Taipei Gay “Bear” Culture as a Sexual Field, or, Why Did Nanbu Bear Fail?

Abstract

Inspired by the classical triptych of field, capital, and habitus, Green formulates the sexual fields framework to account for the current unprecedented expansion of specialized erotic worlds. In this essay, I analyze fieldwork data to ethnographically map the contours of the sexual field of Taipei’s gay Bears. After tracing the origins of the Taiwanese Bear through Japan and ultimately back to the US, I critically examine the interactions of the sexual fields framework’s core components. I make two conclusions here. First, Bears accumulate sexual capital through their bodies and the clothes they wear and rely heavily on social media to attain and retain sexual status. Second, while the Bear originally celebrated somatic diversity, interpersonal competition increasingly homogenizes Taipei’s Bears attire to reveal the limits of Bear sociability. Through this essay, I contribute to the growing body of sexual fields research.