this post was submitted on 15 Apr 2025
4 points (64.3% liked)

Ask Men

1515 readers
1 users here now

A community to ask men questions and discuss any and all issues relating to them.

Unlocking Perspectives, Advice, and Empowerment for Men Everywhere.

Rules

Follow the rules of lemmy.world, which can be found here.

Additionally:

  1. Be respectful and inclusive.
  2. No harassment, hate speech, or trolling.
  3. Engage in constructive discussions.
  4. Share relevant content.
  5. Follow guidelines and moderators' instructions.
  6. Use appropriate language and tone.
  7. Report violations.
  8. Foster a continuous learning environment.

Notes

P.S, Would you like to help with moderating AskMen? Send a PM to the top mod.

founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
[email protected]
[email protected]
4
What would be the male equivalent to the whole "bear or strange man in the woods" question that did the rounds with women awhile back? (lemmy.zip)
submitted 2 weeks ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
9 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

I have heard people say "would you rather share your emotions with a woman you know or a tree in the woods", but that doesn't really feel like it's an equal question in my head. I am curious if anyone has a better example of the "mens" version of that question.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] [email protected] 3 points 2 weeks ago

I feel like you've locked in too much on the gender binary here and are maybe missing the point of the "would you rather" to some extent. It isn't really about the individual answers to the question (though in aggregate they are also telling.)

The premise revealed by the question itself is that the statistical danger of encountering a random bear in the woods is comparable to the danger of encountering a random man alone on the street. The aggregate answer just feeds into this premise: many woman would take their chances with the bear. This is a surprising outcome, and is meant to make ~~people~~ mainly men question why they feel surprised by this result. To self-analyze and maybe improve on that is the goal.

So for the "opposite scenario" you're asking if there's some surprising situation where an "average" man would prefer to be in than encountering a random woman. I have a strong feeling that due to the general balance of power in society, the answers to this question will tend to still be empowering of men and dismissive of women. I think the obvious joke here is something like "who'd you rather find at home after staying out too late drinking: your wife or a feral racoon?"

The sharing emotions one you use is better but still kind of in the same genre: it isn't pointing out some truth about women, but making a different sweeping critique of men. I thought of "which would you rather: therapy or fight club" but that's the same joke, and is still focused on critiquing men.

I'm having real trouble thinking of a broad problem with (USA specifically) women that affects men and is compatible with this joke format.