April 19, 2002 GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE 13
evening sout
A look into the bears' den
Bears on Bears
Interviews and Discussions by Ron Jackson Suresha
Alyson, $14.95 trade paperback
Reviewed by Anthony Glassman
The gay community has, since its inception, divided itself into definable, easy-tolabel, digestible chunks. There were the artists, the activists, the clones, the butch dykes, the bi-curious college students, the drag queens.
As the years progressed and the community as a whole carved out a niche for itself, the labels and the groups changed. Soon, there were the pomosexuals (post-modern homosexuals), the ACTUP clones,
the
Leatherman, the bear community often requires a tenure as a "cub" before being considered a bear. The author brings together a trio of young bears and admirers to discuss that issue.
Jackson Suresha examines issues of race in the bear community, first in a discussion with an Asian-American bear chaser, later in a conversation with a black bear, a Latino bear and a bear of mixed Greek and West Indian heritage, and finally in a discussion with people involved in the bear movement around the world.
BEARS
ON
E
BEARS
alternaqueers, the punk dykes, the b-boys. Throughout it all, however, there were people who never really felt included. Some were of a different mindset, some were physically different than those around them. In a community that has, in the last two decades, worshipped a male physique that was either thin or compactly muscular, smooth-chested and oiled, where do the heavy-set, hirsute men fit in?
That is the question that Bears on Bears. a collection of conversations and interviews by author and journalist Ron Jackson Suresha seeks to answer from as many different angles as possible.
One of the topics discussed is identification: If someone is hirsute and stocky, are they then automatically a bear, or is there a necessary aspect of self-actualization as a bear?
He also delves into the issues of racism and reverse ageism in the bear community. As in the leather community, where someone who is quite young might have to earn their chops as a "boy" before they become a
He also goes where others would fear to tread in conversations with transgendered bears and lesbians who identify as bears.
Like any discussion moderated by an insider, the book is both insightful and seemingly selfserving, although perhaps not in as blatant or unnecessary a way as many autobiographies have been of late. As a member of a group that is still, to an extent, on the fringes of gay consciousness in America, a certain selfserving quality is necessary. At the bars, for instance, someone with a full
beard and 30 extra pounds on their frame is still the outsider (unless it's a bar where bears might congregate), and sticking one's foot in the door can always be viewed as being selfserving.
Jackson Suresha will be touring Ohio to promote this book and his other one, Bearotica, also a current release from Alyson. On Tuesday, April 23, he will be at Pink Pyramid, 907 Race Street in Cincinnati, 513621-7465. Sunday, April 28, he will be in Columbus at An Open Book, 685 N. High Street, 614-291-8766. He will wrap up his Ohio sojourn the next night, April 29, at Body Language, 3291 W. 115th St, Cleveland (the northeast corner of W. 115th and Lorain Ave.), 216-251-3330.
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