Casting Beyond the Cis White Abs

I made a very quick leap from skinny twink boy to bear once I came out as gay. This meant that I had to adapt myself from hating a skinny body to now being fat and wanting to have that skinny fit again (?). It makes no sense, and I am thankful to be mostly over that idea that skinny me was the better version of me. Trust me this version has gotten way more sex than the skinny one ever did lol. It all boils down to confidence though, when I was my skinny teenage self I didn’t feel like enough. I didn’t feel attractive and I felt like I would be lucky if anyone ever found me hot. That of course came from the deep insecurities of not being comfortable with being queer at that moment. That insecurity also only allowed my brain to see beauty in the very conventional, underwear model in the department store aisle, hot. I thought that the only body worthy of admiration and attraction was the single stereotype that was being fed to me through the media.

This idea is fed to all of us by the media and leads us to believe that our body, regardless of how conventionally attractive or not it is, is not worthy of admiration. For a community that has been bombarded with this idea of fit as beautiful, I do adore how queer people have found a way to create community and attraction for every person. I always tell young gays who feel insecure, “bro you’re just in the wrong room, the moments you find the proper space people will be obsessed with you”. Unfortunately this statement is only as true as a space is inclusive. Therefore it is our duty to create these spaces, demand these spaces are celebrated, and support spaces where everyone gets to feel their best.

At BearIt we have run into this conventionally attractive problem in casting very often. As you know, it is our mission to represent and celebrate all bators. That being said, it is hard to find bators who deviate from the usual standard who have a porn presence already online. I can throw a stick and find a white fit dude ready to show off for our pages, with a series of photoshoots ready to be published. This is not the case for our trans bros, our femme bros, our thicker bros, our disabled bros, our non white bros. We are in an unfortunate cycle where it is hard to find models because they haven’t been photographed before, or they haven’t had a big enough audience to justify the sacrifices it takes to be in porn.

It is that big of a deal when I see a photographer’s work and all they have taken pictures of are fit cis (mostly white) men. How can I trust them to help anyone with that narrow of a lens to capture the beauty that truly exists in the world? Do they only take pictures of these people because it is the only subject they find attractive? Do they believe that pictures featuring any other look won’t be appreciated by their audience? Have they taught their audience the only thing worth seeing are those specific bodies? Did they try to find a wider net of models but it was easier to work with models already in the system?

These are all questions that we run into at BearIt as we look for features and collaborators. We have learned now how hard it is to find models outside of the conventional look, yet we know the importance of breaking that cycle so we keep looking. Models we want to work with don’t have pictures, great, we will have a virtual shoot with them. We see photographers who are diverse in their casting, amazing, we make sure to reach out and try to feature them.

How can YOU help improve this cycle? Support artists who represent you and your reality. See if the people you follow have a wide lens of representations, if they don’t, follow people who do. Make an effort to look for and celebrate artists and models who open up the idea of what is beautiful. AND if you’re an artist or model who represent the beauty that is out here in this queer world, message us, let’s work together and feature your work.

Hugs & tugs,

Andrés Bearly