Physique magazines or beefcake magazines were magazines devoted to

physique photography Physique photography is a tradition of photography of nude or semi-nude (usually muscular) men which was largely popular between the early 20th century and the 1960s. Physique photography originated with the physical culture and bodybuilding movem ...

— that is, photographs of muscular "

beefcake Beefcake is a performance or a form of glamour photography depicting a large and muscular male body. 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 ...

" men – typically young and attractive – in athletic poses, usually in revealing, minimal clothing. During their heyday in North America in the 1950s to 1960s, they were presented as magazines dedicated to fitness, health, and

bodybuilding Bodybuilding is the use of progressive resistance exercise to control and develop one's muscles (muscle building) by muscle hypertrophy for aesthetic purposes. It is distinct from similar activities such as powerlifting because it focuses ...

, with the models often shown demonstrating exercises or the results of their regimens, or as artistic reference material. However, their unstated primary purpose was erotic imagery, primarily created by and for

gay men Gay men are male homosexuals. Some bisexual and homoromantic men may also dually identify as gay, and a number of young gay men also identify as queer. Historically, gay men have been referred to by a number of different terms, including ' ...

at a time when homosexuality was the subject of cultural taboos and government censorship. Physique magazines were sold by newspaper stands, bookstores, and pharmacies. They were available in cities and even towns across the United States and by subscription, and popular titles such as ''

Physique Pictorial ''Physique Pictorial'' is an American magazine, one of the leading beefcake magazines of the mid-20th century. During its run from 1951 to 1990 as a quarterly publication, it exemplified the use of bodybuilding culture and classical art figure pos ...

'' served as an early nationwide cultural nexus for bisexual and gay men. Scholar

Thomas Waugh Thomas Waugh is a Canadian critic, lecturer, author, actor, and activist, best known for his extensive work on documentary film and eroticism in the history of LGBT cinema and art. A professor emeritus at Concordia University, he taught 41 years ...

described physique magazines as the "richest documentation of gay culture of the period". The genre was popular from approximately the early 1950s until the mid 1960s. With the legalization and increased availability of gay pornographic magazines and videos in the late 1960s and 1970s, most physique magazines either evolved to include more explicit material or went out of business.

Background

The early 20th century brought an increased interest in weightlifting and

, led by figures such as strongman

Eugen Sandow Eugen Sandow (born Friedrich Wilhelm Müller, ; 2 April 1867 – 14 October 1925) was a German bodybuilder and showman from Prussia. Born in Königsberg, Sandow became interested in bodybuilding at the age of ten during a visit to Italy. After a ...

. An early driver of this change was the "

physical culture Physical culture, also known as Body culture, is a health and strength training movement that originated during the 19th century in Germany, the UK and the US. Origins The physical culture movement in the United States during the 19th century ...

" movement, a social movement spanning Europe and North America which emphasized the development of the body via exercise and weightlifting. Magazines devoted to physical culture began to appear in the 1890s, starting in Germany. The first such English publications were Eugen Sandow's ''

Physical Culture Physical culture, also known as Body culture, is a health and strength training movement that originated during the 19th century in Germany, the UK and the US. Origins The physical culture movement in the United States during the 19th century ...

'' and

Bernarr Macfadden Bernarr Macfadden (born Bernard Adolphus McFadden, August 16, 1868 – October 12, 1955) was an American proponent of physical culture, a combination of bodybuilding with nutritional and health theories. He founded the long-running magazine pub ...

's ''Physical Development'', both appearing in 1898. At the same time, depictions of the bodies of muscular athletes and weightlifters, including stars such as Sandow and

George Hackenschmidt Georg Karl Julius Hackenschmidt ( – 19 February 1968) was an early 20th-century Estonian strongman, professional wrestler, author, and sports philosopher who is recognized as professional wrestling's first world heavyweight champion. Hacke ...

, became increasingly common in the popular press and as fodder for postcards (which experienced a boom between 1900 and 1920). Thomas Waugh also identifies the late-19th century German

Freikörperkultur The Freikörperkultur (FKK) is a social and health culture that originated in the German Empire; its beginnings were historically part of the ''Lebensreform'' social movement in the late 19th century. The ''Freikörperkultur'', which translates ...

