Critical Thinking #9
“Would you rather be stuck in the woods with a man or a bear?”
You might recognize this hypothetical from TikTok – specifically, a street interview by media company SCREENSHOT. Most of the interviewees, all women, chose “the bear.”
Naturally, this led to a series of calm and measured discussions about feminism and gender equality in modern society.
In actuality, hordes of adult males aired their displeasure with the results – many made anime memes, TikTok essays about why chads like themselves would be far better than a bloodthirsty bear, and even generated A.I. videos of a horrifying melting bear called “Slippery Skin” that preys on women who choose the bear.
Perhaps such behaviour is why some women would rather deal with 200 kilos of furry muscle (an animal that they could avoid antagonising entirely).
It didn’t matter that this simple scenario gave no additional choices – the interviewees are given no info about the kind of man they'd face, no details about the forest they’re stuck in or whether there might be a chance of encountering other human passerbys. Neither did it matter that some women have legitimate reasons for their choice – the World Health Organization found that 1 in 3 women worldwide have been “subjected to either physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence or non-partner sexual violence in their lifetime.”
Or, put it more bluntly, as some female TikTok commenters wrote: “worst case scenario, a bear would just kill me.” The implication being that when faced with an unknown person, who has sentience unlike the bear, there may be fates worse than death.
The angry men were also quick to weaponize the negative experiences that men have faced from women, quickly presenting the question “would you rather share your feelings with a woman or a tree”. Yet, in other scenarios, some of these same men mock other males as ‘betas’ or ‘simps’ for being emotionally open and/or not following the conventional definition of masculinity.
So, where is the critical thinking here?
Why is this rapidly growing number of men, young and old, so quick to anger and gleefully tear down others unlike them? How can they fantasize about hanging men who assaulted their own daughters or wives, yet balk at the responses to this hypothetical? Where is the empathy?
Every man has a mother, sister, grandmother, aunt, wife, daughter, and/or female friend. As per the WHO’s findings, some of them will likely face that terrible reality.
But remember – just because those women chose the bear over a random man because of traumatising experiences, it doesn’t mean that they don’t have men that they love and trust. Perhaps, you could be the man that women in your life would choose over a bear.
Thus, if you’re having conflicted feelings over this viral question, there is only one question, rooted in #CriticalThinking, that you should ask:
"What kind of man do I want to be?"
#criticalthinkingacademy
https://lnkd.in/giftHrEX
