Bears on Bears

by Ron Jackson Suresha

Bears, for the uninitiated, are gay men who defiantly challenge society's ideal of physical appearance, who celebrate the fact that they are often large, hairy, and don't give a hoot about what fashions are parading down the runway. Ron Suresha's thought-provoking, humorous long-form interviews with men, including editor David Bergman, cartoonist Tim Barela, and comedian and writer Bruce Vilanch examine questions of gay male stereotyping, commodification of the human body, the oppressiveness of the "physical ideal," and how body image affects personal growth. Ron Suresha's work has appeared in American Bear, The Gay and Lesbian Review Worldwide, In Newsweekly, Gay Community News, White Crane Journal , Art & Understanding , The Bear Book, and The Bear Book II . He lives in Boston.

Genres: LGBT, Nonfiction, Gay, Queer

308 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 2002

Reviews

[Imogen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well, I didn't expect to get as sucked into this as I did- what happened was, I oragnized most of my books that were put out by small publishers BY publisher, instead of subject or whatever, and I realized that Alyson basically only publishes awesome books mostly. (Nine has already made this point.) So I picked it up like, hey, bears! A demographic I know about theoretically but not so much in experience. And I got sucked in! I sat in the back yard throwing the thing for the dog and reading for three mornings straight, before work.

It's interesting how every single queer sub-community ("scene" seems too, I don't know, shallow, so "subcommunity") has the exact same narrative: we felt like there wasn't room for us in the dominant narrative, so we started this new subcommunity, but then then as the subcommunity got codified we felt like there wasn't room for us in there any more, either. Maybe it's not even just queer subcommunities, I bet! It probably happens with everything and everyone everywhere.

So anyway, yeah. In a conversational anthology like this, there obviously are going to be geniuses and douchebags, and man. There were douchebags. Like, I understand that Jack Fritscher is important and has done good work, but he comes off like SUCH an ASSHOLE in his interview: "I am in charge of everything," "I'm a genius," "There's nothing harder in this world than being a man, because you're not allowed to make fun of anybody else but you can still make fun of men." What? Whatever you say, Jack Fritscher.

I also was knocked over a little by the fact that Bruce Villance had really insightful things to say! Bruce fuckin Villanche, who'd've thought he'd go on record saying no particularly funny hard truths. He kind of started being a douchebag as his interview went on. I wish I could remember specifics.

And man! Haha, the converstion about dyke and ftm bear-identified people is already so antiquated, even though it's only eight years old.

Also it is charming that in this book the internet is all newfangled and exciting, and there's an actual glossary of terms like "lol" and ";-)" in the back.

[Lauren]

I've only read the intro and the first interview (so far) but I'm loving this book already. I've decided Bears are to gay bois what Femmes are to gay grrls. Now I'm confused, am I femmey tomboy or a bear cub?

[Nicolas Mann · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed the incite on this cloistered society of Hirsute men.