Customer Reviews

Beefcake: The Muscle Magazines of America 1950-1970

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BEEKCAKE: THE MUSCLE MAGAZINES OF AMERICA ought to be reprinted. It is an essential read for those interested in the contruction of the gay male form/ideal. BEEFCAKE takes a look at the history of "the beefcake." Simply defined, the beefcake is a male who is physically built--a bodybuilder or perhaps an Abercrombie and Fitch male model. What I found interesting is the beefcake ideal emerged alongside photography, the most popular mode of getting beefcake images to the masses. Also interesting is the how the homoerotic images of the male beefcake form in the early 1900s weren't automatically linked to homosexuality. Yes, the images were homoerotic, but the target audience were straight men. It was only later that the gay factor came into play in such publications such as Physique Pictorial and Tomorrow's Man, which still targeted straight men, yet pushed the homosocial/erotic boundaries of the men being photographed. The strength of this book not only lies in the history and research of the beefcake, but also the photographs included. The beefcake is everywhere in popular culture today (in GQ, Mens Health, and other body-building magazines); he's everywhere in gay male culture too. BEEFCAKE offers readers an invaluable insight to the standards of male beauty through the eyes of both straight and gay men as seen in print/visual media.