{See my earlier letter to the Advocate at http://www.livejournal.com/users/wolfbear/#item37840]
Hiya Bruce,
Thanks for your very thoughtful response. I realized that the letter was a bit late off the pen, but I'm glad for the chance to articulate my thoughts about the piece.
As you know, LPI, who owns both Advocate and Out magazines, also owns Alyson, the publishers of three of my books, Bears on Bears, Bearotica, and Bear Lust, and with whom I've had a working relationship as a writer and editor for five years. I've written a piece for Advocate.com, and was interviewed for the positive piece on bears written last year by Larry Flick.
The point is that I wouldn't have bothered to stick my neck out to criticize the piece unless I felt that the highly unusual editorial decision to run a parody stereotyping bears in a news magazine (albeit one too often focused on fashion, pop culture, and celebrity) indicates a bias that needs to be addressed.
At first blush, I thought the “Bear or Gay” piece was kinda sorta funny, but following on the heels of the very tired Bear/Otter/Cub typology piece in Out, I started to regard the piece less humorously. The Advocate earlier this year ran an op-ed piece entitled, “Why I'm not a bear,” that also skewed the positive aspects of bear subculture and identity.
Parodies are very hard to pull off, and parodies of parodies even harder. There are standards of satire that can be applied to any creative work. In my opinion, this piece ultimately fell short of its mark. Your mileage may vary. Now, I was aware when I wrote the critique that Advocate staff had written the piece; but the fact that bears themselves created this self-parody doesn't excuse the negative treatment.
I pay more attention to bear images and masculine representations in the glbtq media than probably any underpaid writer should. I try to keep my finger on the pulse of the goings-on of bearclubs, bear businesses, organizations, and of bear-identified individuals of every stripe, and to report on the unique contributions to gay and mainstream culture that bears make in many small and large (and XXX-large!) ways.
I try to include humor and parody in my “Bear Stew” column for American Bear mag (archived at my website). So I'm used to taking a gentle poke at the ways of fur-obsessed bears, including myself.
What doesn't make me laugh is the fact that there are so many beneficent and interesting and heart-warming and progressive things that bearmen are accomplishing, individually and together as bears, that deserve not merely recognition and media coverage but celebration, yet are routinely ignored.
Editorial space is not cheap. Running silly derivative pictorial fluff instead of paying attention to what's really going on in bears' lives and communities, in my mind, demonstrates some sort of editorial bias. Bears, as well as leathermen, bu men, and other marginalized queer subsubcultures, are vibrant and evolving aspects of contemporary gay life, and certainly are worthy of much more accurate and visible representation in gay media.
Thanks again for being open to my input.
allbest,
Ron
On Mon, December 13, 2004 5:46 pm, Bruce Steele said:
> Ron:
>
> Thanks for writing. I'm sorry you didn't like “Bear or
> Straight?” and that we didn't get your letter in time to
> consider it for publication in the magazine.
>
> The piece was conceived and written by our Deputy Arts
> Editor, Alonso Duralde, who is well acquainted with the bear
> community and its sensitivities, and we remain quite proud
> of it.
>
> Yep, it's full of allusions to bear stereotypes. That was,
> after all, the point: To send up the stereotypes.
>
> I'd like to think that Advocate readers of all body types
> are sophisticated enough to get the joke, but I also
> understand your fear that some people won't see past the
> stereotypes. That's always a risk with parody.
>
> I do hope you know that the gay bear community has more than
> one major advocate on staff at The Advocate. We're very
> short on young, thin, fashion-obsessed prissy queens here in
> the news room. The lighting simply isn't flattering, I
> guess.
>
> Thanks again for your feedback. Please feel free to write me
> any time with your comments, complaints, suggestions, or
> just good jokes.
>
> Take care,
>
> -Bruce
>
>
> Bruce C. Steele
> Editor-in-Chief
> THE ADVOCATE and Advocate.com
