Tiktok debate
Women are asked whether they would rather be alone with a bear or a man. Many say: bear
The brown bear is the largest land-living predator in Europe
© Freder/Getty Images
Alone in the forest: Would you rather meet a man or a bear? This hypothetical question is trending on TikTok. It sounds grotesque, but it has sparked a huge debate. Why?
Imagine: you are a woman walking alone through the forest – would you rather meet a bear or a man? This question is currently going viral on TikTok. And many users answer: bear. Men are much more dangerous.
For many people, this sounds like an absurd question at first. Who would choose this predator over a human? Apparently many Women.
What happened?
It all started with a street survey in London. In April, the pop culture account “Screenshot HQ” posted Video, in which eight women were asked the “Man or Bear” question: “Would you rather be stuck in a forest with a man or a bear?” Some women giggled, others hesitated for a moment. In the end only one woman said: man. Seven women said: Bear.
Almost 17 million people have now watched the video. Over two million likes, over 70,000 comments. A debate broke out. Many women responded with their own Tiktok videos about how they would answer the “Man or Bear” question.
Allusions to the #MeToo debate
The women’s comments relate to typical reactions to rape allegations. There are allusions to the #MeToo debate. Users write, for example:
“No one would ask what clothes I was wearing bearattack.”
“A bear sees me as a threat – a man sees me as an opportunity.”
“If I pretended to be asleep, the bear wouldn’t try to have sex with me.”
“A bear wouldn’t film it and send the video to all his friends.”
“No one would say afterward that I enjoyed the bear attack.”
“If a bear had attacked me, at least people would believe me.”
It’s about the question of guilt, boundaries and credibility. The comments are aimed at relativizing accusations in the #MeToo debate: That’s what she wanted – or why was the woman wearing such a short skirt? She must have found it cool – or why didn’t she defend herself more blatantly!? Classic perpetrator-victim reversal.
The Tiktok debate
And here we get to the core of the “Man or Bear” question: For many users, it’s not about a chatty animal-human comparison, but rather about constant violence against women. You are concerned about the fear of men.
To clarify this feeling, some users added the question online. She is now addressing herself Men: If it were your daughter, would you rather leave her alone in the forest with another man or a bear? Many men think the “Man or Bear” question is a joke. One user writes: “Is this satire or stupidity?” Another man writes: “Are they serious?” These questions reveal the core of the conflict: the disproportion between men’s perceived and actual potential for violence.
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Statistics show how often violence against women occurs. “More than 14 women become victims of intimate partner violence every hour,” said Federal Family Minister Lisa Paus last year. You can read this even more precisely in the figures from the Federal Criminal Police Office for 2022, in Situation report domestic violence. It says: 71.1 percent of the victims of domestic violence were women, 76.3 percent of the perpetrators were men. Almost every day a partner or ex-partner tries to kill a woman. No wonder women feel far less confident than men assume. Women don’t even have to go into the forest.