In a world of bears, chubs, musclebears and cubs, plus polar bears, daddy bears, black bears, grizzlies and every international variety of gay bear men, Drummer Bear has found his comfy home, his very own cyber-den you might say.

It's been a long but fruitful road for the gay bear movement. Men of bearish good looks and body shape have always been the objects of other men's desire throughout history. Art, commerce and popular culture, however, have just as consistently failed to reflect that. In America during the 1950s with the popularity of the physique periodicals came the rise of the lean, hairless, blonde-haired, blue-eyed all-American boy known somewhat more crassly today as the "twink". This staple of the timeless lure of innocent male youth in full sexual bloom prevailed in what passed for gay mainstream culture before Stonewall in 1969 and the birth of the modern gay civil rights movement. By the late 1970s during the mighty days of disco the "clone" look was in with its mandatory concentration camp haircuts and facial hair, at the very least, was a must as a badge of masculinity. This led, of course, to such Joan Rivers jokes as, "You know why all gay men have mustaches, don't you? It's to hide the stretch marks". The "gym bunny" took over in the early 1980s and men's magazines were inundated with chiseled hard-bodies, shaved, waxed and lit in such a way that their fantasy-like appearance and contrived poses made them seem unrealistic and unattainable. This created a quandary for the gay magazines and a large portion of their buying public. The average gay man, for all his consumption of "muscle god" gay erotica, still found himself most attracted to the burly, sweaty shirtless man fixing his car across the street, the bearded janitor in his building with the thick back hair and body hair spilling over the collar of his tee shirt and who can forget the beer-bellied plumber bent over his work while giving you a heart-quickening show of his ample and furry gluteal cleavage (that's hairy butt crack for all you cultured types)? Once in a great while a man such as this would make an appearance in a gay mag and would always be described, as if to explain why he seems so out of place, as a "bear of a man". Consumer reaction was always so strong in its enthusiasm over this type of male that companies like Brush Creek Media gave us "Bear" Magazine. Amabear Publishing stepped right in with American Bear and American Grizzly, bear merchandising and other bear publications proliferated, bear organizations and bear websites have sprung up all over the world and by the 1990s we even got our own official bear flag designed by Craig Byrnes.

Today bears are probably the second biggest gay subculture worldwide and their numbers, like some of their waistlines, continue to expand. Drummer Bear (or Mike if you like) is proud to be a part of this movement. He may not be big and he's not very heavy but, for those of you who wonder where he fits in, his most snug category would be "medium or middleweight musclebear". Drummer Bear never tries to encompass all that is "bear" but recognizes that he's just one of many breeds and hopes he's one that you'll sure like to pet.

Speaking of which, You've probably noticed the variety of bear men out there for the petting. One of the great things about the bear community and identifying as a bear has always been that nothing's written in stone. Self-determination, attitude and appearance all combine to form a bear identity. You pretty much know one when you see one and, once you're at that stage of awareness, you can usually determine for yourself whether or not you are a bear.

The bear flag design by Craig Byrnes (who's done his own share of sexy nude modeling, in cop gear no less) reflects, in its stripe colors, just about every shade of bear man in its depiction of nearly all the colors of facial and body hair that these men possess. There's even a beige stripe that represents, albeit in only one color, the hairless bear (though yellow, red, brown and black stripes can easily mean more than just hair color as we suspect it cleverly does).

Although labeling anybody has a certain stubborn kind of rigidity and regimentation about it that demands flexibility of perception, human nature is what it is and so people generally feel the need to use some kind of labeling system in order to categorize and mentally "file away" any information so that it's understandable by way of a combination of references and comparisons. So, for better or worse, anyone new to the whole "bear" thing might like to know the distinctions among the various types of bears. Keep in mind that this stuff is all rather general.

BEARS: The whole kit and kaboodle.

CUBS: Bears under 40 who can range in age from as young as 18 years all the way to 39.

DADDY BEARS: Generally mature bears who adopt, love and care for their cubs.

CHUBS: These are the chubby, soft, round and cuddly bears that, like most bears, come in a variety of sizes and colors with or without fur.

GRIZZLIES: These are the big boys! Tipping the scales at either side of the relative neighborhood of 300 pounds, these impressive and somewhat imposing males are big, proud and forthrightly fat. Feed these lovable guys at your own risk.

BLACK BEARS: Our beautiful dark-skinned bear brothers of African or other Third World descent.

OTTERS AND WOLVES: These are the leaner, trimmer or otherwise slender hairy men who compliment our ranks with their own sexy body types, unique among bears.

MUSCLEBEARS: The kind of bears you run into at the gym. These men have just enough body fat to make 'em cuddly and just enough muscle tone or mass to make 'em strong.

POLAR BEARS: The grand daddies of all bears, these guys usually come into bloom from about the age of 60 years and upward. Encompassing most bear categories, these mature males are distinguished by their salt-and-pepper and often white fur. Bears put in a lot of years of living and experience before they get to be this sexy.