The New York Times Shows Pictures of Bears

This morning's Lens blog at the New York Times features a story about Alan Charlesworth, a gay photographer from outside Philadelphia with a penchant for taking pictures of bears. Charlesworth never felt quite at home with mainstream gay culture, more particularly the Will and Grace associations that American media portrayed during the 1990s. Then he discovered the bears.

The Times cutely defines the spectrum of bear culture: "cubs (younger bears), otters (skinny, but still hairy), polar bears (older men) and, 'whatever other strange woodland creatures' as well". But oddly they don't describe Charlesworth very clearly, who is neither "that ubiquitous image of the stereotypical gay man, but he's not large or hairy, either."

Good Goldilocks, what is he then? Just a regular-looking guy? Impossible! For serious, the images are pretty fantastic and we're proud of the Lens blog for featuring large furry gays. What's next? Bears in print! Full page Macy's ads in the Sunday Styles section, you'll see. Just remebered that we called it here first!