Comment on ‘Manfluencers’ are filming themselves trying to pick up women using smart glasses

• MagicShel@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

  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?

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  • NOT_RICK@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    Are there non human women?

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    • Imgonnatrythis@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      See Pam Bondi.

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      • BreadstickNinja@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Every other genus: “We don’t want her either.”

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      • Wildmimic@anarchist.nexus ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        I would have given Kristi Noem as an example.

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  • XeroxCool@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    as a human woman, which represents a greater imminent threat?

    No. This is NOT the takeaway. The bear is clearly the statistically-imminent threat (let’s say a brown bear to ensure it’s hostile and deadly). The point is that you know exactly what the bear will try to do: kill you. You don’t have to greet it, you don’t have to worry about it’s intentions, you don’t have to worry that your social interaction may push the bear over the edge, you don’t have to worry about hurting it’s feelings and risk making it a threat, you don’t have to worry about sending mixed signals, you don’t have to worry about your clothing choice, and you certainly, certainly don’t have to worry about it raping you without witnesses. It simply is a violent threat. You use bear spray and hope you can run far enough, fast enough. You don’t get to make that immediate reaction to a man, between compassion for the innocent, societal pressure to not ostracize men, and legal repercussions if you get it wrong.

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  • angrystego@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    It’s not really a thought experiment, though. It’s a hyperbole, a funny way to say women are afraid of the toxic masculinity types.

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  • Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    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.

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    • MagicShel@lemmy.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      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?

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      • atomicorange@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        I would take “worse than a panda” as a compliment.

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      • totally_human_emdash_user@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Oh, wow, that is actually a really good point!

        Me bringing polar bears into the thought experiment was intended as a (really stupid) joke, but I had nonetheless taking seriously that technically it should matter what kind of bear we are talking about. You’ve demolished that angle with your comment, though!

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      • poopkins@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        It’s ironic we’re dissecting which kind of bear is dangerous, while implicitly accepting the premise that all men are dangerous.

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    • atomicorange@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      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.

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    • HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      It presumes black bear. You’re over thinking it.

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      • ToTheGraveMyLove@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Then say a black bear. It presumes nothing.

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  • totally_human_emdash_user@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    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!)

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    • forrgott@lemmy.sdf.org ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Wow are you entirely missing the point.

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      • totally_human_emdash_user@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        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.

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      • Randomgal@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Yeah bro. It’s obviously a grizzly because polar bears are going extinct soon.

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    • Kellenved@sh.itjust.works ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      Polar bears do not live in the woods

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      • NOT_RICK@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Well then where the fuck do they shit?!?

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      • totally_human_emdash_user@piefed.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        I want to believe!

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  • poopkins@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

    I’ve always thought this is such a generalist scenario, meant to deliberately portray all men as dangerous and categorically make them look bad. Imagine we swapped out “men” for another group of people.

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    • petrol_sniff_king@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      meant to deliberately portray all men as dangerous

      If this were true, wouldn’t it be dead simple for women to just pick the man? It’s interesting that a lot don’t, right?

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      • poopkins@lemmy.world ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Swap the word “man” for another group of people based on generic traits and continue your sweeping generalizations.

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      • HugeNerd@lemmy.ca ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

        Because most people have a Disneyfied idea of what animals do. Most people think a bear in the woods wears a red t-shirt and carries around a honeypot.

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    • ParlimentOfDoom@piefed.zip ⁨2⁩ ⁨weeks⁩ ago

      If you actually listened to the reasoning that women gave (crazy, right?), they were very clear that with a bear, you know where you stand, but with men, you can’t tell right away whether they’re a danger or pretending to be nice only to be harmful later on.

      Any men who get offended by this fact is part of the problem.

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