Bear identity and opening the door
Many of us gay men define ourselves as bears but what does it really mean? Many know the term and have an idea of what it means, but usually they can’t truly understand what the definition is. Like Les Wright says, there is a lot of disagreement over the meaning of “bear.”
Wright thinks it’s because people with different backgrounds and histories define themselves as “bears” for different reasons. Despite this, Wright defines a bear as “a gay man who is as comfortable being a man as he is being gay, and who has a good heart.” Author of Faeries, bears, and Leathermen, Peter Hennen defines bears as gay men who express their masculinity in a way that seeks to resist the stereotype that homosexuals are effeminate. If it’s hard for scholars to define bears and bear identity, history might provide us with some answers.
The time when gay men began defining themselves as bears is obscure. Les Wright traces possible origins back to 1966 in the minutes of a Los Angeles motorcycle club called the Satyrs. These club’s minutes report that a bear club in San Francisco would be holding its first open meeting in the coming months. That bear club very well may have referred to a club called the Koalas, suggests Les Wright, that created a newsletter called The Bear Facts.
We do know that as a social phenomenon, the rise of self-identifying bears largely parallels the gay liberation movement that models itself after the civil rights, women’s, black and anti-war movements of the 1970s.
During this time, the idea of bears began circulating in the gay communities across the country. It drew upon the representational aspects of what is a bear, as well as the tactic of “coming out” which required self-identification. Coming out as a bear was most likely followed by public expression of identity and the voluntary association with a group of like-minded individuals.
Peter Hennen defines bears as gay men who express their masculinity in a way that seeks to resist the stereotype that homosexuals are effeminate.
According to Wright, the actual birth of the bear movement is set in 1986. This was a defining moment when “bear talk” began taking concrete form and became prevalent in modes of communication. The creation of computer bulletin boards, small private play parties and the release of BEAR, a local underground magazine in San Francisco, all occurred within a year. It was now clear that bears were going public.
Hennen also attributes the rise of the bear movement to two additional factors: the AIDS pandemic and the ability of the bear movement to draw members from the girth and mirth (chub) community. In terms of the AIDS pandemic, bears started defining themselves in relation to AIDS-related wasting syndrome. The syndrome turned men into thin diseased bodies. The opposite of AIDS-related wasting syndrome was larger, healthier bodies. These bodies indicated signs of vigor, strength and virility. Bears embraced that meaning.
Despite conscious efforts to model the bear movement after the civil rights and its other predecessors, scholars have suggested that bear identity is primarily white and middle class. Hennen informs us that with respect to social class, bears, most of whom are middle class, present themselves as working class. He states that middle-class bears, in seeking to construct a normalized gay masculinity, find working-class images appealing for several reasons. Traditionally, working-class men have often been understood as more authentically masculine than their middle-class counterparts. The hard labor in factories and mines uses up and destroys the workers’ bodies. That destruction serves as proof of the toughness of the work and the worker, which can be a method of demonstrating masculinity. Working-class masculinity is validated through same-sex social networks such as in the working-class bachelor subculture of 1900s New York. Solidarity was symbolized by a ritual of festive saloon camaraderie that expressed mutual regard and reciprocity. In this setting, a man’s ‘manliness’ was signaled partly by his participation in the ritual, but also by evidence of his relative virility compared to men. In this world, ‘manliness’ was confirmed by other men and in relation to other men, not women.
Besides issues of social class, race and a slowly developing history of the bear movement, we really don’t know much about bear identity and community. This makes the field ripe for more research to be conducted.
And this is where you come in. I will be conducting a study on bears in the San Diego and Palm Springs areas this coming summer and fall. I plan to conduct my fieldwork in a variety of locations including, gay bars, gay clubs, and events with gay clientele. I have two phases of my field work, one where anyone can participate and the second that will rely on the participation of self-identifying bears. If you are interested in participating, please e-mail me at flores34@rohan.sdsu.edu.