Leather, Queer, Twinks or Bears, Otters, Subs and Chubs. It sounds like the beginning of a catchy ditty, but those are just some of the examples of the subcultures that exist within the subculture of Gay Men, which in itself is a subculture of the LGBTQI+ community, which is technically a subculture of… – confused yet?
While it’s easy to send yourself batty with the very ‘meta’-ness of it all, all you really need to know is that subcultures play an important part in the anthropology of human beings and are particularly important in LGBTQI+ communities because it offers a sense of belonging to a group of people who, especially in current times, might find acceptance hard to come by.
Who hasn’t felt that subtle internal release of tension when they’ve walked into a pub, or even just a room, filled with people who you inherently felt were your people? It’s the safety of numbers, the sense of belonging that we feel when we are with our tribe, knowing that ridicule or judgement for who you are deep inside doesn’t need to be defended against in that select company.
Thankfully we’ve reached a stage in human evolution where we are technologically advanced enough to be able to access very specific subcultures fairly easily, especially compared to previous generations, because we can pull a phone out of our pocket and search for possible gatherings of likeminded people via a Google search!
And better yet, an even more convenient connection directly with people from your tribe is possible, because there’s an app for that! Dating apps have changed the way we socialise, and it’s possible to drill down to get really niche – not surprising, considering there are around 1500 of them!
An app that most scruffy gay men would know about does an excellent job of getting right down to it and as part of building your profile you have the option of not only identifying which subcultures you think you might identify with, it also offers you the opportunity to specify which subcultures you are interested in hooking up with! The app even specifically notes that you don’t necessarily need to be looking in the subculture you identify with.
Which sounds strangely obvious and yet the validation from the good team at that app, that it was ok to look outside your own subcultures for attraction and connections, was weirdly gratifying!
Don’t forget the “pups.”