Tag Archives: COL388

COL514: Trans Bear Listener

In this episode of Cubs Out Loud, the guys review some recent feedback from one of their newest audience members. This trans bear listener addresses some concerns after reviewing some of our past episodes and the comments we made. As Pride Month comes to a close, listen as the guys discuss these concerns and discuss their growth as they try to become allies to the transgender community.

Show Topic

Trans Bear Listener – we talk about an email we received earlier this summer, how we feel when it comes to being an ally to trans individuals, and owning where we are today.

Hello,

New listener here, and I’d like to start off by saying sorry if this message is kinda long and rambling, I’m sure I’m mostly gonna stream of consciousness write it.

I listened to all your most recent episodes that are accessable via Google Podcasts; then I thought I should Google your podcast + Transgender, because I’ve had a couple experiences of enjoying a Thing ™️, only to find out that the people that produce it have said some really offensive stuff about trans folks. So I happy to discover that you had some episodes tagged as transgender on your site, so I could listen and get the tea. I listened to a few of them, but then for some reason your website stopped playing them, unclear if it was my phone or your site, or what, but I think I heard all the important bits.

I don’t want this to come across as a dressing down or anything like that, I really just want to educate. Mostly I wanna call back to some stuff I heard in COL388: Entourage Feedback, and COL474/475: Bear World Weekend, as well as share some of my own stories.

Most of what you guys said in 388 was on the better side of things I’ve heard, but one of the things that stood out to me was the use of the term “female genitalia”, obviously I don’t speak for all of the trans community, but one thing that holds true for me, and most trans people I know would prefer if you didn’t say things like that. To put it in the slogan-y terms, “it’s not female genitalia, I’m a man and it’s mine”, a better way to talk about it would be someone who has not had surgery, or someone with their original parts. And like tips and hints for guys who are interested in trans guys, even though you guys basically said you aren’t, just ask what he wants his junk called; obviously there’s like the most famous trans man  porn star who calls himself “a man with a pussy” but I know if you use that term with me it’s gonna be an instant turn off, I don’t want feminine terms for myself, it instantly makes me feel unsexy, but some trans guys will be totally fine with it, so best just to all whoever you’re with.

The other thing that stuck out to me in that episode was someone, sorry I don’t recall who, said they couldn’t even picture playing with a trans guy who had had bottom surgery, even if they were attracted to him, and that personally I don’t get. I haven’t had surgery, I don’t ever want to force anyone to have sex with me who doesn’t want to, and like as long as someone doesn’t go out of their way to be a fuck-stick, to call me disgusting or tell me that I’m not allowed in gay spaces or anything like that, it’s ok with me that someone may not be interested because if the equipment I’ve got. But if someone would have sex with the exact same cis dude but wouldn’t with that guys who has had bottom surgery I’m not understanding, since there are definitely trans guys that you can’t tell at all, at least until they cum.

In the episodes 474/475 it was neat to hear about the gender neutral contests, it sounded like it would also be acceptable for a trans man to compete in the Mr. Best contest, but I wanted to verify because having Cub be gender neutral is great, but the idea of mandating that trans men couldn’t compete in Mr. Bear or trans women couldn’t compete in Ms. Bear sounds bad. But also that’s not what it sounded like was happening, it just sounded like the trans man happened to be competing for Cub not that he wasn’t allowed to compete for Mr. Bear.

Anyhow, I was wondering if you’d ever thought about/sought out a trans bear to have as a guest on your show to talk about any of that?

Also in episode 388 it got brought up how important cock is to some of you. Again, that’s fine, so long as someone isn’t a total asshole to me I’m not gonna be upset over that being the case but I do have some interesting stories to tell over that. I’m a big big bear chub, or rather should probably say a big chubby pocket bear, pretty hairy, bearded, 5’7, over 300 pounds. So I know the types of guys I attract (and the types I’m into) but quite a few times I’ve had people who’ve thought they were like that and then realized when they met me, “oh having a cock isn’t nearly as important as I might have thought it was.” That’s happened many times on growlr, and Tumblr (R.I.P.) but more interestingly has happened in the midst of a hook up quite a few times. I would be playing with a hot bear who is definitely into me, but his husband/boyfriend/partner wouldn’t really be interested due to me being trans, but then in middle of fucking me he’d like shout to the other room “hon, you gotta come try this!” or boyfriend would lean in to check in on us and change his tune in being interested real quick. So again, no shade if it’s not your thing, but sometimes stuff can surprise people when they come face to face with a situation.

