When did the adjective "Bear" become synonymous with fat,obese,grossly over weight??? I thought it meant hairy, initially and then coupled with large,big,burly,,but where do we draw the line.....?
In nature, bears come in all shapes and sizes, from Grizzly to Polar to Koala. The one thing they all share in common is HAIR. As far as I'm concerned, if you are big, obese and hairless, you have no right to call yourself a bear....for me, it's all about the body hair.....there's no such thing as a hairless bear....
For some, bears have evolved to include a variety of wildlife -otter, wolf, polar, cub, daddy, kangaroo, porcupine (just kidding on those last two..at least for now LOL) Other folks have a very strict and narrow interpretation -must look only like Grizzly Adams with a beard that's exactly 5.2 inches long. It all depends on who you ask. Call me a bear, a daddy or even Papi. It works. Have some fun ;-)
I do feel the bear subculture as a whole is getting close to jumping the shark (if it hasn't already). We see hordes of oversexed clones everywhere with the same style tattoos and identical piercings. Definitely not unique or hot anymore if everyone is identical. They tend to have the pack mentality as well. Good luck getting certain guys to do anything without the approval from the clique of friends. (Reminds me A LOT of the Borg from Star Trek LOL ) Anyways, the average bear is no different than the twinks or muscleheads they were trying to differentiate themselves from 20 years ago. Some of you have already said the same thing. More than anything, it's the attitude that bothers me. A guy can look smoking hot but it's like taking a dose of saltpeter if he acts like he never left high school. Heck, I may as well sleep with a hairy women. LOL
Or maybe it's just living close to Boston, which is known for unfriendly people. Who knows? In the next 20 years, some other subculture will come along and replace us.
one of the great things about the early bear community was that it was one of the few places where fat guys could be appreciated. sadly, it has evolved into the standard gay hierarchy where muscles rule...btw, just because a guy may not be personally attracted to fat guys does not mean that by definition fat guys are lazy or that overweight guys are gross...we are all in a position to be judged
The bear movement, like a lot others, was initially created to provide an identity and a sense of belonging, to those gay men who did not fit into the conventional gay stereotype image of the buff blonde manscaped athletic (slightly) effeminate men, which I believe, was the easiest way to fit inside the gay communities back in the 70s and 80s. As with any group of "rejects", building a fringe community for support eventually led to the creation of an entire subculture of bears.
The problem starts when even the bear community starts with its ideals for fitting in bullshit. A number of bear nazis claim that the exclusive bear membership would require one to have extra bulk, lots of body hair, affinity to jeans and leather and all that BS stereotype crap.
In the end, "bear", like "daddy" is all an image, a sense of feeling or attitude.. Besides, there are smooth guys, slim/average guys etc who identify as bears.. So, aside from the usual lumping into stereotypes and subcategories like we humans do with pretty much everyone/everything, it's all in your head..
Labels are flexible and in the end, pointless.. People are more than just a label someone else slaps on their forehead..
I do feel the bear subculture as a whole is getting close to jumping the shark (if it hasn't already). We see hordes of oversexed clones everywhere with the same style tattoos and identical piercings. Definitely not unique or hot anymore if everyone is identical. They tend to have the pack mentality as well. Good luck getting certain guys to do anything without the approval from the clique of friends. (Reminds me A LOT of the Borg from Star Trek LOL ) Anyways, the average bear is no different than the twinks or muscleheads they were trying to differentiate themselves from 20 years ago. Some of you have already said the same thing. More than anything, it's the attitude that bothers me. A guy can look smoking hot but it's like taking a dose of saltpeter if he acts like he never left high school. Heck, I may as well sleep with a hairy women. LOL
Or maybe it's just living close to Boston, which is known for unfriendly people. Who knows? In the next 20 years, some other subculture will come along and replace us.
Those are just my two cents.
The problem starts when even the bear community starts with its ideals for fitting in bullshit. A number of bear nazis claim that the exclusive bear membership would require one to have extra bulk, lots of body hair, affinity to jeans and leather and all that BS stereotype crap.
In the end, "bear", like "daddy" is all an image, a sense of feeling or attitude.. Besides, there are smooth guys, slim/average guys etc who identify as bears.. So, aside from the usual lumping into stereotypes and subcategories like we humans do with pretty much everyone/everything, it's all in your head..
Labels are flexible and in the end, pointless.. People are more than just a label someone else slaps on their forehead..