Bears, Men, and The Woods: What I need blokes to understand about fear of men

You’re not going to rape me? Fabulous. Thank you darling

Disclaimer: this is a bit more serious than most of my content. If you feel this might be too upsetting for you, please feel free to opt out of this one.

I don’t care how much it hurts your feelings, male violence towards women is the most likely reason a woman has disappeared or been killed. Not lions, not tigers, not bears, but men. When a woman’s body is found in the woods, you don’t immediately think, that’ll be a bear. When a woman doesn’t come home from work after walking through a wooded area, you don’t think, I bet a bear is responsible. When a woman’s husband appears on the news crying for his wife to come home after going for a run in the forest, you don’t think we need to do something about bear attacks. No: you think a man has killed her. And probably raped and tortured her, too.

Because we all know, from the most Conservative Christian heterosexual man to the most RadFem anarchical lesbian woman, men are a serious threat to women. Before you whine at me that it’s extremely unlikely for me to be picked up by a serial killer in the woods, let me remind you that there’s no way in hell you’d be relaxed with me calling you right now to let you know that your twenty-something year old daughter was alone in the woods with a random man.