Cheers, 

Trans Bear

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COL388: Entourage Feedback

col388In this episode of Cubs Out Loud, the guys take some time to look at some of your feedback! That’s right! Thanks to the listeners, the cubs are able to dedicate a whole episode to what you all wish to say to them.

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Introduction Topics

What’s Going On?

  • Jeff: 3 Down, 21 to go
  • Damon: OT/Interview
  • Chester: End of roadtrip, soulsearching
  • Gary: Changing Seasons

Feedback:

Facebook Likes:

  • Jeffrey Boan

 

YouTube Subscribers:

  • BEAR Bigass

 

Bear Underground:

  • AVidahl: Grrr!

Twitter:

  • Mark L
  • Chris Bulk

Tumblr:

  • Friedballoonobject
  • Theangrybeaver11
  • Redpanda007
  • Cubziz
  • Noctis69
  • Bearhuggercub
  • Eduard9486

Weekly Topic

It’s a COL Entourage feedback show!

From BearUnderground.net

Troy007s
Pvt msg to Chester:
Cubs out loud is back. Great. Same cast or some new members? (I replied)
Followed by:
Welcome to the group! How did you come to get involved? There wasn’t much talk of the show lately on this site but enjoyed listening to all the guys get together and talk about things. Does the group ever meet in person for events?

chubnerdchaser

Posted 1 month ago re: COL380 Power Hour 4

This one was definitely worth the watch on YouTube. The shirtless eye candy wasn’t available on my podcast audio. ;P

chubnerdchaser

Posted 2 months ago re: COL374: Bear Origins

Highly recommend listening to at least 374 if you’re not a regular listener. It’s really good. I laughed, I cried, I got a semi. Thanks for recording it!

chubnerdchaser

Posted 3 months ago COL372: LTAS: The DL Deal

Really loved this episode! As someone who is one of the (mostly) D/L guys, it was good to hear more from the other side of the coin. Also really glad you touched on the type of D/L guys who aren’t “out” about being into chubs or bears, even if they’re otherwise out as gay. It’s one of my pet peeves!

Keep up the great work!

chubnerdchaser

Posted 4 months ago re: COL367 Bear Issues….?

Loved this episode – thanks!

Email from Tony B.

Hi guys,

Gary recently told me online that I was mentioned in the latest episode. I admit I hadn’t listened since his adventures at Claw, simply haven’t had time. I did subscribe to the Youtube channel, but didn’t get any further.

But the latest episode appears to not be working, so I listened to 383 and wanted to chime in.

Young Bears:

Here in St. Louis, myself and another bear, started a new type of bear club back in 2002. “The Bears of St. Louis” or BOSL for short. The main local bear club (Show Me Bears) is based out of a bar and I’d

wager 99% of its events are held at the bar. So we started our club with the intent of NOT being bar based. This was two-fold. First, there was no overlap with the existing club, so we wouldn’t “steal members”, but second, it could grab a new audience.

And it did.

We had a *LOT* of college-aged involvement which is rare of standard bear clubs.

Their participation was because a lot of school-based LGBT clubs are geared more towards visibility and (at the time) equal rights and not so much for individuals tastes. So as people interested in bears, they didn’t feel at home there. They weren’t ignored, but the posters didn’t have muscle bears or hairy men, they were gay icons and “pretty boys”, not the gruff kind of men they found interest in.

BUT… we also had one 16 year old attend a potluck of ours, WITH his father. Sadly he didn’t come back. Not because of anything wrong, per se. Basically his father was a bear, just a straight one, and so everyone chatted with him. The young guy felt distanced because not only was his father getting all the attention (worst thing that could happen for a youth) but he wasn’t getting anyone hitting on him, and he was frustrated. I explained that part of it was because his father hit a lot of people’s interests and that he was still “dangerous” being still too young for most guys to associate with too much. The father loved the fact that his expectations were wrong. He assumed we’d be stereotypical gays and instead found himself standing around a BBQ pit with a beer in hand talking about sports… with a couple who had been together for 10+ years. So I’m certain we helped him adjust a little better in regards to his son. 🙂

But with most consent laws being 17 or 18 (depending on state), I can see where the 18 year old is the line, but for the most part, every run I’ve been to has enforced a 21-year or older requirement on their applications. And while it sucks, a lot of times it is because of the venues that the events are hosted at. (Bars, hotels, van/buses, etc.)

