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In Fat Gay Men, Jason
Whitesel delves into the world of Girth & Mirth, a nationally known social
club dedicated to big gay men, illuminating the ways in which these men form
identities and community in the face of adversity. Discouraged by this, they withdrew from the bear community.

Much has changed over the last 25 years.

Despite affectionate in-group monikers for big gay men–chubs,
bears, cubs–the anti-fat stigma that persists in American culture at large
still haunts these individuals who often exist at the margins of gay
communities. Fat studies has even become a formal academic discipline. As Convergence has grown more elaborate and expensive a socioeconomic rift has surfaced, with less well-heeled men understandably grousing about class discrimination and gong to the less expensive Super Weekend.

With the publication of his 2014 ethnographic study Fat Gay Men: Girth, Mirth, and the Politics of Stigma Jason Whitesel was proclaimed a “leading star” in this new academic field.

Size discrimination is being increasingly addressed in the arts. James Unsworth, an artist and gay historian of Girth and Mirth and bear culture, exhibited his “Girth and Mirth” artwork at Abject Gallery in Sunderland, England (near Durham on the North Sea coast) in 2018.

A clear sign of this has been in the inclusion of “plus-sized” people in advertising, showing them as healthy, fit, and sexually desirable. As the old adage goes, truly “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”

The first wave of the fat acceptance movement—

“Fat Liberation”– began in 1967, focusing from the start on a feminist model of patriarchal oppression, for example, the dieting culture pressuring women to be slim.

There has been a broader societal shift in the United States toward addressing fatphobia. As Jason Whitesell wrote in 2014, “Convergence is foremost a group vacation and continues to rely on the presence of a gay social scene in large and diverse host cities to provide the itinerary for its excursions.” In more recent years another big men’s annual event–Super Weekend—has been held at the Cabana Inn, the largest gay resort in the American Southwest.

(I found my way to the “hirsute” tribe this way.) Heavyset gay men (“chubs”) formed casual social networks this way.

Girth and Mirth organized gatherings and soon collaborated with the national Affiliated Bigmen’s Club to hold the first Convergence in 1986. Even as fat bears have become more visible in the bear community, the stigma lingers.

Who wants to be called an “old queen” or a “fat pig,” especially to their face?

Girth and Mirth predates the rise of the new sex-positive gay bears by a decade. This became a sex-positive, body-affirming, mutually supportive organized social group.

Based on ethnographic interviews
and in-depth field notes from more than 100 events at bar nights, café
klatches, restaurants, potlucks, holiday bashes, pool parties, movie nights,
and weekend retreats, the book explores the woundedness that comes from being
relegated to an inferior position in gay hierarchies, and yet celebrates how
some gay men can reposition the shame of fat stigma through carnival, camp, and
play.

The medical community continues to criticize the fat acceptance movement for “promoting a lifestyle that can have dire health consequence.” Heterosexual sex could also be regarded as such a lifestyle—it sometimes results in pregnancies that jeopardize the life of the mother. Girth and Mirth and gay bears emerged during this time.

The current third wave has become intersectional, addressing issues of race, class, and sexuality.

Some gay men outside the bear community assert that “bear” is a euphemism for “fat.” Fat bears even continue to be shamed and rejected by some fellow bears.