Bear Necsi: An sir’s look at an atypil gay culture and muny – Geia Voice – Gay & LGBT Atlanta News

Contents:

• CHICKENS AND OTTERS AND BEARS, OH MY! SIX TYP OF GAY YOU SHOULD PROBABLY KNOW BEFORE YOU TWEET
• 4 - BEARS GAY CULTURE: HISTORI, DISURS AND ANTHROPOMORPHISM
• BEAR NECSI: AN SIR’S LOOK AT AN ATYPIL GAY CULTURE AND MUNY
• WHAT IS AN OTTER IN GAY CULTURE
• GAY BEARS STGGLG WH TERNALISED FATPHOBIA AND BEARD ENVY, GROUNDBREAKG REARCH FDS
• WHAT EXACTLY IS THE GAY BEAR BROTHERHOOD PRI FLAG, AND WHAT DO IT MEAN?
• CATEGORY:BEAR (GAY CULTURE)
• PHYSIL, BEHAVRAL, AND PSYCHOLOGIL TRAS OF GAY MEN INTIFYG AS BEARS
• MAN ON MAN – ‘DTROYG STIGMAS & DOUBLE STANDARDS AGAST THE GAY BEAR SCENE’
• GAY MERCH

CHICKENS AND OTTERS AND BEARS, OH MY! SIX TYP OF GAY YOU SHOULD PROBABLY KNOW BEFORE YOU TWEET

Gay male bears and the signifitn of the bear are now entrenched the modifitn of gay culture, and many of the social and sexual practic allied to bears problematilly appropriate and subvert both gay and straight male inty polics. An implic tramark of gay bear inty ‘is the adoptn of a nventnally mascule appearance and the acpanyg rejectn of the stereotyped notn that gay men nnot monstrate mascule behavur’ (Surha 2002). Signifint tensns which exist, such as the relatnship between male social, erotic and sexual sire, the ontologil and psychologil posn of men, patriarchy, hetero-sexism, homophobia, normativy, misogyny, and the problems of discrimatory and tersectnal posns allied to factors such as race, age, class and geography, all unrp the inty of the gay bear.

This chapter will exame and posn some of the issu and nsir how the varied histori, disurs and visual signifitn of the bear as a gay man and a wild animal have been anthropomorphilly assiated and employed to nstct the bear as a specific symbol of gay masculy and culture. Jt as gay bears attempt to ‘challenge relatnal aspects of masculy, enuragg a tradnally mascule appearance while allowg for non-tradnal male exprsns of affectn, timacy, and nurturance’ (Manley et al 2007, 92) they do so ways which might be viewed as rctive and reflective of patriarchal and phallocentric domance.

In this way the gay bear functns as a ccial paradox ntemporary gay male culture; at once a way for gay men to negotiate and exprs their masculy and sire, whilst also remag a ntent symbol of how genr bari and discrimatory sexual nstcts might be reerated and BEARS: INDETERMINATE HISTORIESThe history and velopment of gay bears as well as their formatn as a gay male subculture allied to the image of the bear as an animal are multifaceted. “It was really such ntrast to the stereotype of gay men, ” said Ron Surha, thor of “Bear on Bears” and another foundg member ― if one uld ll that ― of bear culture.

4 - BEARS GAY CULTURE: HISTORI, DISURS AND ANTHROPOMORPHISM

There was no work of gay men that he knew, so when he first h the scene, the only plac he knew to go were n-of-the-l gay dance bars, where he was hassled for his weight.

” As bears me to their own San Francis and Chigo the late ‘80s, the HIV/AIDS crisis further galvanized—and ravaged—the muny, jt as had the gay muny as a whole. Contents1 An Illtrated Gui To Regnizg Your Gay Stereotyp2 Gui to gay men’s body typ3 Urban Dictnary: otter4 Otter5 Culture 6 Flag 7 Rourc 8 A brief lson LGBT intifiers9 The Guysexual’s Urban Dictnary for Gay Slang – Firstpost10 This is what means to be an otter11 Physil fn of a otter12 A lot of guys may be otters whout realisg 13 Hold on, isn’t this more toxic masculy? For their latt project, “Gui to Homosexual Stereotyp, ” BBDO NY Art Director Jam Kuczynski and illtrator Pl Tuller have veloped a llectn of silk screened illtratns pturg the sence of your lol gay archetyp the spir of overg stereotyp by reclaimg and enjoyg them.

To the extent where the labels “lbians” and “gay men” have bee more ubiquo popular culture, lbians and gay men have grown more acceptable the real world. Otteris a phrase monly ed by homosexual men to scribe to a subclass of men who be the physil and social characteristics of both bears and twks, while evokg and challengg tradnal masculy.

BEAR NECSI: AN SIR’S LOOK AT AN ATYPIL GAY CULTURE AND MUNY

There is some bate as to whether or not the otter label origated as one of the numero sub-tegori of bears, but most believe that was created to provi a gaytribe for guys who emphasize genr exprsn across their physil body as well as their prentatn and looks.

