BEAR magazine played a major role in shaping the nascent Bear consciousness and aesthetic in the 1980s-90s particularly with respect to the idealization and eroticization of the Bear body. As stated in Issue #1 in 1987, BEAR was created because, "[y]oung, clean shaven body builders with precision trimmed pubic hair and Naired buttholes don't do it for [a lot] of guys.” The magazine featured short articles, fiction, classified personal ads, and lots of photographs of naked Bears, content BEAR described as “hairy faces and furry bodies, slender cowboys and pot-bellied laborers, sensual imagery and down-and-out dirt." BEAR is currently published as an online magazine.