A Bear Or A Man? How A Viral TikTok Hypothetical Illuminates A Burgeoning Societal Rift Between Men And Women

What began as a minor online feud now epitomizes a divide that might shape not just contemporary dating culture but the social landscape of Western countries in the near future.

A few weeks ago, Screenshot HQ, a TikTok account focused on sparking new conversations through street interviews, prompted the viral conversation by asking a group of women, mostly between the ages of 20 to 26, a hypothetical question: would they rather encounter a man they didn't know or a bear in the forest. Out of the seven women interviewed for the piece, only one picked the man.

What followed was an avalanche of responses from women echoing the same concerns raised in the original video.

“Bear, one hundred percent of the time. A man would be too scary.”

“At least a bear would just straight up kill you, men are capable of far more insidious things.”

“No one’s gonna ask me if I led the bear on or give me a pamphlet on bear attack prevention tips."

These were just a few of the 60,000 replies women made to the original post, most concurring that a bear would be more preferable to encountering a man.

Sifting past these remarks, it becomes abundantly clear that the hypothetical the question rests on is asinine. Aside from generalising half of the world’s population as violent, degenerate monsters that can hardly control their unadulterated lust, insinuating that they will lash out at the first sign of female companionship, the trend seemed to portray bears, territorial animals capable of mauling a person to death in one fatal swipe, as harmless bundles of walking fur. Male violence may appear more dangerous, but perhaps that’s just simply a reflection of how frequently women interact with men compared to wild animals. When one considers how many men the average woman will likely meet in their lifespan, the chances of any of them inflicting long-lasting damage are remarkably low. For every ten thousand men a woman encounters, only a handful may attempt to abuse them, verbally or physically. The rate of bear-related attacks would undoubtedly be much higher.

While the viral phenomenon provided an interesting barometer on how women assess physical dangers, its real value stems from the broader implications it raises for the ever-evolving dynamic between the two genders in Western society, a dynamic which has grown tenser in recent years. The video itself is insignificant: it merely acts as a microcosm for a greater seismic shift taking place between the two genders, manifesting itself more prominently on social media websites frequented by a generation that is not only showing open hostility for the other gender but inhabiting completely separate ecosystems as well.

This battlefield isn’t just confined to the comment sections under a TikTok post, however. Like an unstoppable plague, it’s spreading wildly to other avenues of public life: dating, politics, etc.

A study examining the voting pattern in four selected countries published in the Financial Times in early May found that, while the voting pattern between the two genders remains statistically indistinguishable amongst the older generations, a noticeable deviation was taking place between younger voters: men aged between 18 and 24 were adopting right-wing positions while women of the same cohort were moving in the opposite direction, becoming ardently liberal on topics ranging from taxation to immigration to crime.

In the wake of the MeToo movement, young women have both become more progressive and more vocal about their views, often calling for more accountability of those in power. Such messages, rightly or wrongly, have been construed as a broader attack on masculinity, leading to many young men feeling threatened and reacting by taking the opposite position, a process called negative polarisation. This could explain how the divide on gender issues bleeds into other spaces. If some young men think "young women are woke, so, therefore, I am not", then they will instinctively take opposing positions on other topics to distance themselves in a bid to preserve their own masculinity.

Now, young men and women are increasingly inhabiting different online spaces. Since so much of daily life now plays out online, by segregating themselves into different parts of the internet, young men and women are being fed different content, driving a wedge further between them. Algorithmically walled gardens of TikTok, if you will. It’s partially how Andrew Tate and the rest of the manosphere were able to cultivate a devout following of fans. While his views on women may seem reprehensible to most people, cocooned in their echo chambers, emotionally vulnerable men become susceptible to his easy-to-digest subscriptions, using his confrontational worldview as a coping mechanism to deal with their increasing social isolation.

Another factor, one perhaps less comfortable to discuss for social progressives, is the innate characteristics of the sexes. Women are, on average, more socially naive and susceptible to, what I like to call, altruistic propaganda - the belief that every person should be protected and coddled, regardless of their prior actions. This was reflected in the Financial Times study: women are broadly in favour of rehabilitative justice, less stringent border policies, and policies supporting marginalised groups. This may also correlate with educational attainment, with more women attending and graduating from university than men than ever before.

Buoyed by social media algorithms that thrive on animosity, popular militant feminist accounts, some boasting hundreds of thousands of followers, have begun propagating misandrist hit pieces, radicalising a young generation of women to fear and despise men. From stoking paranoia around the ulterior motives of male colleagues simply engaging in polite small talk at the office to fabricating stories of violent ex-partners when there weren’t any, the turmoil stirred up by these accounts has reached a new, almost religious fanatical level. The young feminists have, rather ironically, cultivated this negative feedback loop themselves. Unsurprisingly, by making bold, generalised statements like ‘all men are rapists’ or ‘all men are culpable in disseminating rape culture,’ they have escalated the gender wars.

Unfortunately, for those of us intent on amicability reigning in our society, this dichotomy looks set to worsen before it gets better. We can only hope that conversations sparked over the internet remain in their online spheres and don’t bleed into everyday life.