” Otters generally distguish themselv om other subcultural terms that they do not imply that the stereotype of the feme gay man should be pletely rejected; ntrast to bears and twks, which are more or ls bary their exprsn, otters tend to be more variable their prentatn. It’s evable that as a gay guy, you’ll always have a lot of qutns (when you’re not filled wh self-doubt, that is) — but this is 2018, and certa issu, although fundamental, will always be more signifint than others.

WHAT IS AN OTTER IN GAY CULTURE

If you are a gay guy who is out and proud, or if you are a begner who is still hidg the closet, your vobulary of homosexual lgo will always be as diverse as your black book of boys. Beefke is a gay man who spends the most of his time at the gym and the remar of his time sopg spoonfuls of prote supplement to his post-workout smoothi, as scribed by his iends. Our gui to twks – the most hyper-sexualised homosexual tribe – and our gui to bears – the gay tribe for large, hairy, handsome mal – are both available onle for ee.

GAY BEARS STGGLG WH TERNALISED FATPHOBIA AND BEARD ENVY, GROUNDBREAKG REARCH FDS

This rmatn has been obtaed through extensive rearch on gay body typ, the llectn of survey opns om gay blogs, and the put of the data to high-gra statistil analysis software.

WHAT EXACTLY IS THE GAY BEAR BROTHERHOOD PRI FLAG, AND WHAT DO IT MEAN?

I N T H E EO T T E R R I When to the LGBT muny, an otter is a slim gay guy who has hair on his body and who may or may not e a trimmer to shorten his body hair.

The prence of a beard is not required to fall to this group, as body hair and hks are the most proment characteristics of this homosexual scriptn, spe the fact that many cubs do. Cub of sugar: Cubs wh a bad attu T H EC H U BI T H EC H U BI When to the LGBT muny, chubs are an unique sectn of the gay male populatn who are sometim mistaken wh bears.

T H E J O C K I S T H E J O C K I S T H I S For homosexual men, jocks are virtually always perceived to be betiful, mcular mal wh ltle body fat, and this is pecially te for athlet.

CATEGORY:BEAR (GAY CULTURE)

If this is the se, there is always the “average” tegory, which is a group to which many homosexual men fall and simply impli that the person is average most aspects of his or her life, such as body weight, height, and amount of hair on his or her body. They may have body typ that are parable to twks (see the end of the article for more rmatn), but puppi are often new to the homosexual muny, whereas twks have been there for que some time.

If this is the se, there is always the “average” tegory, which is a group to which many homosexual men fall and simply impli that the person is average most aspects of his or her life, such as body weight, height, and amount of hair on his or her head. He was spired to nduct his own rearch, and the rult is a fascatg, -pth study that explor the experienc of gay, bisexual and queer men who have found a sense of muny bear spac.

PHYSIL, BEHAVRAL, AND PSYCHOLOGIL TRAS OF GAY MEN INTIFYG AS BEARS

One such flag is the Gay Bear Brotherhood Pri Flag – a flag you might already have seen flown at any number of pri ftivals around the world, om Bangkok to Reykjavik…and everywhere between! Sendary sex attribut such as the growth of body hair and facial hair (which are typilly nsired “bear” characteristics) are celebrated gay bear culture. 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.

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. 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.

MAN ON MAN – ‘DTROYG STIGMAS & DOUBLE STANDARDS AGAST THE GAY BEAR SCENE’

The homomascule bear look, often seemgly intil to that of workg-class and ral men and currently epomized as the “mcle-bear, ” has been rerced by the eroticizatn of those looks bear magaz.

Jack Malebranche, his 2006 book, Androphilia: A Manifto, exriated the effemacy pervadg gay male culture and enuraged same-sex-lovg men to return to a more nventnal manls.

Crics such as Surha characterized the dogged sistence on hypermascule behavr for gay men as troublg and rejected this “butch-ier than thou” attu as herently misogynistic, opprsive, and self-loathg. This opposn to masculy seems unnecsarily prcriptive to me, as prcriptive as sistg that gay men all hie to “butch mp” to learn how to be macho—as if Eros paid any attentn to polil rrectns; as if, chagred by radil queer disapproval, a man uld change what he fds arog and what he fds admirable. L Wright, former profsor at Mount Ida College near Boston, eded two volumo amic anthologi for Haworth Prs, The Bear Book: Readgs the History and Evolutn of a Gay Male Subculture (1997) and The Bear Book II: Further Readgs the History and Evolutn of a Gay Male Subculture (2001).

GAY MERCH

The two books, along wh Ray Kampf’s whimsil The Bear Handbook (2000), helped fe this new breed of queer masculy, jog a flurry of new perdil tl, such as Daddy, Amerin Grizzly, and Bunkhoe, which veloped this new homomascule ia to a regnizable image. Ron Surha’s groundbreakg 2002 book, Bears on Bears: Interviews and Discsns, which featured gay lerary figur such as David Bergman, Michael Bronski, Richard Labonté, and Mark Thompson, chronicled the many facets of the movement. Like lots of Appalachians, I’m a big untry mic fan (another passn that has alienated me om mastream gay culture) as well as a lover of Southern food and untry okg.