Kartik is lanky and clean-shaven, so he’s not a Bear, but he’s also got tufts of hair on his chest, so he’s not one of those Clean Cut men. He also finds it hard to relate to any one particular tribe.
Kartik thinks that gay men shouldn’t be sorted into tribes according to their body type this isn’t Hogwarts. Is this marginalising the gay community or moulding a human zoo? And then in descending order of size/hair (yes, hair) and kink, you’ve got Bears, Wolves, Cubs and Otters.
You start off with some pretty self-explanatory stereotypes: Twinks, Femmes, Geeks, Jocks and Daddies. Also a feature of Grindr’s profile settings, tribes exist to help you find men you are attracted to, based on the quantity of hair on their bodies, and muscle on their bulk. A tribe is, in fact, a social grouping of gay men based solely on their body type key physical characteristics. No, a gay tribe is not a group of still-surviving, nomadic queer men. What is it? The inevitability of death? The crushing loneliness of realising all humans inherently are and will die alone? The meaninglessness of his dead-end job? The purpose of life? I’ve clearly thought this through.
