Can you identify a bear with a fur-tive glance? Will a bearitone voice coax you out of hibernation? Join the cub! In this real-life (!) conversation, Dr Nick McGlynn (Brighton University) tells me all about bears -- generally speaking, a larger, hairier variety of queer men, who you may have seen flying the paw flag at your local pride event. Human geographer by trade, Nick has collected lots of ursome data on bear spaces in the UK and found that what makes them so unique are the geographies of fat bodies. We talk about fat, racialised and stigmatised queer bodies and -- I love this part -- how spaces are created that make bears feel warm and welcome.

If you’d like to learn more about bears and bear bodies, follow @nikku_man on Twitter and if you’re beary interested in the podcast, follow @Lena_Mattheis and check out the @queerlitpodcast Instagram account.

Places, people and concepts mentioned:

McGlynn, Nick. "Bears in space: Geographies of a global community of big and hairy gay/bi/queer men." Geography Compass 15.2 (2021)
Bearspace Findings Report and Community Report: https://blogs.brighton.ac.uk/ctsg/2022/02/02/bearspace-report/
Ibaraki prefecture
Judith Butler’s Gender Trouble
“The Butch” with Amy Tooth-Murphy
Rachel Colls (Durham)
Bodily topographies
Murray Bartlett
Critical Whiteness
Queer as Folk
Canal Street (Manchester)

Questions you should be able to respond to after listening:

1.What, generally speaking, is a bear?
2.Why would Nick not describe ‘bear’ as an identity?
3.Why is critical whiteness so important in queer studies and in fat studies?
4.What are bodily topographies?
5.Nick mentions Queer as Folk and the impact the show had on Canal Street in Manchester. Can you think of a series, film or novel that has transformed a geographical location or space?