Chaser

A gay man who is into one particular type and goes after it, above all big men: chubby chaser, bear chaser, daddy chaser.

A chaser is a man who is drawn to one particular type and goes after it. On its own the word usually means a guy into big men: a chubby chaser, or a bear chaser. But it attaches to almost any type: twink chaser, daddy chaser, muscle chaser. Put the type in front, add chaser, and you have described what someone is into.

The word is about desire, not about the chaser's own body. A slim young man who loves big bears is a chaser; so is a bear who only dates bears. What makes him a chaser is that he knows exactly what he wants.

Where it comes from

The oldest form is chubby chaser, a man who prefers plump or fat partners. Green's Dictionary of Slang finds it in a 1969 personal ad in Screw, where a 300-pound man wants to connect with a "chubby chasers club", and by 2003 a gay glossary defines it simply as "a man who likes overweight men". In the 1970s big gay men and their admirers set up their own clubs, and the Girth and Mirth Club of San Francisco has records from 1976. Chubs and chasers became a pair, and from there the word spread to the rest of the bear family and beyond.

Common kinds

• Chubby chaser: into big, heavy men, the chubs.
• Bear chaser: into bears, often a younger or smaller man, sometimes a cub himself.
• Daddy chaser: into older men, the daddies and silver foxes.
• Twink chaser: into young, slim, smooth men; the classic twink chaser is an older guy.

The word with an edge

Inside the scene, chaser is mostly neutral or friendly. It can turn sour when it suggests a man who likes a type but not the person: the chaser who wants a body, not a boyfriend. Big men in particular have mixed feelings, since some chasers love them in private and ignore them in public.

The same edge is sharper in two other uses. A "trans chaser" is a man who fetishizes trans people, and the word is usually meant as criticism. And "bug chaser" is something else entirely, a man who seeks HIV infection on purpose: a much darker term that has nothing to do with body types.

Related terms