Bear Terminology

1. Bear- a hairy man with a stocky or heavy-set build and facial hair. Can be clean shaven and of any age.
2. Bear run- a gathering or circuit party for Bear/Cub types and their Admirers.
3. Black Bear- a Bear of African-American descent or of darker toned skin.
4. Brown Bear- a Bear of Hispanic descent.
5. Chaser- short for Chubby Chaser.
6. Chub- a heavy set gay man. May or may not be a bear (Chubby bear is a common term)
7. Cub- a younger (or younger looking) version of a Bear, typically but not always with a smaller frame. The term is sometimes used to imply the passive partner in a relationship.[12] Can be hairy or hairless.
8. Daddy bear- an older bear, sometimes looking for a daddy/son relationship with a younger man.
9. Goldilocks- a female, often heterosexual, who is often in the company of bears (a bear's fag hag).
10. Leather bear- a bear with a leather fetish.
11. Muscle bear- a muscular version of a Bear. A muscle cub is a younger or smaller, yet muscular, version.
12. Otter- a man who is hairy, but is not large or stocky-typically thinner, swimmer's build, or with lean muscle
13. Panda bear- a bear of Asian descent.
14. Pocket bear- a short Bear.
15. Polar bear- a silver- or white-haired Bear.
16. Red bear- a red-haired bear. Also known as a Ginger Bear.
17. Wolf- a term for a Muscle Bear who is a rugged outdoorsy or biker type.
18. Woof- a greeting sometimes used when a Bear sees another Bear in public a and wants to express physical attraction.

 

Origins

Bear in LGBTQ communities is a metaphorical reference to the animal of the same name with similar notable features. These features include the animal's hairiness, its solid proportions, and its physical power. The bear is both fat and powerful, and the reconciliation of these two qualities is at the heart of the Bear concept's appeal. Bears are typically very similar in appearance to the ideal of the North American lumberjack. A romantic conflation of the bear and the lumberjack image provides the Bear trope its metaphorical appeal.

Lumberjacks were romanticized and fetishised in gay culture long before the arrival of the Bear concept, and the Bear concept retains strong traces of this older ideal. Lumberjacks appealed to gay men at aesthetic levels but also for the fact that they were working class, and for the fact that their isolation from urban society (and hence from mainstream gay culture) opened up a fantasy of both secrecy and liberation, within an idyllic, rural, North American setting. These metaphors also lend themselves to the idealization of natural physical appearance and preferences over more glamorized ones despite the convenience many bears may find living in urban settings.

The self-identification of gay men as Bears originated in San Francisco in the 1980s as an outgrowth of gay biker clubs like the Rainbow Motorcycle Club, and then later the leather and "girth and mirth" communities. It was created by men who felt that mainstream gay culture was unwelcoming to men who did not fit a particular "twink" body norm (hairless and young). [citation needed] Also, many gay men in rural America never identified with the stereotypical urban gay lifestyle, and went searching for an alternative that more closely resembled the idealized blue collar American male image.

Lone Star Saloon

Richard's friend Rick Redewill, who had founded San Francisco's "Lone Star Saloon" in 1989, bought full-page ads in every issue of Bear; they soon found themselves with a huge success nationally, especially among rural gay Americans, who would travel to San Francisco just to find a unique "blue collar" gay bar, filled with a masculine-identified crowd who were radically different from the stereotypical gay bar image. The Lone Star became "ground zero" for the incubation of the Bear Community between 1990 and 1993. Unlike other gay clubs where dance music was the norm, the Lone Star played rock music for the appreciation of a more masculine-identifying customer base. Much of the Lone Star staff, including its owner, Redewill, were overwhelmed by the AIDS pandemic that enveloped San Francisco's LGBT communities. The bar was turned over to new owners in 1993. And in September 2009 the Lone Star changed owners again.

Events and activities

At the onset of the Bear movement, some Bears separated from the gay community at large, forming "bear clubs" to create social and sexual opportunities for their own. Many clubs are loosely organized social groups; others are modeled on leather biker-patch clubs, with a strict set of bylaws, membership requirements, and charities. Bear clubs often sponsor large yearly events-"Bear runs" or "Bear gatherings" like the annual events such as International Bear Rendezvous, Bear Pride, TBRU, Orlando Bear Bash, drawing regional, national and international visitors. Many LGBT events attract a significant bear following, such as Southern Decadence [2] in New Orleans. A feature at many Bear events is a "Bear contest," a sort of masculine beauty pageant awarding titles and sashes (often made of leather) to winners. One example of a bear contest is International Mr. Bear, held each February at the International Bear Rendezvous in San Francisco. It attracts contestants, often with local titles, from all over the world. The first International Mr. Bear was held in 1992. The contest includes Bear, Daddy, Cub, and Grizzly titles with the contestant who receives the highest score winning the bear title, regardless of what type he is. Example: "Mr. Washington, D.C. Bear, 2006." Gay "leather-bears" have competed in leather contests, and "muscle-bears" are another subculture noted by their muscular, often very large muscle body mass.

The Bear community has spread all over the world, with Bear clubs in many countries. Bear clubs often serve as social and sexual networks for older, hairier, sometimes heavier gay and bisexual men, and members often contribute to their local gay communities through fund-raising and other functions. Bear events are common in heavily-gay communities. The gay Bear community constitutes a specialty niche in the commercial market. It offers T-shirts and other accessories as well as calendars and porn movies and magazines featuring Bear icons, e.g., Jack Radcliffe. Catalina Video has a bear-themed line: the "Furry Features Series." Other adult studios who feature Bear-type men are Bear Magazine, 100% BEEF Magazine, BearFilms, Bear, Butch Bear, Raging Stallion, and Titan Media. As more gay men have identified themselves as Bears, more bars, especially leather or western bars, have become Bear-friendly. Some bars cater specifically to Bear patrons. As Bears have become more common in the larger gay culture, and as more gay and bisexual men identify themselves as Bears, Bears have not segregated themselves as much as they once did. Gay Bears are now a mainstream element of the gay community at large because of the community.

Characteristics

As the Bear Culture has matured, it has subdivided itself, and many claim that discrimination has increased within the Bear community as some men who self-identify as "Bears" or "Musclebears" do not welcome higher-bodyfat men (see Chub) at their events. A common criticism of the Bear community is that some self-described Bears tend to exclude men who do not fit their standards of what a "real Bear" is. Fat (or lack of it) is a political issue among Bears, some of whom see their overweight condition as a form of self-acceptance. Some also note a lack of racial diversity in the Bear community, perceiving hirsuteness to be a standard of physical attractiveness that genetically favors white men aesthetically, socially, and sexually among Bears. However what appears as racial discrimination to some may be a result of the fact that in the Bear context in which hairiness is prized, Native Americans, African peoples, East Asians, and Pacific Islanders, among others, tend to have less facial and body hair than men of Caucasian descent.

The AIDS devastation in San Francisco accelerated the generation gap between older and younger Bear-identified men, peaking in the early 1990s, with few connections that survived between the two. Some older survivors claim that the current Bear culture has become "shallow and catty," which is also their common criticism of mainstream gay culture. The allegation is that the younger Bear community no longer reflects the culture's original function as a social alternative for primarily rural and blue-collar, traditionally masculine gay men. Moreover, the proliferation of Bear pageants and their title winners ("sash bears") runs contrary to the early Bear community's identification with and admiration for raw, unself-conscious masculinity.