Full disclosure: I’m a man.

Bears are objectively not that dangerous. Every year, people engage in all kinds of outdoor recreation in bear county with minimal incidents. As long as you don’t do anything stupid, there’s a 99% chance that any bear you encounter will leave you alone.

HOWEVER, encountering a bear is still really scary, especially if you’re alone. You have to remain calm and just hope that the bear isn’t looking for trouble. This is exactly how women often feel around men they don’t know, especially when they’re alone.

Most bears are perfectly safe, but humans are powerless over bears, so unexpectedly encountering one can make you feel very helpless. Similarly, most men are perfectly safe, but women are often physically powerless over men, so being alone with a man you don’t know can be really scary. In both cases, you have to just hope that something/someone that could do horrible things to you simply chooses not to.

This is the point I think women are trying to make. They know that most men are not rapists, murderers, etc. but some of them are, and if someone was going to act violently, alone in the woods would be a good place to do it. Bears, on the other hand, are supposed to be in the woods, and they’re more predictable because they’re just animals. A man alone in the woods is basically a wild card. That’s why a lot of women say they’d rather stumble upon a bear alone in the woods than a man.