Believe.

I am a chub. I’m also a chub4chub.

You see, part of the queer culture consists of many “subcultures” with their own jargons used to describe what it is they’re in to. We often stick to our own subcultures to avoid feeling uncomfortable and out of the norm.
It’s quite obvious to anyone who knows me, that I’m a big guy. At 278 pounds, I’m tough to miss, but I don’t mind, because I’m a “chub.”

The Chub Subculture Defined

• I define a Chub as a large gay man who believes he’s sexy the way he is, and doesn’t feel the need to change his appearance just because he isn’t the “norm.” Chubs are, for the most part, in to Chasers.
• Chubs are often courted by Chasers. I define a Chaser as a fit, in-shape, gay man who is attracted to Chubs.
• A Chub4Chub is, obviously, a large gay man who is attracted to other large gay men.

The Chub community is often thrown together with the “Bear” community.

• The word Bear has such a broad meaning, that it’s pretty tough to define. I consider bears to be similar to the sterotypical motorcycle dudes on TV. They’re masculine, somewhat hairy, and may or may not be chubby.
• Cubs are younger, less burly, gay guys who have some body hair, but are often smaller than bears.

While I have somewhat “bearish” features, (goatee, build, chest hair) I don’t identify myself as a bear, because I see bears as big, strong, dudes, and I often need help opening lids on jars.

Somewhere, in all of this jargon real people exist.

To my straight friends, at first glance, all these divisions seem weird. Then I remind them “Catholic, Baptist, Church of Christ, Church of God, Church of . . Church of . . Church of” and they get it. Even straight people have subcultures based around religion. In queer life, it’s often divided by what you’re in to.

I understand that it’s important to belong to a group, but I wonder how much is lost when we, on first glance, write someone off as outside of our culture.
The next time someone who isn’t in your norm says a friendly “hello,” why not look past the end of your nose, and find out who they really are. A person can’t simply be defined by “chub, chaser, chub4chub, bear, or cub.” You might be surprised how much you’ve lost in translation.