Physical, Behavioral, and Psychological Traits of Gay Men Identifying as Bears

Abstract

The Bear community exists as a subculture in reaction to the larger gay community. It rejects the normative idealized male beauty revered by mainstream gay men. While qualitative data document such self-identifiers as masculine-acting gay men who weigh more and have more body hair, there has to date been no quantitative analysis of this group’s characteristics. In response, we conducted two large-scale studies of gay men identifying as Bears (n = 469) to survey their self-reported physical, behavioral, and psychological traits. Our studies indicated that Bears were more likely to be hairier, heavier, and shorter than mainstream gay men. They reported wanting partners who were hairier and heavier. They were less likely to reject sexual partners and the partners they did reject were more likely to be young or weigh too little (i.e., were not bearish). Bears were more likely than mainstream gay men to enact diverse sexual behaviors (e.g., fisting, voyeurism) and were comparatively more masculine. Bears had lower self-esteem but were no less (or more) hypermasculine than non-Bears. We concluded that Bears are intensely sexual. We speculate that Bears are viewed as less attractive than what is traditionally considered to be attractive. The partners they can attract may be limited and, in response to this limitation, they may be particularly attuned to seek out partners who will not reject them. This condition may produce the low self-esteem exhibited and may explain how the Bear culture developed to ensure that even the heaviest, hairiest, and/or shortest individual can partner. Future analyses of the community’s health are warranted.

Beyond Sexual Orientation: Integrating Gender/Sex and Diverse Sexualities via Sexual Configurations Theory

“…2). For example, twink (e.g., youthful, typically white, gay men) represents an intersection between sexuality and age, gender/sex, and race/ethnicity, as does bear (e.g., masculine gay men with prominent and dark body and facial hair, often white) (Moskowitz, Turrubiates, Lozano, & Hajek, 2013). Stud reflects an intersection between sexuality, gender/sex, and race/ethnicity (e.g., a term used by/applied to African American lesbian masculine-identified/appearing women) (Moore, 2011).…”

Health Disparities Among Common Subcultural Identities of Young Gay Men: Physical, Mental, and Sexual Health

“…In general, physical characteristics and/or sexual interests distinguish many of these (Willoughby et al, 2008), with two particularly enduring and common groups known colloquially as Bears and Twinks. Men who identify as a Bear, or a Cub in the case of younger men, tend toward a larger body size and may also be somewhat hirsute (Moskowitz, Turrubiates, Lozano, & Hajek, 2013;Resnicow, Davis, & Zhang, 2009). These men tend to be active as a community (Kampf, 2000), with social groups, formal societies, and dedicated venues catering to this group since at least the 1980s (Manley, Levitt, & Mosher, 2007).…”

Human Sexual Orientation: The Importance of Evidentiary Convergence

“…We think that additional data should be collected to test whether the absence of difference in the 2D:4D digit ratios between gay and straight men does not result from the failure to distinguish between different forms of male androphilia before “we abandon the idea that gay males are under-masculinized”. Gay men self-label themselves into categories including the more feminine (potentially hypo-masculinized, self-identified as “twinks”) and more masculine or hyper-masculine (hairier and heavier and potentially hyper-masculinized, self-identified as “bears”) individuals (Blankenship, 2013; Hennen, 2005; Moskowitz, Turrubiates, Lozano, & Hajek, 2013). Similar gendered variations are not restricted to Anglo-Saxon culture.…”