University of Brighton researcher Dr Nick McGlynn wins seed funding of £6,726 to study Bear communities and spaces in the UK.
The Bearspace project aims to explore the experiences of big and fat men in Bear bars, pubs, clubs, and events, and to understand how these spaces might help tackle fat stigma for men.
From 2018 to 2019, the project will develop a complete database of every Bear bar, pub, club, event and social group in the UK. This database will then be used to identify locations for a series of on-site focus groups and interviews, forming one of the world’s largest empirical studies of Bear communities.
Nick has an extensive track record of LGBT+-related research, including working on Brighton’s award-winning Count Me In Too project, but this is the first time he has studied Bear communities specifically.
As a proud self-identified Bear, Nick was surprised to find so little empirical research on the Bear community despite its global reach.
Although Bears exhibit a wide variety of body types, Nick says that the idea of Bear spaces as ‘safe spaces’ for fat gay/bi/queer men jumped out from this limited research:
“Bear bars and events are some of the only spaces I feel comfortable as a fat gay man, and writing by other Bears suggests that many others feel the same. Fat stigma is increasingly felt by men and we all know how heightened this is in gay bars and clubs! So I’m eager to find out if there’s something positive and empowering we can learn from Bear spaces.”
The funding comes from the University of Brighton’s Rising Stars Awards, designed to support early career academics in producing challenging and innovative research.
To find out more about the Bearspace project, click here:
Or follow the project on Twitter (@bearspacestudy).
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