The gay world is often reprented as some sort of monolhic whole that has the same culture. That is a lie. It is actually broken down to a handful of substrata to which each gay belongs. Here they are.
Contents:
A HANDY GUI TO ALL GAY MEN
* wolf gay subculture *
For those who are still the dark as to what all those labels for var typ of gay mal actually signify, this lk generoly breaks down laymen’s terms.
Bears are chubby, hairy, mascule gay mal who like beer and flannel shirts–but that’s jt the superficial fn. As long as we’re dulgg gay nature lgo, though, I wonr what a Wolvere is.
Suffice to say, “bear” is often fed as more of an attu than anythg else – a sense of fort wh our natural masculy and bodi that is not slavish to the vogu of male attractivens that is so mon gay circl and the culture at large. 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.
GAY WOLF: A BODY TYPE TIPS GUI FOR GAY GUYS WH INSTANC!
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.