Now obviously, people don’t go traipsing into bear country every day, and we’re constantly around other humans, among a litany of other differences like population, motivation, or intelligence; so the stats on their own aren’t truly comparable.

Literally just had to read one more sentence, my guy. The point of bringing up the stats wasn’t to compare them directly, rather I looked both up out of curiosity, and individually I think they make distinct points. The first being that bears aren’t necessarily dangerous as we portray them to be, and the second being that men are more dangerous than we’re willing to admit.

As a dude, I used to have the same knee-jerk reaction to these kinds of discussions: “Well I’m not dangerous, and none of the men I’m friends/family with are dangerous, so this must just be some man-hating tirade perpetrated by ignorant people”.

But then you dig into the statistics, and you start talking to the women in your life about their lived experience, and you realize that far too many of us are fucking animals. The prospect of bringing a daughter into a world that not only ignores an obvious issue, but actively shames the people who are victimized and try to speak out against it, is terrifying. Do I always agree with the way women present their criticism? No, a portion of it does veer into senseless hate. But that doesn’t mean that what they’re saying on the whole is bullshit.