It is apparently controversial

Tl;Dr: a meme went around asking women if they'd rather be stuck on an isolated island with a strange man or a strange bear. Most women chose the bear, largely due to the bear being more predictable and easier to deal with than a man inclined to do them harm, which, based on the experience of most women, is a whole lot of men.
Fragile men took this as an attack on all men everywhere and were offended at being "called a predator".
There's a pretty good thread in my comment history where I try to address the issue with one such fellow male and their response is about what you'd expect, confirming all the reasons why women chose the strange bear over the strange man
- Edit/preface: none of this is intended to diminish the very real and valid sense of fear that women may feel towards unknown/untrusted men. I am in no way trying to gatekeep other people’s emotions, nor saying women should “toughen up” or whatever. If my comment was construed as such, I apologize.
  It’s a bit of a silly premise, because I’m willing to bet the VAST majority of answerers have never been in close proximity to an actual, honest to god, “hmmm that meatbag looks tasty imma eat its face” bear.
  I have. It’ll bring you a clarity of mind and a knowledge of complete vulnerability that you can’t really find outside of other imminently life-threatening situations.
  Sure, random dude could be a psycho. But if there’s not much (or any) food on the island, the bear is definitely going to eat you at some point, and there’s nothing you can do about that.
  All that said, as a dude myself, I wish there were less shitty men out there. Why can’t we all just fucking respect other humans?
  
  Why can’t we all just fucking respect other humans?
  Exhibit A: The internet.
  Exhibit B: Social Media.
  I rest my case your honour. No further questions. I object.
  
  It’ll bring you a clarity of mind and a knowledge of complete vulnerability that you can’t really find outside of other imminently life-threatening situations.
  Thanks to that experience now you know how women feel very often, sometimes multiple times in the same day. It's something they learn to live with their whole lives.
  It's not hyperbole. They're not making light of the danger. When women say "I'd rather meet a bear" they really mean it. It's the same feeling, but it would happen extremely rarely instead of daily.
  
  I think the question here is, if the bear attacked - would people believe the woman that she was attacked? Would they blame her for what she was wearing?
  
  Here's what you're missing:
  A) it's much less about whether the bear is a bigger threat and much more about how fucking awful men must treat women for the average woman to go "hmmm... Maybe the bear, tbh?" The fact that it's even something women have to think about for more than a split second is a dramatic failure of our society. THAT is the point, and any discussion of "well you don't know about bears then..." is reply-guy shit that misses the entire point and simply serves to further solidify how blind most men are to what goes on in the day to day life of women.
  B) An aggressive bear is a known quantity. Is it a threat? Obviously. But it's a threat that we understand extremely well. Like, a quick Google search will teach you everything you need to know about what to do if you see a bear. But a strange, unknown man? Who the fuck knows. They might seem perfectly pleasant and reasonable, act like your friend, and then flip the fuck out when the woman refuses to sleep with him that night in return for all that manly protection he provided during the day or whatever. THAT is why women pick the bear: a known problem is often preferable to uncertainty that could lead to being extremely vulnerable against a really smart attacker.
  Remember, the question wasn't "would you rather be in a locked room with a bear or a man?" It was "would you rather be stuck on an island with a strange bear or a strange man?"
  And to your final question, why can't we just respect other humans? Great fucking question, but the misogynists should be the ones facing that inquiry, not the people on the internet trying to point you towards them. It may be more uncomfortable and even dangerous to confront them, but don't take the easy way out by asking victims and their allies to be "nicer" instead
  
  a bear will kill you, perhaps horribly.
  a bear will not kidnap you, rape you, and keep you in a cage.
  I'm frankly amazed I have to keep explaining the order of magnitude difference in the horror of wildlife vs. horrible humans.
  
  That whole thing is not to be taken literally and if you do you are missing the point by a mile.
  
  I'm pretty sure that almost none of the men who were offended have spent time in an enclosed area with an angry human who is a foot taller and 100 pounds heavier than they are.
- While I don't want to diminish the problems of the interactions between men and women in our society, I think there's a point that's not been discussed here yet: what does STRANGE bear entail? Is it sick? Is it like an eldritch horror bear? Does it just behave weirdly sometimes? Does it just wear a hat?
  
  Dr. Strange Bear
  I'll leave it up to you whether that's Marvel's Dr. Strange or a twist on Dr. Srange Love
  
  For someone raised in a city, all bears are strange. Whereas, a man has to have some visible deviation from normal behaviour like a red armband or an anime porn hoodie in order to be strange.
  
  It's to make sure you don't assume they mean the familiar bear from down the street
  
  It travels around with a little pal named Boo Boo, and steals pick-a-nick baskets.
- I find this concerning.
  That gender disputes reached such an explosive level, that women say they'd rather a bear join them than a man and that man get super upset over this. There's a little truth in everything. Imagine trying your hardest as a man and still being told ppl prefer a wild animal over you. Imagine knowing as a woman you can't trust men to the point where you'd prefer a wild and dangerous animal keep you company. And also imagine hating another gender with such a deep passion that a meme becomes a toxic war of insult and discrediting.
  I don't like this timeline, I want a do-over.
  
  I think you hit on something that is a pretty big part of the problem: Men taking it personally. As far as I know, no specific man is mentioned, but a lot seem to insert themselves into the situation.
  I try to do my best in life to be a good person, to be a good man, but I completely get why a woman would be worried about being in the middle of nowhere with a strange man, even if that man was me, because they don't know what that person is capable of.
  
