It has long been known that there is no one type of gay man and that generalizations about their appearance or behavior are hazardous. A newly published “scoping review” (i.e. a search of published scholarship) in the journal Psychology & Sexuality identifies a range of different subcultures that have been the object of scholarly interest. Of the 80 articles they found that deal with specific subcultures, almost half concerned “bears” (heavy-set, usually bearded men with ample body hair), with a substantial number focusing on the related categories of “leathermen” and “daddies.” Other popular objects of study (in descending order) were drag queens, “twinks” (i.e. slender, barely adult young men with little facial or body hair), jocks, “otters” (slender younger men with beards and ample body hair), “cubs” (younger bears), and “house/ball” community (a black and Latino subculture of drag queens and their admirers, formed into friend groups called “houses” that compete with each other at drag balls: think Paris Is Burning). Published articles on these groups examine their distinctive community spaces, sexual preferences and risk behaviors, stigma, substance use, body image, and other indices of psychosocial well-being. Look up your favorite group and see what researchers have been saying about them.
How Many Gay Subcultures Are There?
