"Grow the Beard, Wear the Costume": Resisting Weight and Sexual Orientation Stigmas in the Bear Subculture.

ABSTRACT

Being gay and being overweight are two stigmatized statuses in the United States. A range of work has considered the experience of being stigmatized and the consequences of stereotypes for overweight individuals and sexual minorities, but less research has examined the intersection of these two stigmas among larger gay men or collective efforts to resist such stigma. This study qualitatively examines a subculture of gay men, the bears, to test theoretical models of stigma resistance. The analysis demonstrates the transferability of stigma resistance among multiple stigmatized attributes and the use of multiple strategies to resist one stigma. At the same time, it shows how subcultural dynamics both aid and undermine the resistance toward stigma, and the risk of reinforcing stigma's effect through criticizing others who embody a stereotype. The results also demonstrate how resistance strategies are both empowering and psychologically taxing for stigmatized individuals.