Between the 1930’s to the 1960’s Beefcake
was at it’s hight. Very popular in gay
circles and very much in the closet- sold as
health pamphlets.
It’s not easy to find
beefcake. Not even on the internet. And even
when you find it, it lacks the luster and
playfulness, found in it’s female pastry
counterpart. I’ve searched high and low for
male pinups and managed to find a few gold
nuggets worth your attention.
Bob Mizer
Creator and founder of the Athletic
Model Guild (AMG), Bob Mizer started
photographing in his own garage. And
soon the photographs and models became
popular and infamous. When Health
and Strength magazine’s postal
permit was threatened by the U.S. Postal
Service, the stopped distributing ads by
AMG. Mizer started distributing his own
magazine,
Physique Pictorial,
which featured full frontal male nudity,
which resulted in his arrest, in 1947.
On his release, Mizer continued his
work, but was busted for running a gay
prostitution ring, in the 1960’s.
The Athletic Model Guild exists today and
works in Bob Mizer’s tradition.
To get a glimpse of Mizer's work and other
fabulous photographers, I recommend Big Kugels.
Tom of Finland
Probably the most
famous beefcake artist, to date and
maybe the one responsible for their
current existence, at all. Born Touko
Laaksonen, in Kaarina, Finland, he has
drawn beefcake from an early age. He was
a commercial artist and found his fame
and name with Physique Pictorial, to
which he submitted a few drawings, under
the pseudo name “Tom”.
In 1979 Laaksonen founded The
Tom Finland Foundation, which is
dedicated to collecting and preserving
homoerotic artwork. The foundation is
also probably the best source of
beefcake online.
Why Don’t Boys Just Want to Have
Fun?
Most beefcake, can
be found in Photography form, in the
gay blogosphere.
What fascinates me is that when men
fantasize about women they have much
more fun and flexibility than when men
fantasize about men. Most of the photos
are uninspired. The men look so serious
it’s intimidating. I’ve managed to
collect a few fun pieces, but it was a
tough search. Most sites that do exhibit
beefcake are membership sites, or have a
block on the images, so I can’t show
them here. So I’m passing the stick to
you: Got any real beefcake?
Email
me, or add them to this comment
section.
Thank God for the World Wide Web
A
minute before I was ready to give up, and
pronounce beefcake dead, I was lucky enough
to stumble upon Flickr. Where there are few
serious collectors:
Update: 12.3.08
A friend just sent me a video, which I find
very appropriate to the beefcake issue. I'm
gonna have to change my thesis and ask:
Has beefcake moved to television?
Thanks Kauaiguy
13.3.08
And a big thanks to Stonebear for a link to
a beefcake portal: HotGum
23.3.08
Apparently I have a male counterpart, who
creates a blog all about beefcake (thank
you Alan ): V-M-P
Vintage Male Physique
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,
which featured full frontal male nudity,
which resulted in his arrest, in 1947.
On his release, Mizer continued his
work, but was busted for running a gay
prostitution ring, in the 1960’s.
