Man or bear?

 Introduction: 
When the debate on whether or not you'd want to be stuck in the woods with a man or bear was trending, I was writing my speech for my English spoken language exam in July in year 10. I got a Distinction for it, which is the highest level you can get in marking. It was marked based on the structure and way I presented the speech, making sure I addressed the audience well and used all of the necessary features required in my speech. I'm very proud of it and found it while I was looking for my Macbeth revision, so I thought I'd share it here.


Speech:
Would you rather be stuck in the woods with a man or a bear? This is a question many women are asking themselves, many women chose the bear, but why? You'd think surely that a bear is much more dangerous and violent than a man, but evidence suggests otherwise. This debate is sparking crucial conversations about violence against women, with many sharing their personal experiences with violence.

Bears operate on natural instinct and need for survival. Its aggression is down to hunger or defence. The man, however, understands he is in the wrong, he does not continue out of necessity, but pleasure.

In a TikTok, a user compiled together some of the reasons that most women chose the bear, such as "the bear doesn't get sexual enjoyment out of it", "the worst a bear can do is kill me", "the bear leaves physical scars, then I'd be believed", "the bear because then id be congratulated for surviving instead of judged and questioned as to what I was doing or wearing". 

The National Park Service in the USA stated that bear attacks are "rare", and that there is an average of 40 attacks on humans by brown bears per year and just 1 fatal black bear attack per year. But between April 2022 and March 2023, 242 domestic abuse-related deaths were recorded, and police receive a domestic abuse-related call every 30 seconds, yet less than 24% of domestic abuse crimes are reported to the police. 1 in 4 women in England and Wales will experience domestic abuse in her lifetime, that's approximately 4 of us in this room. 2 women a week are killed by a current or former partner in England and Wales.  41% of girls in the UK aged 14-17 in an intimate relationship experience sexual violence from a partner. 1 in 5 children in the UK have lived with a perpetrator of domestic abuse and every 9 minutes a child becomes a victim of sexual abuse. If you think that's a lot of statistics, the list only goes on.
This doesn't even begin to account for every woman or girl every day, every week and every year that faces abuse from child sexual assault or exploitation, to rape and sexual assault, and even incest. Many cases go unreported; if they are, they're often not taken seriously. 

Some say "not all men", but what about not all bears? You know they can be dangerous, so you take precautions and fight back when necessary. We know it's not all men, but how can we know that this hypothetical man in the woods is part of that?

Men and boys weren't considered "spoils of war" in the Yugoslav wars for women to violate by the millions after achieving victory in conflict instigated and carried out by women. There are no countries where boys are habitually married off to ageing, wealthy women. There are no places where men are advised to only travel with a female chaperone because of fear of being followed or assaulted.
There is no legislation for digital cameras and smartphones to make an audible shutter noise when taking pictures because women couldn't stop themselves from taking pictures of men's private parts on public transport.

It's very important to realise that men can also be assaulted and women can be perpetrators. It is much less common but does still happen. We cannot be ignorant of the fact that in an overwhelming majority of cases, men are the perpetrators. It is truly disgusting that anyone can be capable of doing such violent things, we have to stay aware. We cannot use "not all men" and other arguments to weaponize against women. 

A lot of people have said the hypothetical was only created to make men look bad and stoke unnecessary controversy, which is a convenient thing to believe if you're unaffected by the reality represented by the hypothetical.
Was it hypothetical when Gabby Petito was murdered by her fiance? Or when a 13-year-old was raped in Wickersley Woods, Rotherham? Or perhaps in the "Babes in the Wood murders"? Was it just a hypothetical when 17-year-old Junko Furuta was tortured and raped for 40 days, then murdered? Or maybe when Bundy raped and killed at least 100 young women and girls? Need I say more? 

As a teenage girl, I often fear violence or harassment from men, and that one day I might be 1 in 4 or that my sister or future daughter might be. I know my friends and millions of girls worldwide fear the same fate. I've been cat-called, humiliated and followed home by men, I know several girls who've been victims of similar things - even one being raped when she was just 4 years old. I've seen first-hand how much it can destroy someone, so enough is enough.

This needs to change so that future women and girls don't have to live in fear or choose to be mauled to death by a bear. We need to act now to protect our women, the mothers, daughters, sisters, friends, partners and so on. This debate is so much more than a bear, it's raising awareness, it's supporting the victims regardless of gender and circumstance and it's realising that we need to change. I don't want to end up dead at the hands of a man.