  I'd rather a strange bear than a strange women.
- Non-misandry/-sexism version:
  A meme was made posing the humorous rhetoric of whether sex A would rather be stuck on an island with sex B or a bear. No distinction was made about the character of the sex B persona or the bear persona, it was left as a fill-in-the-blank for those who respond to rhetoric.
  Sex B largely understood this to be stereotyping and hate speech directed towards them at large without any distinction about whom the rhetoric was implying. Audience was then divided between those who recognize equality and sexism versus those who believe either only apply to marginalized groups
  with love, from an agender
- Don't forget it's literally a very slight rewording of a common racist one, but that's different. For reasons. "Rather run into a black man or a bear (or wolf, or other dangerous animal)" has been asked by racists for years.
  
  Punching up and punching down are extremely different and your comparison is deeply disingenuous.
  Black men don't hold positions of power in society simply by being black. Black men don't get off with nothing but a slap on the wrist for serial sexual assault because "we don't want to ruin the promising life he has ahead of him".
  Knock it off with the false equivalence.
- So youve never seen a bear in the woods? Hint: if you see a bear, its probably brown, and you're in a heap of trouble. Best hope you're in a car or something like that. They will eat you alive if they can get at you.
  
  Gods, it's like some people never passed 10th grade English. Sometimes the important part of the text isn't the literal meaning. There's like metaphor and hyperbole and shit.
  
  Round 12 people, all aboard.
  
  Depends on where you live... Northeast us most likely a black bear, as long as its not a mother protecting its cubs make some noise and it will leave you alone. If your in the artic, how the hell are you in woods but ignoring that's and it's likely a polar bear and you are dead.
- The whole point of it is to show that most women are irrationally afraid of men. So many immediately assume the bear is somehow good and the man is somehow evil when the stats for reality show the complete opposite.
  Edit: (Yikes, I feel sorry for all of you. Not sure if it’s white knights, too much death scrolling on the internet, or the weird woke Lemmy culture.)
  
  The bear would not call women irrational.
  (The best part of this meme is that the people in question supply the rebukes themselves.)
  
  Good job telling on yourself! This is my favorite part of the meme.
  You don't have to be a predator to enable and protect predators.
  Try listening to women next time instead of being, you know, exactly the thing they're talking about 👍
  
  They are probably pretty rational about men. I think they like bears a bit too much. Bears are the scariest thing on earth. 2/7ths of our continents are named as bear warnings.
  
  No, the point was to who that women so frequently suffer from abuse from one or more men in their lives that they would rather pick a wild ainmal.

Holy shit you laid the bait brilliantly cause look at all the dipshits in this comment section. Fuckin dumpster fire.

It was perfectly crafted ragebait. Your feedback will be used to improve future psyops.
- No but you need to understand, not all men are bears or something

People who don't understand why she would pick the bear don't deserve bears.
- As a dude i prefer a bear.. if I can't choose my wife
  
  Same, this comment section is an amazing collection of why

Many men would prefer to be a momma bear's cub. That sort of protection and care is one of the most valuable treasures out there.

have we finally full circled to the gay men aspect of bears?
Or are we still waiting on that?
- Of course women want to be lost in a forest with a fabulous hairy gay man
  
  i can't think of someone who wouldn't to be honest. Would be a rather amusing time.
  
  he just don't care to be there with her basic ass

I have a job that I go to residential homes to fix computers. 100% would rather be there alone with a 1%er than a women.
My personal experience tells me that it's safer whether statistically it is or not.
- Got falsely accused of sexual assault a while back after my patient didn't like her workers compensation case outcome. Ruined how I felt my job and I quit the following year. Every female patient felt like a minefield after that.
  
  I hope the accusations didn't lead to anything. Sad that people on here seemingly disregard personal experience, despite no generalizations being made, and you only sharing you feelings.

OP's username got smushed with the community when I read it and thought this was the LinuxMemes community...
I spent way too long trying to figure out what Linux terminology related to "women bears" before reading the comments and realizing this didn't have anything to do with Linux, lol. I was searching for famous bears named Wayland for a bit there.

In this post: 0 comments with 100% up-vote rating, no matter what you say.
- Sorry, I had to do this!

Hello fellow bear, I don't know why we're talking about women either. Since we're both fellow confused bears can you please direct me to the nearest top secret bear club, where we bears meet to eat berries and drink fermented honey while laughing at beaver related memes?

Ugh... It is so stupid.
Women are much more likely to be physically hurt by a male partner than a (totally safe 🙄) bear because (I know, shocker) women spend a lot more time around male partners than bears.
- The meme said "strange man" not "male partner".

No-one is talking about "women bears". There are people talking about women and bears for sure, though.
- At least one person was talking about the sexy waddle of the female bear.
  
  Shake that bear!

Because a fat milf with body hair is lovely

It's at the end of the video
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZPRKemJRs/
Edit: Downvote it all you want, but that's the fucking source.
- I'm pretty sure the downvotes are just men who don't know any better (or less likely, users who passively despise tiktok). It wasn't inflammatory or offensive, and it's a coherent and brief video. Thanks for sharing.

I didn't follow any of this, it was forced down my throat :
Random Twitter woman says she'd rather be with a bear than a man while in the woods.
Some men gets angry that she'd rather be with a dengerous wild beast rather than a man.
the Woman double down. Other women agree with her.
it becomes a meme. Mostly by men making fun of how it would end if she really meets a bear or making jokes about how even the bear wouldn't want to be near her.
- I don't want to choose the dangerous wild beast, I want to choose the bear. /j

I rate this meme 0.5/10.
The different fonts unironically and questionable punchline all add up to make this score.
- I rate your rating a 4/10
  
  It’s been rated a 5/23 so far and I think that’s even a little high for what’s basically a shitpost by me.