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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:

Beefcake is scarce, but it’s out there.

Additional sources:

Special 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 :)

And here is a link to another beefcake portal (Thank you Stonebear :) ):
HotGum

Apparently I have a male counterpart, who creates a blog all about beefcake (thank you Alan :) ):
V-M-P Vintage Male Physique