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{{trope}}
[[File:kazuma_bear_778kazuma bear 778.jpg|frame|link=http://wolf.fang.or.jp/kazuma/|A muscled bear and a musclebear.]]
{{quote|''Did you know that in the gay community a hairy man is called a Bear?''|'''Stan Smith''', '''''[[American Dad (Animation)|American Dad]]'''''}}
 
In gay slang, a "[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bear_<!--:Bear 28gay_culture29(gay culture)|bear]]" is a hairy ManlyGay[[Manly Gay]] man with a delightful CarpetOfVirility[[Carpet --of andVirility]]—and not always just on their chests. Very often bears are also [[BigBeautifulManBig Beautiful Man|voluptuously heavy set]] and [[GrandmaWhatMassiveHotnessYouHaveGrandma, What Massive Hotness You Have!|at least middle-aged]], but these are not definitive requirements. Exceptionally thin hairy guys in the bear community are often called "otters", younger hairy guys are often called "cubs" or "pups", and especially muscular bears are often called "muscle bears" or "bulls". A "husbear" is a term some men use for their bearish boyfriends or husbands. -->
 
Bears don't appear as often in entertainment for mainstream audiences, where [[Queer As Tropes|gay stereotypes]] [[Small Reference Pools|more familiar]] [[Lowest Common Denominator|to the audience]] predominate. But bears are common in the gay community and in LGBT-made works, and ubiquitous in modern gay porn and [[Bara]]. Where bears do appear, they announce themselves by their body type appearance, as the Bear is as much about [[Fetish Fuel]] and [[Rule of Sexy]] as it is about subculture.
 
''Usually'' a subtrope of [[Manly Gay]], and the polar opposite of [[The Twink]] (though "cubs" tend to have a similar disposition). Frequently overlaps with [[Badass]], [[Big Beautiful Man]], [[Cool Old Guy]], [[Leather Man]] or [[Petting Zoo People]]. In fact this trope overlaps with [[Big Beautiful Man]] ''so often'' that [[Your Mileage May Vary|some people]] would consider them the same trope -- excepttrope—except that technically this trope is about body hair and the other trope is about body fat.
 
Though this trope always ''involves'' gay men, the targets of bearish interest need not always be gay. This trope can apply to straight men who gay men acknowledge as attractive for their bearish looks. For this to be objectively applied, it has to be deliberate in a story. For [[Real Life]] examples, the straight men have to have acknowledged their bear fanbase. All examples solely acknowledged by gay fans should go in [[Fan Yay]].
 
For actual bears, see [[EverythingsEverything's Worse Withwith Bears]], [[Beary Funny]], and [[Pandaing to Thethe Audience]].
 
Not to be confused with ''[[The Bear (Filmfilm)|The Bear]]''
 
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{{examples}}
=== The following works have featured [[The Bear]]: ===
 
== Comic Books ==
* In ''[[Circles]]'', Arthur is a gay bear in his 40s who is also...[[Petting Zoo People|a bear]].
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* Referenced in ''[[Warehouse 13]]'' Artie (hairy, rotund, and middle aged) was about to admit that he loved someone (a girl) when he figured out which artifact was causing this week's trouble. He uses the Jewish name, which sounds like a man's name. The (older) man with him responds. [[Crowning Moment of Funny|"I didn't know you were homosexual. Are you what they call a Bear?"]]
* On [[Glee]], this trope is [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshaded]] and discussed by {{spoiler|Kurt and David Karofsky, who we find out in season three has taken to hanging out at a local gay bar and been dubbed a bear cub because of his youth and rather burly stature. Kurt, apparently not knowing anything about the term, jokingly asks if he's a cub because he "[[Crowning Moment of Funny|looks like Yogi."]]}}
* In an episode of [[Ashes to Ashes]], Alex deduces the gangster they're investigating is into bears, and Ray (a noted homophobe implied to have latent homosexual tendencies) has to flirt with him in order to further the case.
* In one episode of ''30Rock'', Jack decides to seduce his wife's gay interior designer so he can get his way on their home's wallpaper. He explains to Liz:
{{quote| "Do you know what a prize I am in the gay community? There's a term for it. I'm a bear. And I'm a daddy. I'm a [[Goldilocks|daddy bear]]."}}
** His actual status as a bear is debatable (beards are usually mandatory, though naked Alec Baldwin has quite the [[Carpet of Virility]]), but we'll forgive him because the seduction scene is hilarious.
 
 
== Video Games ==
* Jin's [[Bara]] [[Dating Sim|Dating Sims]]s usually have a lot of bears in the cast.
* Jūichi in ''[[Morenatsu]]'' is simultaneously [[The Bear]], [[Kemono|the bear]], a [[Bara]] role, and a ''high school student''. He looks more like a 30something [[Younger Than They Look|than someone who's supposed to be 16 or 17]].
* Zangief from ''[[Street Fighter]]'' is possibly one of the oldest examples of this in video games. He has been [[Ambiguously Gay|hinted to be gay]] enough that audiences gay and straight have taken notice, and his gay bearish appeal has long since been secured.
* Considering the [[One -Gender Race|all-male]] nature of the [[Final Fantasy XI|Galka]] and the strong implications that they are [[Everyone Is Gay|predominantly gay]] (or at least were during their time alone without females for centuries), the fact that ''every'' Galka has at least a [[Badass Beard|chinstrap beard]] immediately makes the whole race ''very'' bearish, with shades of [[Big Beautiful Man]] as well.
* In ''[[Final Fantasy VI]]'', Sabin refers to himself as a bear during the cut scene on Mount Kolts -- thisKolts—this is [[Hilarious in Hindsight]], [[Fridge Brilliance|even if intentional]]. Depending on the artist, Sabin certainly has more of the body type for it, with Amano tending towards the hairier with [[Badass Beard]] and CG art tending towards the smoother and beardless. None of this necessarily means Sabin is actually ''gay'' (it's still entirely possible he's not), but that he's a "bear" with a fittingly bearish body type. This, along with the fact that he's one of the only adult male main cast (along with Stragos) who is never shown expressing any kind of interest in women, has brought him more [[Fan Yay]] by far than any other male character in the game.
* Referenced in ''[[Mass Effect 3]]'', where [[StraightInvisible Gayto Gaydar|Cortez]] and [[Heroic Build|Vega]] [[Vitriolic Best Buds|are arguing]] about which ground vehicle is the best, and Vega expresses his fondness for one called the Grizzly Bear, causing Cortez to snark that he ''would'' be one to like something called that. [[Late to Thethe Punchline|Vega doesn't get it]].
 
 
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* On ''[[Family Guy]]'', Peter watches an episode of ''The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams'' where Grizzly Adams and his grizzly bear companion Gentle Ben are [[Ho Yay Shipping|an actual gay bear couple]].
* On [[The Cleveland Show]], while Cleveland and the rest of the gang ventured around New York City, Tim entered a bar he thought was for literal bears. Turns out it was for Bears.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xs9PG-XAlsI mascumax].
 
{{reflist}}
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[[Category:Hair Tropes]]
[[Category:The Bear]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bear, The}}
[[Category:Trope]]
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