What is a Bear?
We often forget that there is a difference between Being Gay and Gay Culture (some call it camp).
That was actually a major basis for the Bear movement. Guys that didn't fit into gay culture, just regular fellas that happen to be gay.
That was coopted by ...the GenX bears who didn't start their own thing but wanted in and brought the camp and culture with them without finding who they were and what they were getting into because the bears accepted people as who they were. Then by media sources that wanted to make a buck of the bear thing so they needed to main stream it and a lot of us have been left behind.
I say fuck them. I am still a bear, I am a gay man, I am proud of who I am and know I am not perfect or some stereotype ideal and I don't care. I am me, an individual, and that is a hell of a lot harder to be in this world of conformists than accepting some made up image or role I am supposed to fit in so I can be easily cataloged and merchandised to. I will take what I want from this world and leave the rest for them that want it.
See, REAL BEARS accept others for who they are, and they learn to accept themselves with all the faults, dreams and hopes intact.
We all have a lot in common, it's just that folks forget that as humans we all share some common things, we love, hate, fear, want, lust, and a list of other things that may not come from a media stream we are fed almost all of our waking hours. For those that abandon who they are for what they are told they should be, they are the lost and will be the forgotten for they have left nothing of themselves to this world.
That was actually a major basis for the Bear movement. Guys that didn't fit into gay culture, just regular fellas that happen to be gay.
That was coopted by ...the GenX bears who didn't start their own thing but wanted in and brought the camp and culture with them without finding who they were and what they were getting into because the bears accepted people as who they were. Then by media sources that wanted to make a buck of the bear thing so they needed to main stream it and a lot of us have been left behind.
I say fuck them. I am still a bear, I am a gay man, I am proud of who I am and know I am not perfect or some stereotype ideal and I don't care. I am me, an individual, and that is a hell of a lot harder to be in this world of conformists than accepting some made up image or role I am supposed to fit in so I can be easily cataloged and merchandised to. I will take what I want from this world and leave the rest for them that want it.
See, REAL BEARS accept others for who they are, and they learn to accept themselves with all the faults, dreams and hopes intact.
We all have a lot in common, it's just that folks forget that as humans we all share some common things, we love, hate, fear, want, lust, and a list of other things that may not come from a media stream we are fed almost all of our waking hours. For those that abandon who they are for what they are told they should be, they are the lost and will be the forgotten for they have left nothing of themselves to this world.