There is a need for groups like this. Sadly our group fell apart as it wasn’t designed to be anything more than a social group, so there was no real power structure in place and by 2004, it was gone. Was an amazing two years though. 🙂

One thing I’ll mention that our group also had in participation… Recovering alcoholics.

I never anticipated that, but by not doing events at the bar and providing non-bar based activities, we had a lot of participation from people who had to avoid alcohol.

Another group it attracted and I half-expected this… Couples.

Couples don’t tend to hit the bars a lot as the constant barrage of flirting, drunken gropes, etc, can be a bit much. But for a non-sexualized bear club, there was a lot of couples interested in coming to events.

So there is a market for non-bar based clubs. I know that’s a diversion off the 18-21 year old topic, but I wanted to mention some other groups that get overlooked by the current organizations out there.

Bisexuality:

I like the phrase “Bi-Now, Gay-Later”, very cute.

So, I dated a Bisexual Poly man, in a gay monogamous relationship (which became a triad) and it ended roughly a year after we started. He is currently married to a woman. I get asked how I feel about that and my comment is always “The only thing I’m upset about is that I didn’t get a damned invite to the wedding!”

Sexuality is fluid. I know a bisexual man who loves skinny women with huge boobs and big men (presumeably with moobs). I found it fascinating to hear him describe it all. But it is who he is.

I myself identify as gay, but I have seen women who I’d have sex with… Probably just morbid curiosity, but I could. I think. Maybe. *shrug* No real interest in finding out though. (And don’t tell my mother, or it’ll rekindle her questions about when I’m going to have kids. Oi.)

Onto the topic of Leather/BDSM play spaces and Sex/Gender issues:

One thing to point out is that there’s an interesting duality here. Play spaces mean different things to different segments of the Leather/BDSM world.

For the pan-sexual world, sex is one aspect of play, but it isn’t an identifier. The BDSM acts are.

For the gay world, sex *IS* our defining trait. We are gay because we want man-on-man action. Thus it is a focus.

And to me, THAT is where the separation comes in. Pansexual BDSM is about the BDSM, not sex. Gay BDSM is about fetishized sex. Not solely and they both cross paths, but the “what gets people hot” is different.

50 Shades of Grey makes gay leathermen giggle with how “quaint” it is. But for women, it’s amazing. By the same token, women who watch gay BDSM videos, they want the raw animal nature of it, the power exchange, the testosterone dripping during the scene…

Can a crossover happen at an event? That gets complicated, especially when it comes to the law. Because straight sex can create children… how would an event handle that? But I’m sure it could happen (and probably does, just not publically known.)

As such, most of the pansexual events I’ve seen are BDSM only, sex back in your room. While most gay events are BDSM mainly, but sex might happen, so be prepared.

Keep in mind, this is no different than bars. How many straight bars have a “back room”? Yet that was a mainstay in the gay bar scene for decades (and still exists in some areas).

Forced bisexuality in BDSM:

I disagree with the topic brought up that a straight couple, the man might force the woman to have sex with another woman…

There is ALWAYS a choice in BDSM. Even slaves CAN say no. (They might not like the consequences, but they can.)

And remember, pansexual BDSM is rarely about sex and more about the BDSM itself. So yes, a Dom male may force a sub female to “assist” with another sub female, but rarely would he force them into sex (unless that was negotiated as a possibility, etc.) and frankly, most Dom males would much prefer something more along the lines of binding one while having sex with the other and forcing the other to watch, much as many Dom males with two male subs would… The BDSM aspect is the same either way.

The problem we see is that as gay men, we don’t distinguish sex from BDSM. And so we assume a BDSM act between one man and two women would be sexual, but it may not be. Just as we would see three men together and if the only activity that happened was bondage, we’d go “really? Just being tied up? No sex? Damn. What a waste.”

While the acts of BDSM are the same either way, one is more of sensuality and heightening arousal (pansexual) while the other (gay) is much more focused on the complete action from start to finish.

And again, is that fixed? Not at all. I’ve seen pansexual scenes that were to completion and I’ve been in gay scenes that involved no sex. But we tend to drift to categorize based on what we like… and we have to watch out for that assumption.

Just my thoughts.

Great episode and look forward to the next one. (Soooooo nervous about how I got brought up. Hehe…)

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