Meet other guys your neighborhood and around the globe who are part of the gay bear muny wh GROWLr for iPhone and Android.
Contents:
- THE GAY BEAR COMMUNY: WHICH STEREOTYPE ARE YOU?
- THE HISTORY OF THE GAY BEAR COMMUNY AND THEIR FASHN CHOIC
THE GAY BEAR COMMUNY: WHICH STEREOTYPE ARE YOU?
Inially lnched 2010. A relnchg social muny that enabl gay bears to see thgs that matter to the bear muny. Meet, chat, and teract wh other bears om around the world on our social work. * the gay bear community *
Our muny still has s share of transphobia, racism, fatphobia, and other rogatory ms as do the mastream gay muny, which is ironic for a muny tend to buck the mold. We are one of the few gay datg and social apps that offers live streamg!
THE HISTORY OF THE GAY BEAR COMMUNY AND THEIR FASHN CHOIC
* the gay bear community *
This visual intifitn wh the gay bear subculture seems timely, for 2010 appears to be my Ann Ursi, Year of the Bear. A “bear” is a hairy, beard, brawny-to-bulky gay man, ually displayg aspects of tradnal masculy.
Their work mak clear that the bear muny began to alce San Francis the late 1980’s, fluenced by gay biker clubs and created by men who did not f or did not appreciate the prevailg gay athetic that valorized slenr, smooth-bodied youths. The proto-bears did not relate to the well-groomed urban gay liftyle; they found nventnal masculy many quali worth prervg.
Gay social groups lled bear clubs anized ci like Los Angel, Hoton, and New York, some servg whole stat or regns like Connecticut’s bear club, the Northeast Ursamen, that began 18 years ago. Sponsored by the clubs, weekend gathergs lled “bear ns” began, first gay-iendly spots like the Rsian River, Provcetown, and San Francis, and later plac where you might never expect such gathergs to occur, such as Roanoke, Virgia, where the lol club, Virgia Mounta Bears, has twice hosted an annual weekend event lled Mounta Bear Madns.
Whether latchg onto gay archetyp (e.g., <em>Gypsy</em> IS the <em>Hamlet</em> of the Amerin mil, pnp party tonight, Diel, etc.) or self-nscly avoidg them (e.g., I-don't-get-Liza-Mi... * the gay bear community *
At the same time that I was absorbg the manly woodland fluenc, I was also explorg gay bars and g to terms wh my queer inty. The mastream gay bars I most often equented left me ld. While the larger gay muny had never ma me feel wele, bears ma me feel as if I uld be two thgs that had always seemed irrencilable: my homosexualy and my untry roots.
The bear muny, like the leather world, has also ma me ls apologetic for cherishg many aspects of tradnal manhood, which I’d been raised to admire and which I emulated to some extent my own homomascule genr evolutn. “Homomasculy” is a term Surha attribut to Jack Frscher, the former Dmmer magaze edor and thor of the classic gay and pop culture novel, Some Dance to Remember (1999), featurg a bearish ma character.
Wikipedia f “homomasculy” as “a subculture of gay men who self-intify wh the imagery, culture, and genr role of what is normally seen as ‘tradnal, straight male masculy. ’” The bear muny embrac and celebrat homomasculy whout sistg on one stylized look as a pre- requise for entry to s muni, as queer leather culture.