Bear Flag on Our Flagpole

Grrrr – The Bear Flag

Yes, I know, I said in the last post that we were working on all of the state flags of the United States in order of admission to the Union, and well, this isn’t a state flag.  And no, I am not referring to the Bear Flag of California.  We did that in a earlier post which will make it awkward when we get to that spot in the admission to the Union order.  But we’ll deal with it another day.

This flag is the identifying flag of the gay male subculture identified as Bears.

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Bear Flag on Our Flagpole

So, a reasonable question is: What is a Bear?

In the beginning, in San Francisco in the 1970s, a “bear” was any man with body hair, usually more rather than less.  However, over time, the term can to be more inclusive and was understood to include men of size, hairy or not, and men who outwardly appeared and acted very masculine, or butch.  By 1987 there was a magazine dedicated to the subculture and its admirers, named, appropriately enough, Bear Magazine.

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Bear Magazine

A noted American gay commentator, author, and professor, Jack Fritscher, has noted that bears celebrate “secondary sexual characteristics of the male: facial hair, body hair, proportional size, baldness”.

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International Bear Rendezvous San Francisco 2007

However, although the bear culture movement originally emphasized inclusiveness and a welcome to all attitude, over time, as seems to happen to cultural movements, bear subculture developed cliques and groups within the larger movement.  One of the most noted subgroups is the “musclebear” group of men who exhibit the characteristics of body hair and masculinity, but who are also well muscled, in contrast to many of the earlier “bears.”

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MuscleBear

These men may, or may not, be welcoming of others who do not fit their definition of social and sexual appropriateness.

There is also concern among some about a lack of diversity in the bear movement since an emphasis on body hair tends to have the effect of limiting group membership to men of European or Middle Eastern descent while excluding other less hirsute ethnicities such as African and Asian men.

That said, the bear subculture is a worldwide movement with events and clubs taking place and existing throughout the United States,

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Europe,

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Bears in Madrid

Australia,

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Melbourne Australia Bears

and Latin America.

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Mexico City Bears

I am saddened but not surprised by the rifts in the bear community based on body size and muscularity.  Gay male subculture in general places enormous pressures on its members to conform to often absurdly strict and unrealistic body types and shapes.  And these expectations change over time.  In the 1970s, the “straight trade” look of blue jeans, plaid shirts, naturally thin or muscular bodies, and mustaches was required to be considered top tier.  By the 1980s the ideal had shifted to young, bronzed, slender, and blonde without a trace of body hair, an effect that can be achieved with a razor and hair dye, while the opposite cannot.  By the 1990s, the trend toward bigger muscles started to occur and continues to this day although now we have swung back around in time such that facial and body hair, along with muscles and more muscles, are very much “in” which grossly disadvantages men who are not naturally hairy since you can’t reverse razor hair on to your body.  I support anyone finding whatever they want, provided it isn’t harmful to self or others, attractive, but I start to get annoyed when those preferences turn into a value assessment of the person who does, or does not, possess those said characteristics.  We’re all human, we all have feelings, and we all want to feel wanted.  Being dismissive or rude it never attractive.

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