This culture is very present across the world, and developed a lot in recent years. That’s why in this post I’m referring not only to a specific body type, but a group of people that decided to share something more. Part of this story is also that not all hairy men do share this kind of culture (which is my case for example: I’m tall and hairy, and even if I enjoy going sometime to Bear parties, I don’t consider myself part of the Bear culture. Nothing wrong with it of course, it’s just that I hate labels.)
The Bear subculture has sort of formed itself against the fashion-driven, feminine-traits oriented mainstream gay culture, at least in its first days. Of course, even in this reality you can’t establish one unique rule. For sure the bear movement has established itself as a much more “open” group then some of the other subcultures. But it also has been decisive in affirming its own pride, in terms of belonging to this “sub-culture”, to the extent that it also developed its own Bear Pride Flag.
When talking about Bears we shall distinguish a couple of different “stereotypes” of masculinity. The range of distinction is either made along the body type of the person, or its age.
Muscles-Bears are the first typology, in which fall all kind of bears that consider physical activity, body building and fitness a “Must” to develop their bodies, still considering hairs a very important trait of their appearance.
On the other side we have Chubby Bears, which instead consider their masculinity visible also thanks to their important belly or in any case with a chubby look.
From the age perspective we start with what is defined a Cub, normally a younger or less experienced bearish looking guy. We then have Bear Daddy when age becomes more important and Silver Bear or Polar Bear when hair color shifts to grey or white.
Within the Bear culture there’s also another stereotype. It’s a person that doesn’t reflect Bearish body standards, but is attracted by bears and is named
Chaser.
Of course, I’ve been very synthetic in describing these traits, but I just wanted to give a brief introduction to the subject.
So what if you’re attracted by any of these kind of body types? Well I believe there are a couple of things to be taken into account.
- Be aware of the cultureMake sure you understand that a “bearish culture” exist, and respect it. These group of people tend to be more open then other gay sub-cultures. If you’ve ever tried to go to a fashion-disco not properly dressed you’ll know what I mean, in those contests people tend to be a lot judgmental. Bear parties are instead typically more open. Which also means you shouldn’t be judgmental even if you don’t like the chubby type or older people.
- Don’t follow stereotypes. Because of their “openness” Bears are very often considered to be on the sleaziest side of gay sex. Which is not always the case. From a sexual point of view bears share the same range of sexual behaviors then any other kind of gay groups. Actually, I’ve met more “romantic” types of people among bears then among fashionstas just to make an example. So don’t expect of all of them to have a dungeon in their home and experiment only the s/m side of sex.
- Which leads to my last suggestion, Be sure about what you’re looking for and what you like. Or maybe better, make sure you know what you don’t like. Again, bears are usually very open. They don’t have problems with their bodies, so they don’t like when other people comment on this. A friend of mine once had the “fantasy” of getting with a bear, but he then sort of was disgusted by the presence of hair on the back of the guy he went home with. Of course, this is absolutely personal taste. But if you’d like to meet up with people that refuse the usage of razors, you can’t pretend they’ve a smoothly waxed back! (But again, this varies a lot. There are many “bears” who take it as a mission to have their hairy bodies groomed to perfection!).
gayspirit.me/post/4685627585/103-sexual-partner-fantasy-bears
