April 23, 2007

The Evolution of the Muscle Bear Cub

The day has finally come! After months of work, we've finally re-launched MuscleBearCub.com! This site has been one of my pet projects for about three years, and I've now been able to spin it off into it's own stand-alone website. The type of guys I'm looking to present at MuscleBearCub.com are also the same type of guys I'm attracted to in real life - beefy, hairy, mature "real men". It's been my pet project because, after careful consideration of various styles that the gay male community has adopted, the "Muscle Bear Cub" look could easily be a term you will hear a lot more often.

So where did "bears", "muscle bears", "bear cubs" and the hybird "Muscle BearCub" come from?

The "clone" look of the late 1970's (i.e. shorter hair, plaid shirts, tight jeans, boots, cookie cutter moustache, and painfully thin) replaced the gay "hippy" look of the early 1970's Stonewall era (i.e. willowy bodies, long hair, colorful flowing clothes and jewelry that more recently evolved into "faeries"). The "punks" of late 1970's and early 1980's (i.e. spikey, multi-colored hair, tight, ripped clothing and standard-issue motorcycle jackets) merged with the some of the clones and branched off into the burgeoning leather scene of the 1980's. The leather scene moved from underground to mainstream as it became more and more obsessed with title contests and accumulation of leather accessories and sex "toys".

After punk music became passe, the music itself was no longer a common denominator of cohesion, especially among gay punks. Many of the more "agro" punks broke off from the increasingly clone-like leather community and found a purpose in ACT UP in the early 1990's. ACT UP kids had unwittingly created their own style - motorcyle jacket covered in political stickers, black 501's and clunky boots. My personal observation (and a lot of people will resent this statement) is part of the reason ACT UP recruited so many members is because so many of the original activists were young, sexy "bad boys" with a cohesive fashion sense. ACT UP demonstrations often became opportunities to hook up with the sexiest guys in town.

The tried-and-true 1970's clones (that didn't die from AIDS) went on to invent the "circuit party", the gay subculture that is still, to this day, the predominant gay subculture that funds the related industries of gay travel, music, magazines, bars and fashion. The early circuit queens, partly to show they hadn't succumbed to wasting away with AIDS and partly as an ego boost to "prepare" for their next circuit party, began to grow their muscles bigger and bigger. They wanted to look better on the dancefloor when they took their shirts off and waved their hands in the air (like they just don't care...) Taking a cue from bodybuilding contests and fitness magazines, circuit queens started shaving their chest and body hair to properly display their hard work in the gym. Nutritional suppliments, steroid use and body fascism soon followed. Porn studios searched out these same types and further encouraged them to shave their pubes. It gave the illusion that their dicks looked bigger allowed the penetration shots to be seen more clearly.

In 1989, Bear Magazine emerged and coined the term "bear" to represent gay male humans that had ursine physical characterisics. Bear Magazine had a 10 year run, but folded just as the bear movement came into its own. Twinks don't stay twinks forever and we all put on a few pounds as we get older. Bear Magazine, bear clubs and the resulting bear circuit parties (which evolved from the blending of leather oriented "motorcycle runs" and conventional circuit parties) gave hope to guys who, by growing a beard and a belly, felt left out of the rest of the gay world.

I've always had an affinity for the bear community because, of all the subcultures within the gay subculture, bears seem to have the most fun, and I feel most at home at the type of events that cater to bears. Through my highly detailed and scientifically documented research into the bear community, I've noticed that even though the iconoclastic "chubby" bear seems to be the most prevalent in numbers, my research shows that the slightly younger, trimmer, more athletic type bear appears to the most attractive to bears of all sizes. No, I'm NOT saying that bears are secretly attracted to twinks and anorexics, I'm just saying that I think I've come up with a "name" for the type of guys that I think will have a universal appeal to a fast growning segment of the gay male population - "Muscle Bear Cub".

Over the past few years, the circuit scene as we know it seems to have peaked. The highly prized fresh meat in their 20's aren't seeking out gay-only culture. Kids are coming out younger, growing up more accepted by their peers and mixing in with the mainstream. At the same time, many of the older circuit "boyz" that no longer fit into their size 32 pants (from White Party 1998) have grown into hot daddies. They stopped shaving their chest and starving themselves the three weeks preceding Hotlanta. Sinewy muscle has turned into "beef" and creative outfits have been replaced by a creative collection of tribal and bear paw tattoos.

Currently, the bear community is a cross-roads style wise. Some people may chuckle at that statement, sighting that bears are more "anti-style", but I would counter that bear style is VERY defined, and even if it's not, anti-style is still a style itself. As gay male Americans age and the culture evolves, so does the erotic imagery created for that culture.

The gay porn industry is in many ways also at a cross-roads. Style-wise, the talk among the gay porn industry is that twink movies and websites have become oversaturated. Yes, there are still a lot of twink fans, but there are too many sites catering to that niche that new sites can't make money. So what IS the prevalent "look" of a contemporary gay porn star? There isn't one. In recent years, the industry has balked at the Jeff Styker / Ryan Idol / Falcon pornbot look and broke itself up into subgenres of subgenres. They've opted to create numerous individual niches that define, cater to, and hopefully satisfy smaller but more rabid fanbases. The industry is no longer ruled by a handful of players setting the standards. The downside is that there is only so much money to go around, and with so many players out there, the porn pie is getting cut into smaller and smaller slices.

So why "Muscle Bear Cub"? Following the niche-with-niche trends of both the gay porn industry and gay culture in general, I combined the identity and cohesiveness of the bear "community" with the inherant sex appeal of "evolved" circuit boys who have crossed over to be more approachable bear "cub" look.

I'm not the only porn producer thinking this way. Notice the guys being hired by Raging Stallion and Titan. They may not be true bears or bear cubs, but they are the type that appeal to bears. Even Falcon re-defined their Mustang line to feature gruff, furry guys with muscles and tattoos; a big departure from the clean-cut clone look that Falcon helped define.

To make MuscleBearCub.com more community oriented, I've added an extensive free section that allows bears and cubs to place free personal ads and participate in a discussion board. After viewing the husky, hairy, horny guys in the photo and video galleries of the MuscleBearCub.com VIP Room, the natural inclination would be to hook up with a live human. Hence the need for a hook-up site to advertise your wares.

Visit MuscleBearCub.com, post your pictures, discuss your upcoming bear event, cruise the cubs and most of all, have fun!

Posted by lavenderlounge at 9:47 AM

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