ZeroGravitas
Harassment should not be tolerated, period. Totally with you on this.
And thank you for the kind words.
Here's my take: the bear thing is causing such a visceral reaction that it is very hard to take a step back, not take it personally and have a rational discussion about it. Even if you know the statistics. Even if you're absolutely certain you'd do the right thing (or maybe especially then).
I was exposed to a somewhat similar experience in college: while walking through the campus one evening I realised the girl in front of me was a good friend of mine, so I rushed to catch up. When she heard me she quickened her pace close to running, and only stopped when I said her name and something like "wait up!". I was just happy to meet a friend. She, on the other hand, was absolutely terrified, and told me all about it as we walked towards the exit.
That evening I realised that women experience the world much different than men. That there's an underlying level of potential violence that they evaluate and weigh against potential benefits from encounters and interactions with men in almost all social contexts. And knowing that has recalibrated my behaviour to a certain extent, as I realised women can't afford to give me the benefit of the doubt, especially in contexts where they feel vulnerable.
I wish more men would get this point, especially in their formative years. It's not a judgement on their character when women that barely know them are careful around them. Trust needs to be earned. And for a woman, the cost of misplaced trust is too damn high.
It's that "Numa Numa" song, innit?
O-Zone - "Dragostea din tei"
My Sharona, The Knack
Space Oddity, David Bowie
Running down a dream, Tom Petty
All I Wanna Do - Sherryl Crow
FDA vs. Alliance for Hypocritic Medicine.
I thought the point was the inevitability of it all. She could see it, but couldn't change a thing. At least that's how I perceived it at the time. Wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.
"Paul was swell, I was cheering for him all the way!"
-- Elric of Melniboné, probably
Don't get me wrong, Dune is my absolute favourite book, I must have read the whole series ten times already, but heroes in that world are in short supply. The guy that comes closest for my money is Duncan Idaho, especially later in the series (God Emperor and beyond).
Depends on how you read it. I see it as a woman's POV calculating the potential for violence from an encounter where the only guardrail they can trust is the man's morals. And given the amount of catcalls, casual feels and assorted bullshit women in my friend circle had endured from a very early age, fuck no, I'm not begrudging them choosing a bear.
Besides, OP was talking about men harassing women because of stating their bear preference. Which a) just proves them right, and b) do you honestly believe they meant ALL men are worse than bears? Each and every woman in that original story could probably choose at least 10 men in her life who she would be perfectly fine encountering in a dark forest. The question was, however, about calculating risk in an unknown encounter. I don't read it as sexism at all.