I’m going to be completely frank with you. The “Between Bear and Bare” piece that Fleshbot‘s Brian O’Brien wrote for Next magazine annoyed the shit out of me. It just exacerbated this idea that the gay world is basically bears vs. twinks, when there’s so much more to our culture than the decision to rock facial hair. I mean, maybe I missed the point? Was it something about pandas? Hipsters? Oscar Wilde? Scotch Inkom? Colby Keller?
Meh, I’m willing to put it in the past! Brian’s a cool dude, so I’m not trying to start trouble with him. Plus, the illustrations that accompanied his piece were pretty fucking brilliant. Rumor has it that they were done by an artist named Justin Russo, as a sneak peek of his upcoming “Beard Project” series. Or maybe it’s not a rumor at all. My brain’s not functioning very well this morning.
– Dewitt
Photo credit: Justin Russo
To see a few of Justin’s other pieces, follow the JUMP:
This one’s not related to the project, but it’s pretty!
Fuck!! those are actually class!!
What annoys me is the notion that a “Bear” is anyone with any degree of body hair. When the term was first coined wasn’t it a descriptor of men who are *both* stocky/plump and hairy? These days its any body type with any degree of hair…and that is too broad a definition to make the term particularly useful.
I agree Tuc_bi_guy
Exactly. People who haven’t taken the time to understand the many facets of bear culture tend to just group anyone remotely hairy in the “bear” category.
Oh, you have a beard? BEAR. A single chest hair? BEAR.
It’s ridiculous, but no more ridiculous than the bear community barring out certain people who are “not bears”.
Oy, this isn’t making sense… I think I need my midday coffee.
::sigh::