I have been giggling since the moment I mused aloud to my husband that this thread was about a bear pride button as a part of Wal-Mart vest flair.
It could be the next bear porn classic! <snerk> The Iceman Cometh <snerk>
What does that supposedly indicate?
It’s totally unprofessional behavior, gay, straight, or panda-loving.
Wedding rings represent committment, relationship, often a legal contract, and in many het. cases, a religious ritual.
His button represents cruising, overt sexuality, and LOOK AT ME 19-year-old behavior.
It’s innappropriate, IMHO, and if he were my employee, he wouldn’t be wearing it at work today. He already has a sense that this is innappropriate as he worries about “getting the axe” tomorrow as a result of conversations provoked by his button and discussions about what he may or may not be into sexually while at work.
I don’t know what you are trying to say. But you seem to be saying it a lot. Please retune your babelfish, it has gone wonky.
Ok, it is an ice machine for cooler ice, the 10lb bags. My understanding, though, was that it did make ice, and put it in bags and such. I guess that they were loading it with bags of ice because there was great demand around the weekend and such.
Ask my back hair that question. And I’m 18.
Please point out exactly where chaoticdonkey said he was afraid he was going to “get the axe” tomorrow? If you are refering to the last sentence in his OP, perhaps you need to reread it.
Ok, now here’s a question for you: would this be any different if it were a standard rainbow flag? Also, what ever made you think that I was on the market to begin with? How many Wal-Mart customers do you think even recognized the flag, given the small number of people here who even knew what I was talking about?
That’s fine. I’m not your employee, and as such, it doesn’t matter what you would or wouldn’t allow on your employees.
And I also said “an axe to the face,” which is different from “getting the axe” in that “an axe to the face” is just a generic random bad consequence from the guy whooshing me. Go reread that sentence carefully.
Geez, you start a thread to share a funny anecdote…
Ok, so we now know that Polar Bears are the people who swim in arctic temperature water.
Furries are “anthropomorphic animals, and the fans thereof. Full stop. Some Furfans just like looking at pictures and reading stories involving furries. Others (like me) enjoy roleplaying as anthropomorphs (that’s roleplaying as in D&D, not as in ‘You be the naughty nurse and I’ll be the patient’). Others (called fursuiters) like dressing up in ‘fursuits’.
Some 'suiters enjoy having sex in their 'suits.”
Bears are a subgroup of gays that are hairy stocky types. (And wear your pin anywhere you want, CD.)
But what’s a Grizzly?
Delores Reborn in bear culture, a grizzly is well, a really hairy tough lookin’ guy. Picture a hairy biker to get an idea. Polar bears are older bears. I am slowly morphing into a polar bear as my hair gets grayer by the second, it seems.
A homo who shits in the woods.
What?
This one made me laugh out loud.
manatee - heavyset, hairless bear
This thread reminds me of a work story my sister told me. Back when she was still in college she noticed her boss and his guest at a work party were wearing really nice rings. She commented it was incredible that two friends were not only born in the same month, but that they had both bought the same rings with pretty pink triangle shaped stones. It took a couple of seconds of awkward silence before it clicked for her.
Maybe to *you * it represents cruising, etc. I don’t know a single person who wears a pride button to mean anything more than they are not ashamed of who they are. I wear gay pride buttons at work to support my friends and students who are gay-- I’m straight as a ruler and definitely not cruising. Let’s face it, a pride button doesn’t mean anybody’s cruising, any more than a wedding ring *always * represents committment, relationship, etc. in the same way, to all people.
CD is wearing his button to express pride, if anybody thinks it’s more than that, then that’s their problem. It’s okay to be gay, even at work, as evidenced by his employer (tight sphinctered <snerk>WalMart at that!) allowing/approving of the button. Now if he were going around, wedging intimate details of his bear-ness into every conversation, that might be a problem. TMI at work is a no-no, no matter orientation.
Heh, I explained “bears” to my now-husband back in college, after he commented that a guy in one of his classes he’d been chatting with had asked him out. (He just gently declined, saying he was already involved.) I said that his stone bear “fetish” (as in Zuni Indian style fetish - a stylized bear form - not that kind…) necklace and bear-like build/hair/etc. had probably thrown the guy off, and when he asked why, I elaborated. My hubby just wore it because he was a geology major (hence the rock part) and he likes bears as an animal. Plus he is bearlike. 
That was my take on it as well.
Precisely the point I meant to make. I have a tattoo that clearly marks me as a pagan, and it is often exposed at work (it’s on the back of my shoulder, and we’ve had a hot summer thus far). Most people have no idea what it means. In fact, pretty much everyone I work with has no idea what it means. It’s no different than wearing a crucifix or a Star of David, but because it’s “not normal,” there is always the possibility that someone will find it offensive. I don’t care, because it’s part of who I am.
Being proud of who you are is a luxury that very few people I know can afford–in a world that tries to get you to conform in a hundred different ways before breakfast, I say wear that pin–hell, get a bigger one.
And any employer that wants you to spice up your uniform with colorful pins and badges and then tells you that you can’t wear one for no better reason than it means you’re gasp gay is just begging for a lawsuit.
(And I don’t have a Squidward Pez dispenser on my desk, but I do have Vader and C-3PO, and a little Patrick figurine. 
)
So what does having sex in public with an audience and a tip jar represent?
In your case, I thinks it’s irony.
My latest character is a Gnoll Barbarian. Does that make me a furry? :eek:
Que?
Oh, what a pretty flower!
Yep, everybody knows that Georgia O’Keefe was just a big ol’ lesbo using her art to help her cruise the chickies.
[sup]I don’t know whether that hinders my point or not, but I just couldn’t pass up the opportunity to write ‘lesbo.’ [/sup]
Not really…although it’s a choice that many furries would make. (I’m considering a Gnoll Sorc for the future. Mostly because there’s no feline races in the world.)
Like any other fandom, it’s a matter of tendencies, rather than tumbling into one aspect.
(Note that it’s a fandom, not (neccessarily) a fetish.)
Thanks, Swampy. (Is it ok to call you Swampy? :))