Editing Beefcake

{{Short description|Form of glamour photography}}
{{other uses}}
{{more footnotes needed|date=October 2012}}
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'''Beefcake''' is a performance or a form of [[glamour photography]] depicting a large and muscular male body.<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u92yAqdWcawC |title=''Film Genre 2000: New Critical Essays'' |isbn=9780791445136 |access-date=2016-11-02 |archive-date=2022-10-31 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20221031230801/https://books.google.com/books?id=u92yAqdWcawC |url-status=live |last1=Dixon |first1=Wheeler W. |date=24 February 2000 |publisher=SUNY Press }}</ref> Beefcake is also a publication genre. A role a person plays in a performance may be called ''beefcake''. The term was believed to be first used by Hollywood columnist [[Sidney Skolsky]].<ref>p.120 Hofler, Robert ''The Man Who Invented Rock Hudson'' Carroll and Graf 2005</ref>

==Actors typecast as beefcake==
Beefcake poses by male actors were used far less frequently than [[Pin-up model|cheesecake]] (pin-up) layouts of actresses. Nevertheless, as early as the 1920s, photographs were taken of such stars as [[Rudolph Valentino]] and [[Ramón Novarro|Ramon Novarro]] to highlight their physical appeal. Male [[Physique photography|physique shots]] of famous stars were even less frequent during the early talking picture era, outside of stars of jungle films such as [[Johnny Weissmuller]] (Tarzan) and [[Buster Crabbe]].  The 1940s saw a rise in shirtless shots of such stars as [[Tyrone Power]], [[Guy Madison]], [[Sterling Hayden]] and [[Victor Mature]]; and in the 1950s movie magazines began running swimsuit shots of actors such as [[Tony Curtis]], [[Rock Hudson]], [[Tab Hunter]], [[Jeff Chandler (actor)|Jeff Chandler]], [[Robert Conrad]] and [[Robert Wagner]] almost as frequently as they did with actresses. This period also included the rise of [[bodybuilding]] magazines, which continue to be popular to the present day, as well as [[Muscleman|musclemen]] movie stars such as [[Steve Reeves]] who were often barely dressed in their action/adventure films. In the 1980s, heavily muscular actors [[Arnold Schwarzenegger]],<ref name="toronto">{{cite web |last=Wilner |first=Norman |date=June 14, 2012 |title=Schwarzenegger/ Stallone: The Rise Of Beefcake Cinema |url=https://nowtoronto.com/schwarzenegger-stallone-the-rise-of-beefcake-cinema |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220305131025/https://nowtoronto.com/schwarzenegger-stallone-the-rise-of-beefcake-cinema |archive-date=March 5, 2022 |access-date=March 5, 2022 |work=[[Now (newspaper)|Now]] |publisher=Media Central Corporation}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://collider.com/eraser-movie-arnold-schwarzenegger-is-it-good-80s-action/|title=How Arnold Schwarzenegger's 'Eraser' Marked the Death of 80s Action|work=[[Collider (website)|Collider]]|publisher=Valnet, Inc.|first=Tom|last=Reimann|date=June 25, 2021|access-date=March 5, 2022}}</ref> [[Lou Ferrigno]],<ref name="bostglobe">{{cite web|url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/sohPM|title=Review: 'Hercules' labors in vain|work=[[The Boston Globe]]|publisher=Boston Globe Media Partners, LLC|first=Jay|last=Carr|date=August 27, 1983|access-date=March 5, 2022}}</ref> and [[Sylvester Stallone]]<ref name="toronto"/> continued to star in beefcake-type action/adventure movies (such as ''[[Conan the Barbarian (1982 film)|Conan the Barbarian]]''<ref name="toronto"/> or ''[[Hercules (1983 film)|Hercules]]''<ref name="bostglobe"/>).

==1970 to present==
{{Unreferenced section|date=August 2016}}

The 1970s proved a golden age for beefcake with the debut of ''[[Playgirl]]'' magazine and its completely nude pictorials of men, ''[[Cosmopolitan (magazine)|Cosmopolitan]]'' magazine's famous semi-nude [[Centerfold|centerfolds]] of actors including [[Burt Reynolds]], and the rise of pornography directed at both female and gay male audiences in both magazines and films.

Today, it is common to see beefcake shots of male [[sex symbol]]s on the cover of general interest magazines. For many actors and models, shirtless poses are their most revealing, in line with their conservative images.

In advertisement, beefcake male models have become a popular ingredient for "spicy" (and often humorous) commercial spots; for example, British pop star [[Nick Kamen]] remains most famous for his 1985 beefcake performance in [[Levi's]] "Launderette" TV commercial. In the ad, he strips down in order to stone-wash his blue jeans in a 1950s style public laundromat while he waits clad only in boxer shorts; it was selected for "The 100 Greatest TV Ads" in 2000 and followed by many others, often bare-chested.

Many professional male bodybuilders advertise their services, offering advice concerning nutrition and training, sometimes marketing their videos in which training programmes are demonstrated.

A 1999 film of the same name, ''[[Beefcake (film)|Beefcake]]'', details the history of the [[Athletic Model Guild]], an early company known for their photos of men in various publications.

==See also==
* [[Himbo]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
*Padva, Gilad (2006). Foucauldian Muscles: Celebrating the Male Body in Thom Fitzgerald's ''Beefcake''. ''Film Criticism 30'' (2), 43–66.

==External links==
*[http://www.briansdriveintheater.com/beefcake.html B Movie Beefcake]

[[Category:Erotic photography]]
[[Category:Body shape]]
[[Category:Bodybuilding]]
[[Category:Slang terms for men]]