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78 6 Fat. Hairy. Sexy Contesting Standards of Beauty and Sexuality in the Gay Community Nathaniel C. Pyle and Noa Logan Klein Alex’s jaw practically dropped into his lap when Dr. Nelson told him he was gay. It’s not that Alex is ignorant about homosexuality. In fact, he identifies as gay himself. He had come to Dr. Nelson’s office hours to discuss a research project relating to sexual orientation and had casually sought information about another professor’s sexual identity because he was looking for a gay mentor. Alex asked, “Is Professor Gardner gay?” Knowing that Dr. Gardner was open about his sexual orientation, Dr. Nelson answered, “Yes, he is. And so am I.” This revelation was shocking to Alex because Dr. Nelson weighs over three hundred pounds and sports a full gray beard. In other words, he does not fit the stereotype of a young, thin, and effeminate gay man. Alex walked out of Dr. Nelson’s office with the realization that he had had this image subconsciously in mind and had assumed Dr. Nelson was heterosexual because of his body size and gender presentation. Stereotypes and assumptions about gay men’s bodies are prevalent within and outside the gay male community. Media images of young, thin, and hairless gay men marginalize those who do not fit this narrow ideal. In this chapter, we introduce a group of gay men who resist body image norms: fat gay men, bears, and their admirers. Even within marginalized communities and social movements, there are institutionalized power relations. Men whom the gay male community considers beautiful (young, skinny, hairless) have an easier time navigating their social world (Levine 1998; Pyle and Loewy 2009). Men whose bodies do not conform to this narrow beauty ideal or whose sexual attractions are to men whose bodies do not conform to this type often feel ostracized in conventional gay spaces, such as bars, nightclubs, and community organizations (Hennen 2008; Pyle and Loewy 2009). As a result, these men have created alternative spaces in which they feel comfortable and, through gathering together, have begun to form identities as big men, bears, and their admirers (also known as chasers). Big men, or chubs, are large-bodied or fat gay men and bears are masculine, hirsute, and often large-bodied gay men. As spaces for big men, bears, and chasers grow and more men congregate, these individuals and groups begin to take on a more public presence at pride events and other queer community functions (Hennen 2008). Their public presence is an embodied contestation of queer power re- Contesting Standards of Beauty and Sexuality in the Gay Community 79 lations, legitimizing a broad range of body types that include fat and hairy male bodies and a multiplicity of sexual identities that includes attraction to these bodies. By applying Verta Taylor and Nella Van Dyke’s (2004) definition of tactical repertoires to ethnographic, interview, and focus group data, we illustrate how big men, bears, and chasers use their bodies to challenge the institutionalized power relations that define sexiness within the gay male community. The Gay Male Beauty Myth As with other minority groups, the mainstream media often limit or narrowly stereotype representations of gay men. The one-dimensional image of the gay man in popular culture encompasses certain personality traits and physical characteristics: he is a young, white, thin, hairless, effeminate, shallow, flamboyant queen (Battles and Hilton-Morrow 2002). The mainstream gay media also promote a single body type as standard for gay men: young, hairless, and thin or muscular (Levine 1998; Locke 1997). The prevalence of these media representations creates an enormous pressure on gay men to conform to this narrow ideal body type (Locke 1997), much like the beauty standards that are imposed on women and have been thoroughly analyzed by feminists (Bordo 2003; Wolf 2002). Rates of eating disorders and other body image disturbances are high among gay men (Olivardia 2004), which may be taken as evidence that body image ideals exert pressures on gay men similar in strength to those faced by heterosexual women. As gay community centers and support groups began addressing the needs of the gay community in urban centers around the country, small groups of gay men who did not conform to or were not attracted to the “gay ideal” body type also began to form. Just as not all bodies conform to the social ideal, sexual attraction does not always conform to mainstream notions of beauty. For example, some people...

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