Seeking Solace in Fatsploitation: Examining the “Bear-Chasing” In Shameless
So, not to beat a dead horse or recycle something I’ve written a few months ago, but I am obviously very interested in this subject and want there to be some kind of conversation about this topic to be happening because people are being affected by it. In my earlier post, “Problematizing the Implicit Fatphobia on Tumblr’s ‘Bear-Chasing’ Community,” I address how even though “bear-chasers” (non-bears who sexually pursue members of the bear community) on Tumblr appear sexually interested in bears, since they do pursue them for sex, they also tend to express fatphobia whenever they are rejected by bears. Beyond publicly expressing mere bitterness or resentment for being rejected, these people reveal a sense of entitlement to access the bears they pursue by calling them out for supposed discrimination. Even though people have a right to have sexual preferences, these bear-chasers find the need to shame and guilt the bears who reject them because, in their perspective, bears or fat people don’t or shouldn’t have the access to choose their sexual partners and should be grateful that anyone pursues them.
When I wrote that post, I was mostly speculative and confused because I just witnessed this on Tumblr several times and figured that I should say something about it. I was confused because I thought “how could someone who‘s genuinely attracted to larger men also think of them as lesser?” and “why don’t people tend to go that far whenever they are rejected by men who are more conventionally attractive?” While trying to be sympathetic to the bear chasers I was talking about, assuming that these people were genuinely into bears and maybe went too gaga when they contacted them, I offered the advice that they should approach bears as they would non-bears by not being too aggressive and graciously taking no for an answer if they do get rejected. However, at this point I am starting to think that these kinds of interactions might not be as innocent and fumbly as I assumed and that the entitlement I’ve addressed actually comes from a desire to exploit the bears, which can explain their actions behind shaming them when they get rejected. So, I recently started watching the new Shameless season and something occurred that can possibly explain this phenomenon. *SPOILER ALERT for those of you who haven’t seen the season yet and plan to.*
In the show, Ian, the gay character, is chasing a guy he dated in the earlier season, but the guy isn’t interested because he’s angry at him for something. But once Ian finally gets through to this guy, he finds out that his ex has been going to bear bars, not because he’s actually into bears, but because he’s been feeling down on himself and finds comfort in having bears “worship” him. Then, naturally, him and Ian tag team a pair of bears.
So, this story involves conventionally attractive gay men essentially using the attention they get from bears for their own personal gain. Once again, Ian’s ex isn’t attracted to bears, but he seeks them out simply because they’re accessible to him, like last night’s leftovers waiting for you in the fridge or your files of porn waiting for you on Google Drive, not like people you actually see and respect as people who have sentient thoughts and feelings and require a bit more effort to get into bed. I mean yes, the bears do appear to get what they want out of the deal, — sex with a hot guy — but at the cost of being exploited. These characters do seem to worship the conventional-looking gays, which is yet another way to put conventional attraction on a pedestal, as well as make bears appear to be desperate creeps who aren’t smart enough to realize that they’re being exploited and are only interested in getting that young, taught piece of twink.
This depiction might not reflect a precise explanation for why bears on Tumblr are often treated like second-class people by those who are supposedly into them, but the idea of insecure people using people they think of as lesser to boost themselves up doesn’t seem all that far-fetched. I’m sure that racist white people do it to black people, rich people do it to people they can pay for that kind of thing, straight-identifying people do it to out gay people, etc. It all has to do with some underlying understanding that “I’m better than you, you know that I’m better than you, so you should be happy to help me when I’m feeling down even though I’m degrading you (because you aren’t worthy of anything else),” which makes it a prejudice because of the implicit hierarchy. It’s sadomasochism at it’s ugliest because it stops just being about play and starts reflecting how people actually think about and treat others — people actually start being thought of and used as objects just because of their outward appearance or who they are.
Ian wasn’t one of my favorite characters on Shameless but this definitely changed the way that I think of him. I wish that the show would have done a little more to emphasize how screwed up that kind of encounter was by showing a little more depth in the bears or something. This seems to relate to my point about how bears are treated because that must be where the entitled attitude comes from and why it’s more devastating when these people are turned down by bears. I mean, can you imagine how Ian and his ex would have reacted if they were turned down by the bears that they pursued and couldn’t use them to feel better about themselves?
