Call for volunteers in a Bear-Research project
From a call for volunteers in a research experiment:
Unlocking the door on bear identity
BY MARCO FLORES
Published Thursday, 27-May-2010 in issue 1170 of Gay & Lesbian Times
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.
Bear culture advertises itself as racially inclusive (fliers, websites etc.) but remains overwhelmingly white. Hennen reports that of the bears he observed during his study, approximately 96 percent were white. He attributes this to the foundational image of the community, the bear itself, and how this image is perceived across racial lines. He traces the image of the bear back to the 1980s, when the bear movement sought to humanize the impersonality of the leather community by wearing teddy bears in their pockets - they were unwittingly drawing on a cultural history of white American masculinity. As historian Gail Bederman explains, the inspiration of the teddy bear, which came from President Teddy Roosevelt, embodied two contradictory ideas of manhood: civilized manliness and primitive masculinity. She explains that civilized manliness was characterized by the “worthy, moral attributes which the Victorian middle-class admired in a man.” Civilized manliness linked masculinity with whiteness. Primitive masculinity, however, referred to any characteristics that all men had - both good and bad. This primal masculinity was viewed as being threatened by the feminizing effects of civilization. Bears may unintentionally be reproducing the raced appeal of the bear image that equates the return to nature with whiteness. This is exacerbated by the racialized history of identification of people of color with animals. Men of color, not surprisingly, may be much less eager to embrace an identification with a bear or any other animal.
Reminds me of my never-finished, ever-expanding senior thesis on big men in porn - i too concluded that the bear ideology, even while espousing a blue-collar ethic, described it as a white-collar fantasy. White as in collar and skin tone.
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.
Marco Flores is a 30-year-old graduate student who works at a local neighborhood gay bar. He is pursuing a Master’s in Anthropology from San Diego State University with a focus in linguistic anthropology. His thesis research explores masculinity and how it is embodied in the bear identity, a gay male subculture with which he identifies, and how it is expressed through symbols, specifically gestures, word choice and fashion.
Unlocking the door on bear identity
BY MARCO FLORES
Published Thursday, 27-May-2010 in issue 1170 of Gay & Lesbian Times
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.
Bear culture advertises itself as racially inclusive (fliers, websites etc.) but remains overwhelmingly white. Hennen reports that of the bears he observed during his study, approximately 96 percent were white. He attributes this to the foundational image of the community, the bear itself, and how this image is perceived across racial lines. He traces the image of the bear back to the 1980s, when the bear movement sought to humanize the impersonality of the leather community by wearing teddy bears in their pockets - they were unwittingly drawing on a cultural history of white American masculinity. As historian Gail Bederman explains, the inspiration of the teddy bear, which came from President Teddy Roosevelt, embodied two contradictory ideas of manhood: civilized manliness and primitive masculinity. She explains that civilized manliness was characterized by the “worthy, moral attributes which the Victorian middle-class admired in a man.” Civilized manliness linked masculinity with whiteness. Primitive masculinity, however, referred to any characteristics that all men had - both good and bad. This primal masculinity was viewed as being threatened by the feminizing effects of civilization. Bears may unintentionally be reproducing the raced appeal of the bear image that equates the return to nature with whiteness. This is exacerbated by the racialized history of identification of people of color with animals. Men of color, not surprisingly, may be much less eager to embrace an identification with a bear or any other animal.
Reminds me of my never-finished, ever-expanding senior thesis on big men in porn - i too concluded that the bear ideology, even while espousing a blue-collar ethic, described it as a white-collar fantasy. White as in collar and skin tone.
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.
Marco Flores is a 30-year-old graduate student who works at a local neighborhood gay bar. He is pursuing a Master’s in Anthropology from San Diego State University with a focus in linguistic anthropology. His thesis research explores masculinity and how it is embodied in the bear identity, a gay male subculture with which he identifies, and how it is expressed through symbols, specifically gestures, word choice and fashion.