Bear Culture 101 (no prerequise) - The Gay & Lbian Review

Contents:

• WHAT EXACTLY IS THE GAY BEAR BROTHERHOOD PRI FLAG, AND WHAT DO IT MEAN?
• GAY BEAR - BEAR PRI MERCHANDISE. BEAR PRI JEWELRY, RGS, CLOTH, BEAR PRI FLAGS, BRACELETS, PENDANTS, NECKLAC, CLOTHG, HATS, APPAREL & PRI GEAR.
• BEAR PRI / BEAR PAW PATCH IRON ON - GAY BEAR PRI 3" PATCH ROUND - LGBT GAY - APPAREL ACCSORI
• BEAR PRI FLAG / GAY PRI (PAW SYMBOL) - 3 X 5 POLYTER FLAG
• GAY BEAR T-SHIRT - LGBT PAW BAR

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

A bear is a bigger, equently hairier guy who embodi raw masculy gay culture. Members of bear clubs equently e them as social and sexual works, and by participatg fund-raisg events and other activi, they may support their lol homosexual muni.

Nowadays, the majory of gay-iendly mpgrounds host some kd of bear-related activy throughout their operatg season.

GAY BEAR - BEAR PRI MERCHANDISE. BEAR PRI JEWELRY, RGS, CLOTH, BEAR PRI FLAGS, BRACELETS, PENDANTS, NECKLAC, CLOTHG, HATS, APPAREL & PRI GEAR.

The Bear flag is actually tramarked as per The Bear Handbook: A Comprehensive Gui for Those Who Are Hky, Hairy and Homosexual, and Those Who Love ‘Em by Ray Kampf.

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!

In gay culture, a bear is a larger and often hairier man who projects an image of gged masculy. Sendary sex attribut such as the growth of body hair and facial hair (which are typilly nsired “bear” characteristics) are celebrated gay bear culture. This visual intifitn wh the gay bear subculture seems timely, for 2010 appears to be my Ann Ursi, Year of the Bear.

BEAR PRI / BEAR PAW PATCH IRON ON - GAY BEAR PRI 3" PATCH ROUND - LGBT GAY - APPAREL ACCSORI

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. 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.

BEAR PRI FLAG / GAY PRI (PAW SYMBOL) - 3 X 5 POLYTER FLAG

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. 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.

Discsn of homomasculy is not whout ntroversy.

GAY BEAR T-SHIRT - LGBT PAW BAR

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. Burack has ma clear her 2008 book S, Sex, and Democracy: Antigay Rhetoric and the Christian Right, relig fundamentalists hate all equally. I myself have often said I want to be the kd of guy who n punch out a gay-basher and also bake good biscus.