What is a bear?
One of the most common questions in beardom is “What is a bear?” One of the most annoying answers is “It depends.” Well it does depend on a lot of factors. Mostly it depends on your own background.
One of the things I love about traveling is seeing different cultures. Within that, people in different areas have different ideas about what constitutes a “bear.” At the IBR contest, I noted that every New York contestant had a healthy amount of leather on, that the idea of bears and leather are intrinsically linked. (In San Francisco, I think they’re two separate entities, and although a number of bears enjoy leather, myself included, I’ve known friends who’ve dressed up in full leather and then get stares when they go to the Lone Star.) Personally, I think it’s the working man type, Carhartts, Dickies, Ben Davis, although it’s heavily joked in San Francisco that most of the bears in San Francisco who wear this rarely have to do more manual labor than getting under their desk to swap out a hard drive, myself included.* (Some people even view it as a rebellion against our desk-bound workstyle.) In the south, it’s the cowboy, the ranch herder, again even though a lot of these bears rarely get out of Dallas. In the Midwest, it might be the farmer type. In the southeast, it might be the good-ole-boy. In the northwest, it might be the lumberjack type. And that’s just within the United States.
When I was traveling to Europe, people abroad have a different idea entirely. Just due to plain genetics or diet, people might not be all that hairy or heavy. Their inspiration might be a rugby or soccer player, or even a skinhead. I found a lot of the latter in Germany. A lot of my British friends in San Francisco like a healthy amount of Ben Sherman, Fred Perry and Lonsdale, even though most of them are pretty slender and hairless, they definitely consort heavily with the bears, and we’re glad to have ’em.
So on my last day in Germany, I came across such a Lonsdale polo in a shop window. Unfortunately, the store was closed (damn German blue laws), and wasn’t open again until after I left the next morning. A friend told me to check e-bay. I did, and I finally found one, and after some mistries (see also my other post My E-bay account has been hacked by Puritans!), it finally came this week. That with an appropriate pair of jeans and Carolina boots, I gotta say it looks pretty damn hot. Thanks to that adorable German cub for the inspiration. Who says you only gotta wear Carhartts. :-)
* I got pegged in Paris as not only an American, but as a San Franciscan. The cashier at a shop explained in broken English that there's only one place in the world they wear Carhartt jeans and Paul Frank shirts, and I said "Well snaps for you man, because you're absolutely right." I really need to backfill those stories in my blog. :-)
One of the things I love about traveling is seeing different cultures. Within that, people in different areas have different ideas about what constitutes a “bear.” At the IBR contest, I noted that every New York contestant had a healthy amount of leather on, that the idea of bears and leather are intrinsically linked. (In San Francisco, I think they’re two separate entities, and although a number of bears enjoy leather, myself included, I’ve known friends who’ve dressed up in full leather and then get stares when they go to the Lone Star.) Personally, I think it’s the working man type, Carhartts, Dickies, Ben Davis, although it’s heavily joked in San Francisco that most of the bears in San Francisco who wear this rarely have to do more manual labor than getting under their desk to swap out a hard drive, myself included.* (Some people even view it as a rebellion against our desk-bound workstyle.) In the south, it’s the cowboy, the ranch herder, again even though a lot of these bears rarely get out of Dallas. In the Midwest, it might be the farmer type. In the southeast, it might be the good-ole-boy. In the northwest, it might be the lumberjack type. And that’s just within the United States.
When I was traveling to Europe, people abroad have a different idea entirely. Just due to plain genetics or diet, people might not be all that hairy or heavy. Their inspiration might be a rugby or soccer player, or even a skinhead. I found a lot of the latter in Germany. A lot of my British friends in San Francisco like a healthy amount of Ben Sherman, Fred Perry and Lonsdale, even though most of them are pretty slender and hairless, they definitely consort heavily with the bears, and we’re glad to have ’em.
So on my last day in Germany, I came across such a Lonsdale polo in a shop window. Unfortunately, the store was closed (damn German blue laws), and wasn’t open again until after I left the next morning. A friend told me to check e-bay. I did, and I finally found one, and after some mistries (see also my other post My E-bay account has been hacked by Puritans!), it finally came this week. That with an appropriate pair of jeans and Carolina boots, I gotta say it looks pretty damn hot. Thanks to that adorable German cub for the inspiration. Who says you only gotta wear Carhartts. :-)
* I got pegged in Paris as not only an American, but as a San Franciscan. The cashier at a shop explained in broken English that there's only one place in the world they wear Carhartt jeans and Paul Frank shirts, and I said "Well snaps for you man, because you're absolutely right." I really need to backfill those stories in my blog. :-)
posted by Joe Carlin at 5:37 PM
1 Comments:
Note... those stories are now backfilled. :-) Check out November and December 2004.
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