NSFW: A sexy new book, Beefcake; 100% Raw, All-Natural from Petra Mason (Universe) rehashes mid-century gay male physique mags. Honestly, not a lot new here that you haven’t seen before. But they were smart and got the foreword written by the outspoken drag legend and my old pal, Lady Bunny. Here’s a little sample:
“I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but Hollywood male A-list stars usually aren’t hot anymore. In the 1980s, I began to wonder why leading Hollywood actors had lost their movie-star looks. Nicholas Cage, Bruce Willis and Tom Hanksmay have the everyman appeal of a Jimmy Stewart, but they don’t exactly make you cream your jeans and rewind that VHS to rewatch the parts of their films in which they disrobed. While actors should primarily be appraised on their ability to act, there is now a definite lack of male eye candy compared to former eras. And there’s nothing wrong with an occasional cheap thrill! I don’t mean merely attractive male leads. I’m talking about drool-worthy, impossibly good-looking hunks of the big screen whom the studio exploited for their sex appeal — not their acting chops. (The way they still exploit their female stars.) When you saw a Victor Mature, Tarzan, or Steve Reeves movie, you knew the star was going to wear tight or skimpy clothes and engage in manly acts or dashing antics of some kind. Historical settings often provided the backdrop. What the hell happened to the hunks? I mean, George Clooney is certainly dashing, but he’s not an alpha male bursting with testosterone. And while action stars like Vin Diesel and The Rock may be fairly attractive, their movies seem to be geared more to a male audience who like to watch them blow things up than to a female or gay male audience who’d prefer to explode in ecstasy.
Many revolted against Daniel Craig’s casting as James Bond because there is no workout ever invented that’s going to put Mr. Craig on the level of international playboys with million-dollar looks like Sean Connery or Roger Moore. And I’m not saying that Denzel Washington isn’t reasonably handsome, but some of us would pay good money to drool over the dazzling Shemar Moore wearing Speedos in a beach-themed romp. If you’re tired of being cheated out of male eye candy, you’ll adore this collection of vintage porn from the Golden Age of male erotica. Male nudity could not legally be sold until the late 1960s, but even before then the publishers danced a fine line of what they could and couldn’t reveal. So many of these publications masqueraded as “physique magazines” rather than actual porn. I have no idea if any body builders actually purchased them or not, but gay men certainly did.”
