Seeing Stars, Furry Stars

[eggwards]

A few weeks ago I railed a bit about a newspaper feature piece about bears that seemed to be trying to find celebrities in the bear community in order to define what a bear is. It was my contention that the two people chosen by the author, writer Andrew Sullivan and former football athlete Esara Tualo may have bearish qualities, but they don't identify as bears, at least not consistently.

It was my opinion that the bear community is mostly made up of regular joes, not celebrities, and certainly to the outside world, most wouldn't know the names below. There's something about the community that seems to eschew the idea that there would be celebrities. Most times when we try to define "bear" to someone outside, we have to point out a bear-ish, but straight man to define the type, and even then, it's hard to say what is a bear.

But what makes a bear celebrity? There are many talented people in out community, from photographers like Chris Glasschrisglass to writers like Dave White djmrswhite. We have actors like Neil Badders mrdreamjeans and musicians like Kendallkendallrants. Just a few among many.

We have people in new media like podcasting and website design and others who are comedians and broadcasters. And yes, there are porn stars. Perhaps there should be more porn stars on the list below, but how many are really "names"? Even bear porn seems to be more democratic, with many unpayed guys and less based on a group of well known players.

I don't want to explain it too much, you either know the name, or you don't.

The list below is definitely short a few people, and I left a spot to nominate another person or two. Sadly, LJ made me split the list into two, but it was in an attempt to put in as many as possible. I did include Andrew Sullivan, but not Esara, and I included Armistead Mauipn who many might not think of as a bear, but in his new book seems to acknowledge bear culture. It's your decision of who's a bear and who isn't.


[Poll #1022829]

Please pardon me for any misspellings of names, OK? this is also not to pit people against each other, just to see what people think, and who's known around these parts. Lord knows the list is a little heavy on LJ'ers, for one thing!

Comments

[furfairy.livejournal.com]

I seem to have waken up wearing the jaundiced sunglasses.

Most of the people (or personas) on the list are unknown to me. A couple of the ones I am acquainted with have dedicated their lives to increasing their visibility to feed their vanity. That's not a stereotypically bear-like motivation.

Groups, like the bear community, are so hard to define anyway.

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

It's OK, both bear and celebrity are somewhat fluid in their definition, hence why I asked the question. I just wanted to see how other people saw the community.

[djmrswhite.livejournal.com]

i am honored to be mentioned as a writer that some people enjoy reading, but i think it's hilarious that anyone would think of me as anything approaching a celebrity

[chrisglass.livejournal.com]

What Dave said (insert up arrow).

I should admit, Jack Radcliffe made me gay.

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

Then you're a well known writer in the community, then, and writing for a mainstream website, now and again. I enjoy the writing and so do others.

Would the word "Notorious" be more to your liking? :-)

[lostncove.livejournal.com]

Wait. Who the honk is The Nard?

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

He's the voice of the Bear Podcast.

I guess I also could have added Seumas beardoc as his podcast is taking off, too.

[barak.livejournal.com]

Utoh.

*takes cover from the ensuing "What is a Bear" thread thats bound to start up here*

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

Yes...that's one of those things....

ALSO I THINK I DESERVE TO WIN THIS POLL

[djmrswhite.livejournal.com]

by the way, PS, whoever fuckin votes for that douchechill bobaloo is FUCKIN DEAD TO ME

Re: ALSO I THINK I DESERVE TO WIN THIS POLL

[bobaloo.livejournal.com]

Look, Wendy Pepper's daughter...

You'd be more of a star if your face wasn't littered with unfortunate pockmarks....you know, like Cameron Diaz and Lindsey Lohan.

And besides, if you win this poll, then I'm going to US Weekly and perezhilton.com with a tell all about your wild party girl lifestyle.

SO EAT THAT GAYLORD.

[urso.livejournal.com]

I think the main issue is whether you mean "celebrity in the United States, "celebrity in the gay community," "celebrity in the bear community," or just "celebrity among bears who read LiveJournal."

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

Agreed, and that did make compliing the list...well, interesting. Most of it comes from noteably people here on LJ. Still, i tried to pick people who either did something community wide, or for soemthing outside the community, such as you and your work on archiving worlds fairs.

[aairplane.livejournal.com]

remember that striking picture of djmrswhite in the last issue of the advocate? i took that shit...

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

Excellent. It's all about the access for the paparatzi, isn't it?

Can you tell me how to get a good picture off of this damned Cannon Sure Shot?

[bookish-cub.livejournal.com]

I'm afraid that I don't recognize most of these names. I guess that pretty much answers the question for me, doesn't it?

