I get it. I have like, life ruining levels of insomnia, which is like 90% because I have extreme nightmares every time I fall asleep. They're so bad sometimes I wake up crying. Sometimes I don't fall asleep because I know what's waiting for me when I eventually lose consciousness. I'm so thankful when I have no dreams at all. I've talked to doctors and psychologists about it and they just shrug at me like, wow that sounds tough. Nobody has ever helped me with it. And really who would take it seriously? It's just nightmares right? What adult is afraid to go to sleep? To dream about loved ones dying in gruesome ways right before their eyes? Or getting murdered in horrible ways, tortured to death, trampled, eaten alive by insects, being responsible for killing my whole family in a car crash, falling to death and remembering what the impact felt like, having my eyeballs plucked from my head, my stomach torn open and my guts devoured while I'm still alive. I'm not even close to the end of the list of what I've experienced over half of my life. Yeah they're just nightmares. But I have to experience them. For the rest of my life.
The only fighting chance I've been given is to move to a state where weed is legal because it basically prevents me from dreaming at all.
Guys... This is not a complicated discussion. I'm a trans woman. I've been the man. And now I've been the woman. I'm telling you without question I'm picking the fucking bear. Men are scary motherfuckers. A sizeable number of you are cruel, calculating, and downright uncaring. If you're debating women about why they'd pick a potentially dangerous animal to be alone with in the woods instead of you, you have entirely missed the point.
Go talk to every woman you know in your social circles and in your family, and ask them if they have been assaulted or sexually assaulted by men. The number of them that says yes to that question is going to be depressing. Some of them might even confide in you that they've been raped. My own sister didn't tell me until I asked her why she was so upset with my brother one time. She had recently been raped by a boyfriend and when men got angry around her she'd flip out. Those acts, when inflicted on you, poison your default view of your fellow man. If you can't imagine a man being more dangerous than a bear, then you've never had to.
A bear can't break my trust. A bear can't gaslight me into thinking all the shitty things he does are because he loves me. And if I told someone I got attacked by a bear, at least they'd believe me. They wouldn't need to bring out a bear assault kit to prove it. The bear is predictable. Men are not.