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About Just out. (Portland, OR) 1983-2013 | View Entire Issue (Sept. 16, 2011)
— voices'— Mean Grrrls OREGON'S LGBTQ NEWSMAGAZINE SEPTEMBER 16, 2011 Our summer-that-almost-didn’t-happen is proportions. finally winding down and as kiddies every This is not to say all “A Bears” are angels where traipse back to our hallowed halls of and use their power (I’m using this word in learning, I’m reminded how we never outgrow the loosest sense) for good. There are some A the social structure o f high school. I mean, No one is born an asshole—you have not refer to anyone using the term, as he finds Bears out there who like nothing more than think about it— our social strata, whether to want to be one. While being gay is it offensive. to be bitchy, cruel and judgmental. Some you’re gay or straight, has remained the same since our teens. not a choice, being a bitch is. Even Malcolm Ingram— ac claimed director of the documentary Bear flaunt their wealth or good looks and b o a sts Nation— danced around the issue when an about whom they know. I hope these individ Like the quintessential pre-drugged out, Maupin’s intention— in a November 2010 in audience member asked him about it after a uals will one day remember where they came pre-necklace filching Lindsay Lohan movie terview with Lambda Literary online, he said, screening at last year’s Portland Lesbian and from and realize they don’t have to act like a Mean Girls, we can be broken down into spe “W hen I invented the term A Gay,’ I meant Gay Film Festival. “see-you-next-Tuesday. ” At the end o f the day, cific cliques and groups. There are jocks, nerds, it with utter contempt and ridicule.” Perhaps I personally think it’s kind o f funny how we are all the same and they don’t have to be a outcasts... the list goes on. And then, o f it is for this reason many gays do not enjoy folks are afraid o f this term. Just because “Mean Grrrl. ’ To the people they belittle and course, there’s the popular group— the ones being referred to as an A Gay. people consider someone an “A Bear” doesn’t hurt, remember: You afforded them the title people wish they could be, the ones much This negative stereotyping has survived, cer automatically make the person a “Mean G r- o f A Bear and you have the ability to strip emulated. In Mean Girls, this group was called tainly not helped by such programs as Logo’s rrl.” No one is born an asshole— you have to them o f their “crown” at any time. To para the “Plastics.” The Plastics— especially the Ihe A List: New York. I must confess I watched want to be one. W hile being gay is not a phrase Eleanor Roosevelt, no one can make leader, you the pilot (purely for research purposes) and choice, being a bitch is. you feel bad if you don’t let them. guessed it, mean girls. In the real world, the was so put off by the backstabbing bitchiness I Plastics would be called “A Listers,” and if quit the series after only one episode. I simply “W ith great power comes great responsibility.” don’t consider myself an “A Lister” or an “A they were gay, they’d be called “A Gays.” couldn’t stomach it and still lament the wasted As an “A Bear,” the individual can wield his Bear.” I’m not upwardly mobile or important hour o f my life. substantial influence and use it for good and enough, nor am I a classic Bear specimen. At the betterment of the community. I know quite best, I’m on the “B - L ist” (that’s minus)— a few A Bears who are already doing it, and our though after this column, I may be relegatecfr Regina— were portrayed as, An “A G ay” is a person o f homosexual per suasion who is rich, upwardly mobile, well In Beardom, “A Gays” are called “A Bears.” A very wise uncle o f a superhero once said, As for myself, much like Kathy Griffin, I connected, influential and, more often than These are Bears who tend to be better oft fi not, good looking. I first came across the term nancially, well connected and also “bearier” community is a better place because o f their ef while reading Armistead Maupin’s Tales o f the than other Bears. Due to the negative stereo forts. However, due to the negative connota City not long after coming out. In the novel, typing attached to A Gays, many A Bears tions attached to the term, some o f these indi A Gays are depicted in an unflattering fash dislike being categorized as such. In fact, A viduals are not comfortable being referred to as Does The A List: New York have any redeem ion— wealthy, pretentious, Bears is a much maligned topic and not often A Bears— so I am naming no names, as it ing qualities? Bennie wants to know. Email him mean and bitchy old queens. But this was spoken of. A friend o f mine has asked me to would be grounds for a mauling o f epic at pdxpandacub@gmail. com. Home influential yet Where To Host Bottoms to the “D List.” No matter, I’ll slum it with Kathy any day. J0 ] We Proudly Serve Ver SCANDALS •Tón-Def tuesdays Steam Portland Karaoke w/KJ Suzanne every Tuesday nightl New Artwork Displayed Every Freddies Restroom First Thursday At Scandals Book Store Arcade THURSDAY MIGHT Yah!...We Can Host! LIVB! Live Bands Every Thursday Night! 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