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

Having met you and spent time with you and your partner, I hope at least you recognized my name:)

*wiping tear away*


*grin*

[moroccomole.livejournal.com]

I am big. It's my jeans that got small.

[robearal.livejournal.com]

LOL! Srsly. Can't stop laughing.

[hot4latin.livejournal.com]

"Sadly, LJ made me split the list into two...
OMG! You've finally quantified the A-List Bears^TM from the B-List Bears.

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

Not intentionally, but funny!

[quirkstreet.livejournal.com]

I am giggling at even being on the same list as some of those guys. Apparently I am not jaded by my own fabulousness yes. Must. Work. Harder. At. Jadedness. ;-)

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

You are published, you've been a speaker at events and you're a musician, not bad I'd say.

I'll call you jaded if it makes you horny!

[slacker-x.livejournal.com]

I have no idea who a good majority of those people are. I apparently need to get out more often.

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

A good majority of us are trying to figure out who we are ... it's one of the reasons we write on LJ:)

[robearal.livejournal.com]

Urso makes a very valid point: celebrity with whom? As I went through this list, I asked myself how this person could be considered a celebrity. Probably about half are on my LJ friends list, and I am familiar with others through their LJ, or their celebrity.

Does Armistead Maupin identify as a bear? Do others consider him a bear? Or is he included because he is a famous author that many bears like?

Urso is a celebrity of sorts within World's Fair fandom.
Nayland is a celebrity in the art world.
Randy could be considered a celebrity among up-and-coming playwrites.
Bobaloo and William (shelbycub) are both popular in the gay comedy circuit.
Alonso Duralde, Dave White and Larry Flick are celebrity gay journalists.

But, as several people have commented, many people have no idea who they are.

Celebrity is in the mind of the beholder.

[robearal.livejournal.com]

Oops. I sort of skipped over your exposition right to the poll, and managed to restate what you'd already said.

[magebear.livejournal.com]

I personally know a few, but don't consider any of them 'celebrities'...

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

The definition of celebrity is probably as flexible as bear. No problem there!

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

Naps are excellent.

Well, that's part of my question, do bears have celebrities, do they need them? Perhaps not.

[biggaloot.livejournal.com]

I'm sorta not getting this. First, what's the difference between a celebrity and a star? Second, why would anyone want to feed this contentious thing that snowballs on its own without any additional propulsion?

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

Well, I don't know the difference between a celebrity and a star...I think they are the same. Now, if you say that a star has talent, and a celebrity is just famous, I'd say most of my list could be stars, since they have some talennt of some kind.

Feed celebrity, or just this post?

[mrdreamjeans.livejournal.com]

This post and polling certainly stirred things up:)

I'm certainly not a celebrity, just a working theatre professional and happy about that. I am most fortunate to have friends like you who believe in me.

Thank you for the viritual boost:)

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

No problem. I find you more of a celebrity than say...myself, because you have trod some boards out there.

For some reason the Bear community doesn't seem to have a lot of actors. Plenty of other arts are represented, but few actors.

[scotbear.livejournal.com]

I'm curious what you saw in each of these people that made them potential celebrities in you eyes. I think you have to define what you mean. I personally am familiar with only about 4 names out of this entire list. The fact that the majority of responses say the same thing is significant as well. If you went to a bear run and showed this list to random bears, how may names would the average Joe recognize?

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

Well, for many of them they do something artistic that I aspire to. A few work in radio, some in tellevision, there's an actor, a playwright, some musicians and performers. They all do something artistic, and many of them have shows or albums or bylines and books. Now they are no where near mainstream famous, most of them, but they build an audience with the bear community. Sure, not everybear would know them, and i find there's lots of names people didn't recognize. they might know more about them if I added LJ names, but hey, LJ isn't fame, is it?

[eggwards.livejournal.com]

Well, yeah, i mentioned that Esara is an interesting case, because he isn't a bear, and doesn't hang around bears, but has been put in a magazine for bears...more for the publicity than for anything else I understand.

I think it's also one of those thing of when does soemthing overlap - is a biker a bear and a leatherman, or are they separate things that share some traits?

[kingfuraday.livejournal.com]

I gotta say it's odd seeing my name up there and odder still to see the the discussion that resulted... But thanks for considerin' me all the same.

Having said that - vote for me bitches, I gave yer furry asses free pictures of naked dudes... BobaWHO? Dave What?

Ha!

[garycotti.livejournal.com]

WHO THE FUCK IS BRIAN HILL?!?