a family funeral.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Man or bear 2024 controversies Violence against women Sexual abuse Bears in popular culture TikTok trends Internet memes introduced in 2024 Thought experiments

Background

Response

Online reception

Commentary from journalists

See also

References