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Panel 1 Man and woman in office clothes in a break room.
Man: So, if you were alone in a forest, would you rather run into a strange man… or a bear?
Panel 2 Woman: Oh, hmm… I think the bear.
Man (angry): How can you say that?
(Bear looking quizzically through the window)
Panel 3 Man (angry): You're demonizing men! It's misandry!
Panel 4 Woman: Good point. Why would I ever hear men's reactions?
Man: Exactly! …where did the honey go?
Panel 5 Woman and bear sharing tea
Woman: At least if you maul me, pepper won't say I made it up or I'm misinterpreting.
Bear: I hear you
Yep, in North America, that works with black bears, generally.
Not brown/grizzly/kodiak bears though, as drawn in the comic.
They'll just maul you to death.
...
If you are in forests, in areas you're generally likely to encounter any kind of bear in the wild:
With black bears, if they are not with cubs...
...you puff yourself up and shout at them to indimidate them, assuming they are approaching you, and you can scare them off.
If they do attack, the general recommendation is to fight back. Aim for the eyes and snout, and usually they'll retreat.
With brown bears, if they are not with cubs...
...you can wave your hands and talk a normal volume to indicate you are a human and not their common prey... and often they will stand up on their hind legs to scan for, and identify you, and then just avoid you...
... but sometimes they won't, and they will now aggro on you. Brown/kodiak/grizzlies are generally much more aggressive than black bears, and are more likely to attack you.
Also, don't scream shout or shriek at them, thats more likely to make them think you are prey, or that you are trying to intimidate them, which will anger them.
If they do attack you, the advice is play dead.
If you fight back, without some seriously powerful firearms, you'll die.
Even if you do shoot them multiple times with high powered rounds, sometimes, even often, they'll still kill you.
The advice is to play dead, because more people who've been in such an attack encounter who've played dead have survived than those that fought.
Its not guaranteed to work, just better odds.
If you encounter any kind of bear, and they are with their cubs, GTFO as fast and as quietly as you can, without breaking into a sprint, and always keeping your eyes on them.
Any kind of bear is much more likely to be much more aggressive when with their cubs.
...
Also I have found that screaming at, and making aggressive postures and gestures toward men does in fact scare a good number off them off.
Broken up a few bar fights and gotten some guys roofying drinks out of bars that way.
...
Everyone in this thread treating brown and black bears as equivalent, largely predictable threats... does not actually know enough about bears to know how to predict their behavior.
Sadly this doesn't work for me. Which is why I have a knife or two on my person at all times. Just in case. (Dad prepared me well for the world.)
Never a bad idea generally, imo, as long as its legally concealable wherever you live.
I keep a decent multipurpose knife on me... not all the time, these days I'm less active, but I would often run into weird little situations where a small knife could help speed up some non violent procedure: random fixups or jerry rigging a quick fix for something, cutting open some packaging, something like that.
Also, of course, doubles as a means of deterrence or actual self defense, though thankfully, me personally, I've never actually had to use it that way.
It's not always legal. But another thing Dad taught me was "better to be judged by twelve than carried by six".
My lawyer has advised me against vehemently agreeing with you.