Men vs Bear: Why women will always choose the bear

A few months ago, a question circulated on the internet, ‘’Would you rather be trapped in the woods with a man or a bear?’’ Surprisingly, many people chose the bear over the man. However, this hypothetical question sheds light on a more serious issue in our society, one that makes the choice of a bear more understandable.

Men are called the counterpart of women, they complete each other. Their existence is equally needed in this world. On the contrary, a bear is an apex predator, a beast, capable of eating one alive with its sharp teeth and claws without hesitating even once. So why do women prefer the company of a predator over a man?

When asked for an explanation, most of them said, a bear will attack you, when the animal considers you a threat to its territory or its cubs. Women mostly choose the bear because a bear will not see a woman alone and consider harassing or attacking her for rejecting its company, it won’t evaluate her clothing to see if she deserves to be attacked, and it's not likely to stalk her or violate her without any reason. In most cases, it will want to be left alone.

A man will attack a woman simply because they ‘’want to’’ or they ‘’can’’. Even fathers chose their daughters to be left alone with a bear in the woods rather than an unknown man, though nearly all of them felt awful to leave their little angels with either of them.

When left in the woods with a bear, in the best-case scenario, it would leave you alone and won’t consider you a threat. Otherwise, it can eat you alive. But when left with an unknown man, he might help you survive in the woods, but in the worst-case scenario, many things can go wrong, and things that will make you think that even death would be more peaceful.

There is a higher chance of men attacking women than a bear. According to the National Park Service, an agency of the United States, there are almost 1 in 2.1 million chances of being attacked by a bear. On the other hand, we daily hear news of women being harassed, killed, raped, and abused gruesomely by men. We can ask any woman about it, could be a mother, daughter, sister, friend, or colleague, and then we will realise how often a woman is sexually harassed or abused by a man.

Many people felt that the question was total gibberish and pointless, there is no way you are comparing a man with a wild beast like a bear. Unless there have been situations where a man has proved himself crueler than an animal, which is not rare at all. They say 'not all men’. But how would you know which man when it's always men?

Recently, on 9 August, Moumita Debnath (31), a postgraduate trainee doctor, was gang raped and killed after working 36 hours shift, in her working place (RG Kar College and Hospital, Kolkata) which was supposed to be her safe place. The eyes that used to have hope and used to dream of being a doctor were bleeding and filled with shattered glass. Body parts were broken beyond repair. Signs of cruelty were all over her body, and the brutality of the case sent shockwaves across the nation. She saved everyone, but who saved her?

Furuta Junko (18 January 1971 – 4 January 1989) was a 17-year-old Japanese high school girl, who was abducted, raped, tortured, and murdered by four male teenagers, Hiroshi Miyano (18), Jo Ogura (17), Shinji Minato (16), and Yasushi Watanabe (17). After 44 days of living in hell, those 4 criminals decided to burn her and dispose of her body inside a concrete-filled drum. The scary and frustrating thing is murderers of Junko Furuta, a girl who could have lived a normal happy life if had been not for those animals, are now free and living their lives independently.

In 2008, Elisabeth Fritzle from Austria, escaped from her house after being held captive, abused, and raped by her father, Josef Fritzle. She even gave birth to 7 children in the cellar of the house, where she was kept captive.

Sohagi Jahan Tonu, a student of Cumilla Victoria Government College, Bangladesh, was raped and murdered on 20 March, 2016. Even after 8 years, it has been not revealed who was involved in this case, and to this day justice has not been served to her and her family.

These were some examples of cruelty caused by men, there are more horrendous things happening to women all over the world, some of their stories never reached us, and some of them faded away, never getting justice. Can we do nothing about it other than sigh, when in their place it could’ve easily been us?

Those who are involved with such heinous deeds are neither men nor women, they cannot be even considered as human, they can only be classified as ‘’predators’’, they are simply animals without any conscience of what’s wrong and right. In many cases, they are even worse than animals. We all hope to see a world where justice will be served to everyone, eyes will no longer remain blinded, and voice will be raised so high that it will echo in the ears of perpetrators before even thinking of any crime.

The answer to the absurd hypothetical ‘’Man Vs Bear’’ question depends on each person’s experience with men. If you have grown up watching abusive, horrible men then it would feel better to choose a bear rather than taking a chance with an unknown man, and if you have seen mostly kind men, you would without any doubt choose a man. Instead of blaming women for choosing the bear, be their reason to choose men. Change their experience and the answer would change inevitably.

* Nufaiysa M Rahman is an 11th grader of Dhaka City College, nufaiysa.m.rahman@gmail.com