Anna Wiest
The Daily Item, Sunbury, Pa.
(TNS)
For several weeks, videos asking women if they would rather be stuck in the woods with a bear or a man have gone viral on social media.
Though it may seem a simple questions at first glance, the dilemma has received a lot of attention online with women sharing their own, tragic stories in the comments.
The question posed in the video “is a very clever way of illustrating a practical fact of most women’s lives,” said Erica Delsandro, associate professor of Women and Gender Studies at Bucknell University. “Men are the most dangerous predator to women. It’s a sad, but brutal reality.”
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Delsandro said the audience for the video includes viewers who are “validated” about feeling unsafe being alone in a strange man’s presence; those who consider the premise of men being more dangerous than a wild animal as “ridiculous” and others who don’t think about gender-based violence.
A particularly thought-provoking video for Mae-Ling Kranz, CEO of Transitions of PA, was one in which a woman asked her husband whether he would choose a bear or man for their daughter. “I watched him really struggle with the best option,” Kranz said.
Montour County Commissioner, and father of two daughters, Trevor Finn said he would have to “trust the human element” if he were to make the choice for his own daughters.
“Being in county government for so long, we see the side of people that is not so good. The amount of people who do that is really minute, but those that do … it’s horrible,” Finn said. “It may be naive of me, but I have to trust the human element that a child would be safer with another human than with a wild animal.”
Kranz said the issue becomes one of reality in her mind where she has to consider the statistics.
“Knowing, statistically speaking, how likely it is for a woman to be sexually harassed, it’s scary,” Kranz said. “People, as humans, know that a bear is not going to sexually assault you.”
The cultural doubt that continues to surround women coming forward following something like sexual assault is another aspect to consider, Kranz added.
“Knowing our culture still struggles to accept or believe individuals who are reporting that crime, I think teenage girls or even any woman knows that our culture has not made that shift where we believe women,” she said. “If it’s a bear, either you tell the story that it was scary but the bear left you alone or if you were chased and attacked the bear and are physically hurt, people will believe you.”
Kranz said she read most women will choose the bear after contemplating their options.
“I think if you are asking someone quickly and they’re not giving it thought, the reactive response might be there is an automatic knowledge that wild animals can be dangerous,” she said. “But when you start to delve into it, it becomes more complicated than that base question.”
The spring term has ended but Delsandro said if classes were in session the video would be a topic in her classroom and hopes it spurs critical thinking among men and an understanding of why the question of man versus bear has garnered so much response.
“Even if someone thinks it’s absurd, it hit a nerve,” she said.
The question poses an opportunity for change, Kranz said, and could be used to shift the conversation to what we could be teaching young boys about the culture of violence.
“As humans, we are taught preventative measures when it comes to wild animals,” Kranz said. “On the other side, we really put the expectation on women to create protective factors for themselves — ‘don’t leave drinks unattended,’ ‘don’t wear certain clothing,’ — where it really should be a conversation with men to say ‘what are you doing to change this perception or create safer situations?'”
Montour County Sheriff William McKenna said he plans to prepare his one-year-old daughter to defend herself and wants her to be comfortable to handle things on her own if she were ever in a position where she was threatened.
The Daily Item reporter Marcia Moore contributed to this report.
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