Smutter's [Bears, Chubs & Cubs]

Smutter's Mission

Mission Statement/Description:

Smutter's is not a separatist movement. Smutter's is about increasing the diversity within the greater bear community and, like all bear groups, Smutter's is about increasing the self-esteem of bears, bear-types and guys who like bears. If you've always been in the mainstream bear world, we hope Smutter's offers a nice diversion. If you've never ventured into the mainstream bear community, we hope Smutter's acts as a bridge to that larger world. Either way, Smutter's is intended to a be a positive experience.

Join us: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smutters/

Smutter's History

A Brief History:

Smutter's started in 1997 as SmutBear's Den, which was a collection of a relatively small number of pictures of bear-ish looking celebrities like Mark McEwen, Ron Townson, Gerald Levert and James Avery. This original site was somewhat reactionary, and was put up largely as a request to highlight some "alternative" bear and bear-ish looking men. Basically, the comment was made to Smutter that the bear community was largely homogeneous. Perhaps Smutter was a bit naive in thinking that this statement was somewhat unjustified, but within a few weeks, SmutBear's Den had been created specifically to prove that one person wrong and showcase the fact that beautiful bears existed in all colors. It was definitely a positive act of inclusiveness and not a separatist idea at all, and the original den was meant to be seen by only a handful of people. Well, word spread, and 10,000+ hits later, the only negative comments received were that there were not enough pictures of black, brown, tan and yellow bears to go around. Talk about a wave of inclusiveness! The positive feedback was tremendous.

1997/1998 marked an interesting time all the way around for SmutBear's Den. Bears were changing. The idea of a bear was changing. Bear events were changing. Technology was also changing, and people were trading pictures more easily and the internet was hosting communities and groups just for that purpose. New web communities popped up, and SmutBear's Den took turns at YahooClubs, MSN Clubs and eGroups. During this time, the name changed a few times, and eventually Smutter's became the name about a year before Yahoo took over eGroups. It was at this time that Smutter met UrsaNoir (please visit Bears of Color), who had created a site of bear profiles that focused on bears of color, chubs of color and cubs of color. It was nice to see that for UrsaNoir, "color" meant all colors, not just every color except white. UrsaNoir was also interested in participating in the larger bear scene, not about creating something separatist or outside of the larger bear scene. This was a key step in promoting the bear community to groups of people that somehow felt excluded, either by their own separation or by some past experience. Shortly after, Smutter met BearFaced1 and GXrugbybear, who both also provided much encouragement to the Smutter's idea. An old friend, BrBeast269, also lended his support to the Smutter's concept. This gave a whole new life to Smutter's, and our mission of spreading smut and bear love around the world rose to new heights. Smutter's was able to compliment the other bear type groups on the web, not compete with them. Many of our members belonged to various mainstream bear sites as well, and it was good to know that there was a group of people on the web that liked all kinds of bears.

Time never stands still, and the bear scene moves right along with it. Muscle bears, after a slightly rocky start, have now found a solid place within the bear community, and the idea of a bear has been transformed once again – and in some ways come full circle. Muscle men could stand side-by-side with their chubby brothers and all of them could be considered bears. Smutter’s responded slowly at first to non-chubby men on the site, but it didn’t take long to realize that the muscle bears (and other non-chubby men that were still decidedly out of the “twink” realm) were actually often some of the most popular posts on the site.

Our membership is now, as always, made up of people of all types of body builds, all amounts of body hair and all colors. Older guys, younger guys and everything in-between.

Thanks for reading,
--Smutter

Join us: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/smutters/