ABSTRACT
In São Paulo, Brazil, a collective of gay men self-identified as “bears,” a native category reproduced/reconfigured in different countries, builds a suitable body to enable broader sociability among peers. In this chapter, we seek to describe and analyze how the social construction of bear bodies, based on their weight and body benchmarks, intersects the health, identity, and foodways dimensions. It is crucial to understand that, according to our findings, weight and body shape is a distinct characteristic that overlaps the ordinary numerical representation to become a diacritical feature. Overweight and/or corpulence appear as a relevant characteristic concerning the valorization of a body that does not respond to the gay hegemonic aesthetic proposals. The bodies of bears are highly valued and are presented, and represented, as masculine and desirable because of their fat. To have and maintain a bear body it is necessary to implement eating practices and build a narrative of collective belonging through them. Still, this group perceives that eating abundantly and being overweight are attributes that can lead to health concerns, some dangerous and potentially life-threatening. From an ethnographic perspective we propose a discussion regarding the social/material construction of these bodies.
