As regards bears, my experience would tend to be they are of the big,
burly, 'manly', hairy as heck variety. Younger/slimmer chaps, you have bear cubs. Possibly related to sexual preferences as well, although not as specific as regards sexual preferences as the BDSM leather clad lot. O, for the olden days when everyone wore hankies and you could just look this up! There are supposedly otters as well, although I'm not quite sure what they wear/are into.
Then we have other slightly specialist groupings, such as one I once came across who were into corduroy and cigars.
Anyway, the point here is that even to a lesbian, it was quite obvious that there were various groupings of gay men, based on clothing styles and possibly sexual preferences with clothing as a signal. And if an evening was for a particular group, you would not necessarily get in if you didn't look the part. And frankly, anyone in high-heeled boots would just not fit as regards the bears/cubs I've met.
It would be like turning up to a steam rally not knowing what a valve chest was...........people would just know that you aren't really interested in what we are interested in, or want to play with the things we want to play with.................(not some weird sexual metaphor BTW! 
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