That their isolation from urban society (and hence from mainstream gay culture) opened up aįantasy of both secrecy and liberation, within an idyllic, rural, North American setting. Gay men at aesthetic levels but also for the fact that they were working class, and for the fact Lumberjacks were romanticized and fetishised in gay culture long before the arrival of the BearĬoncept, and the Bear concept retains strong traces of this older ideal. Image provides the Bear trope its metaphorical appeal. A romantic conflation of the bear and the lumberjack The ideal of the North American lumberjack. Bears are typically very similar in appearance to Is at the heart of the Bear concept's appeal. The bear is both fat and powerful, and the reconciliation of these two qualities These features include the animal's hairiness, its solid proportions, and its