Bear arts naked: Queer activism and the fat male body

The tactile masculine curves of the hairy bear body stands in stark contrast to the sculpted smooth hard body Adonis prevalent in gay erotica and marketing. The interplay of fat and muscle, hard and soft, gentle and strong opens up wider fields of erotic possibility beyond that of conventionally hard phallic body. In 2012 gay erotic publisher Bruno Gmunder released Big Love: Sexy Bears in Gay Art, one of the first commercial collection of bear-themed art, but did this represent a liberation of the gay body from the shackles of the beauty and health industries or merely signify the corporate colonisation of another queer culture?