Bears (hairy gay men)
• Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual
The gay men known as bears are never seen in the squeaky clean worlds of Will & Grace and Queer as folk. Andrew Sullivan's essay on 'bearism':
Bearism grew up in San Francisco at places like the revived Lone Star bar in the early 1990s and has metastasized since. From a bunch of heavy, hairy fellas getting together casually, it's now a full-scale phenom, with "American Bear" magazine, a "bear flag," bear conferences, a "Bear Book," "Bearotica," and on and on. Perhapsthe most obvious place to start is physical appearance. "Bears" almost all have facial hair - the more the better. Of all the various caharcteristics of Beardom, this seems to be one of the most essential. The Ur-bears have bushy beards that meander down their necks and merge with a large forest of chest and back-hair to provde a sort of all-hair body environment. Bears are also big guys. Yeah, I know that might come off as a bit of a euphemism.

Comments
Posted by: nedret | September 3, 2003 10:29 AM
Posted by: Kevin | November 16, 2003 12:17 PM
Posted by: LUCKY | January 3, 2004 08:13 PM
Posted by: neo laurens | June 12, 2004 11:20 AM
Posted by: neo laurens | June 12, 2004 11:21 AM