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Books by and about bears range from scholarly tomes like the Les Wright-edited Bear Books to Ray Kampf's humorous Bear Handbook and Tim Barela's always delightful "Leonard and Larry" compilations. Ron Jackson Suresha two new bear-books, Bears on Bears and Bearotica, contribute in their own way to this burgeoning literature even as they try to answer the often-repeated question, "What is a Bear?" "I am not a bear," writes Suresha, in his Introduction to Bears on Bears. "I am a Homo sapiens, of course - a thickly hairy-chested, usually full-bearded, increasingly middle-age-paunched, and balding gay man. Does that make me a Bear, a capital B Bear, one who identifies with the gay male subculture that was birthed in the mid 20th-century gay masculine culture, came of age in 1980s San Francisco, and is flourishing in its young adulthood worldwide as we turn the corner into the 21st century?" Suresha modestly ignores his own bear credentials. After all, this is the man who lived with one of the creators of BEAR back in the 1980s, who created signs, graphics and promotions for San Francisco's Lone Star Saloon (the world's first bonafide "bear bar"), who's been a member of the Chesapeake Bay Bears, Motor City Bears, New England Bears, and Rhode Island Grizzlies, and who was a judge for the International Mr. Bear 2000 contest. Nope, if anyone can claim to be a bear authority, it has to be Ron Jackson Suresha. Perhaps we are asking the wrong question. In the words of Les Wright, "The discussion seems to have shifted from 'What is a Bear?' to 'Who is a Bear?'" Whatever Suresha himself might be, his book Bears On Bears: Interviews and Discussions (Alyson Books; 351 pages; $14.95) "attempts to answer the "Who is a Bear?" question by presenting candid interviews of and discussions with Bears in an accessible format. From a rich variety of perspectives and backgrounds, this book allows Bears, as well as some non-Bearish Bear lovers, to describe, in their own words, themselves, their lives and loves, their sense of masculinity, and their flourishing community-cum-culture." Suresha is understandably proud that "Bears have made exciting cultural inroads where other gay men have dared not set their paws." It is a triumph of sorts that Richard Hatch, the winner of the first Survivor TV show, is an openly gay bear. The subjects of Suresha's "interviews and discussions" are a virtual "who's who" of Bear culture and include Wright, Hatch, Tim Barela, David Bergman, Michael Bronski, Jack Fritscher, Lawrence Mass, Jack Radcliffe, Eric Rofes, Bruce Vilanch and Rex Wockner. Though they don't seem to agree on who or what a Bear is, they come up with comments and ideas that are often interesting, sometimes infuriating, and occasionally earth-shattering. (See the interviews with the FTM "transbears" for the last one.) We should note that Bears on Bears is "the first interview book (gay-themed or otherwise) to be compiled primarily from online transactions." Bears are nothing if not cutting-edge.
Somebody once said that while lesbians tend to politicize their
differences, gay men tend to eroticize our differences. The gay bear
community and culture wouldn't have gotten anywhere if there weren't many of
us who thought big, hairy, bearded men were sexy. Unfortunately, most gay
erotic writing seems to evolve around the hairless twink or the equally buff
muscleman. Once again to the rescue comes Ron Jackson Suresha who, this time
as plain Ron Suresha, has edited Bearotica: Hot, Hairy, Heavy Fiction (Alyson
Books).
Framed by a cover photo of the stunning bear model Chad Brown, Bearotica's "hot, hairy and heavy fiction" includes sizzling bearsex stories by the likes of David Bergman (who's also featured in Bears on Bears), Trevor J. Callahan, Jr., Simon Sheppard, Thom Wolf and Karl von Uhl. Like bearsex itself, Bearotica can be both soft and hard, playful and commanding, cuddly and crushingly potent." To which I add, woof!
Jesse Monteagudo is a left-handed, Cuban-Jewish, nudist leather bear who lives in South Florida with his husbear. He can be reached at jessemonteagudo@aol.com |
During the last 15 years, the gay bear community has grown to the extent
that we now have our own body of literature. Bear periodicals range from the
classic BEAR magazine - which literally defined the genre - to American Bear
and, more recently, Inside Bear.