Call for volunteers in a Bear-Research project

[paladincub21]

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

Comments

Call for volunteers in a Bear-Research project

[mondragon]

The funniest statements come from the over-thinkers and the haters. Both groups are big on talking about things they've fabricated out of their own desires and resentments.

Re: Call for volunteers in a Bear-Research project

[mondragon]

That's *totally* me in a nutshell!

[fabulist]

It's the old E.M. Forster lust for the working man, alas.

Still, if it weren't for the bear thing, I'd never get laid.

[mondragon]

I think it's long past time to retire the marxy blue-collar vs white-collar thing.

One does not need to fetishize an entire class of people and all the aspects to notice that men who are less groomed are hotter to them. It's just so outmoded to talk about men who work at desks dressing inappropriately for their class when they put on tshirts and jeans onthe weekend.

These are clothes that are low-mAintenance, look good on fat guys, and you can spill food on them.

[paladincub21]

I'd probably agree with you that the distinction seems silly and specious, but no less true in the perspective of the wider world.

This is not an observation of personal taste, but an observation of a cultural predilection towards blue collar masculinity being perceived as more primal, hotter, truer, and stronger than white collar masculinity. It permeates not just Bear but American culture, all the way down to sitcoms privleging blue collar bodies as being "more salt of the earth"/"honest"/"Wiser" than the losers who work behind a desk.

I think you are preaching to the choir here in terms of getting away from privileging blue-collar as something special, but I find it hard to deny that the culture at large deeply believes in a blue collar/white collar divide.

[mondragon]

Sarah Palin uses it to her advantage.

As far as sit-coms, I don't watch a lot but I think it's currently far more likely that these men will be presented as simple, bumbling clowns in need of the control of their far-smarter borderline bit hy wives.

In a way that no one would buy if the guy was pulling down a 6 figure salary.

[hermes3x3]

I personally wonder where he sees bear culture as being racially inclusive. Most advertisements I have seen tend to be all white, even (at least in SoCal) most of the participants are not.

It seems to me that the way the majority philosophically plays down minorities is to make them less then human in the mind of hte majority. This applies to race, as much as does to religion, culture and sexual orientation.

[paladincub21]

Hence why I was so amazed that Bear Bar in Long Beach was primarily hispanic; that's so rare and an analysis of marketing for soCal would be an awesome thing.

[mondragon]

The gym I went to near wall st was mostly non-whites. Pretty unique for the area, and I asked a few of them why that was. I was told that it was the only gym in the area where there were other black guys (other than trainers.). One begat two begat a majority.

[hermes3x3]

SoCal and LA is primarily hispanic. Whitey is the minority around here.

[mondragon]

And seriously, isn't dressing sloppy to go out very much a white guy thing?

[paladincub21]

hah, i would agree with you, if there wasn't an large barrier in many folks mind to think of non-white folks as being anything but white-collar from the get-go.