ABSTRACT
The second I met my lover Richard, I knew without hesitation that he had everything I liked in a man. That was in 1988, in a small town in southwestern France. At that time, I had never heard about “bears,” but I knew I wanted bears, and I knew he was one. My quest could be expressed with a single, coherent idea, although I had no word to communicate that idea. The best I could do was to list features: beard, huskiness, manliness, body hair, pride, simplicity, good nature.
