The “man or bear” TikTok argument gained traction after the pop culture account Screenshot HQ posted a video in April asking eight women if they’d rather be stuck in a forest with a man or a bear. Seven women chose “bear,” and one chose “man.”

Some women explained that they would choose the bear since they didn’t know the man. One user said, “It’s not my boyfriend, it’s not my father, it’s not my cousin,” adding that being alone with an “unpredictable, strange man is more frightening than being alone with a predictable wild animal,” which speaks volumes.

UWC student Chantelle (24) said, “I know a bear’s intentions, but I don’t know what a man’s intentions are at any given time. I will always choose the bear.”

For many women, the answer is straightforward. A man is perceived as a threat. I don’t believe there is a woman alive who wouldn’t be terrified in the woods seeing a man standing there. The thought alone is enough to send me off the rails, and I’m not even joking. Men are the scariest and most unpredictable beings to walk this earth—yes, more terrifying than bears.

With all the graphic news circulating about Sean “Diddy” Combs, I think the answer shouldn’t even be up for debate. Suppose you haven’t seen the Diddy news over the last couple of months; in that case, there’s been a string of allegations against Combs, including sexual harassment, rape, gang rape, non-consensual pornography, and sexual trafficking by his ex-girlfriend Cassandra Ventura (Cassie) and many others in his circle. These acts had been going on for years. A video surfaced from 2016 showing Diddy physically assaulting Cassie at a hotel.

After the video surfaced, Diddy has positioned himself as a “victim” of cancel culture in response to some of the allegations. Come on—you’ve ruined many lives and are still treating everything like a game.

Adding her thoughts, UCT student Ayanda (22) said, “Diddy has proved our point. We didn’t need a video to believe Cassie; we believed her from the beginning. Now that the recordings are being shown, he wants to play the victim and believes people are out to destroy him.”

We live in the rape capital of the world, so these stories are all too common. Remember the 2023 story of murder-accused Bafana Mahungela (21), who allegedly murdered pregnant Kirsten Kluyts (34) in the Johannesburg recreational park in Sandton while partaking in a local sporting event.

We don’t have bears in our parks, but we have men who casually decide to murder us while we partake in events. If there was a bear in the park instead of a man, I can assure you Kirsten would still be alive, and so would her unborn baby.

The National Park Service in the United States says bear attacks are “rare,” and “most bear encounters end without injury.” There are an average of 40 attacks on humans by brown bears each year. When you compare the attacks on humans by bears to the attacks on humans by men, do you see why…Okay.

Receptionist Jane (25) said, “I will never choose the man, not when the WomenForChangeSA page posts women, men, girls, and boys who are killed, murdered, and raped every single day in South Africa.”

What these women are expressing is not that they believe they can outrun the bear, that the creature isn’t dangerous, or that the bear will not kill them. They claim that the potential outcome of a bear assault is considerably less frightening than what a man could do to them.

Who would you choose—the bear or the man, and why?