(literally "free body culture") movement, a

nudist Naturism is a lifestyle of practising non-sexual social nudity in private and in public; the word also refers to the cultural movement which advocates and defends that lifestyle. Both may alternatively be called nudism. Though the two terms ar ...

social reform movement, as influencing the subsequent development of physique magazines in Germany and beyond. By the 1920s, demand for photos of musclemen was sufficient to support photographers who dedicated themselves entirely to physique photography, such as John Hernic. Waugh dates the first appearance of a "systematic crypto-gay subculture" working behind the scenes of the bodybuilding sphere to the 1930s. Gay physique photographers working during this era included Edwin F. Townsend, Earle Forbes, Robert Gebhart, Al Urban,

Lon Hanagan Alonzo "Lon" Hanagan was an American physique photographer during the 1940s and 1950s. He produced erotic images of men under the alias "Lon of New York", or simply "Lon". Biography Early years Alonzo James "Lon" Hanagan was born in 1911 in ...

, Lou Melan, Barton Horvath, and Dick Falcon (all but the last operating in New York City). During this period, many of these photographers shot primarily in the nude; if it was necessary to obscure genitalia for publication, they would do so after the fact by modifying the negatives or prints. A new generation of bodybuilding magazines began to appear in the 1930s, most notably Bob Hoffman's '' Strength & Health'' in 1932, and various publications from the Montreal-based Weider brothers,

Joe Joe or JOE may refer to: Arts Film and television * ''Joe'' (1970 film), starring Peter Boyle * ''Joe'' (2013 film), starring Nicolas Cage * ''Joe'' (TV series), a British TV series airing from 1966 to 1971 * ''Joe'', a 2002 Canadian animated ...

and

Ben Ben is frequently used as a shortened version of the given names Benjamin, Benedict, Bennett or Benson, and is also a given name in its own right. Ben (in he, בֶּן, ''son of'') forms part of Hebrew surnames, e.g. Abraham ben Abraham ( he, ...

, such as ''

Muscle & Fitness ''Muscle & Fitness'' is an American fitness and bodybuilding magazine founded in 1935 by Canadian entrepreneur Joe Weider. It was originally published under the title ''Your Physique'', before being renamed to ''Muscle Builder'' in 1954, and acq ...

''. Gay photographers such as Al Urban and

Bob Mizer Robert Henry Mizer (March 27, 1922 – May 12, 1992) was an American photographer and filmmaker, known for pushing boundaries of depicting male homoerotic content with his work in the mid 20th century. Biography Bob Mizer's earliest photographs ...

used the back pages of ''Strength and Health'', which, by the time of World War II, was the leading fitness magazine, to advertise "undraped" (i.e. nude) photographs for sale. Further evidence for gay readership has been seen in pen-pal letters printed in the magazine's "Leaguers" column, which seem to carry a gay subtext. Another early nexus for gay men's involvement in the physique world were bodybuilding competitions. The first of the modern bodybuilding competitions, Mr. America, began in 1939. According to Bob Mizer, it was an "open secret" that gay men comprised a large portion of the audience for these competitions, in which men would display their muscled bodies on stage in skimpy costumes. Gay men also became involved behind-the-scenes in the bodybuilding community, organizing competitions, and working as event photographers. When the new generation of physique magazines targeted at gay men began to appear in the 1950s, they faced opposition from traditional bodybuilding publications. ''Strength & Health'' ran an editorial warning of "trashy magazines" which contributed to juvenile delinquency, and ''

Iron Man Iron Man is a superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. The character was co-created by writer and editor Stan Lee, developed by scripter Larry Lieber, and designed by artists Don Heck and Jack Kirby. The charact ...

'' magazine called for a cleanup of the "homosexual element" which had "infiltrated" bodybuilding magazines and events.

Content

The characteristic uniting all physique magazines was a focus on physique photography—homoerotic photographs of nearly (or sometimes entirely) nude, attractive young men. Many physique magazines also included reproductions of homoerotic artwork, and editorial content, such as exercise tips or book reviews.

Photographs

Physique photographs typically depicted young men in ''posing straps'' (a

thong The thong is a garment generally used as either underwear or in some countries, as a swimsuit. It may also be worn for traditional ceremonies or competitions. Viewed from the front, the thong typically resembles a bikini bottom, but at the b ...

-style undergarment with a pouch for the genitalia) or another minimal covering such as swim briefs, short shorts, or a towel or piece of cloth. Full-frontal nudity was generally not depicted until the late 1960s when obscenity enforcement was loosened and physique magazines began to give way to overt pornography. Beginning in the early 1960s, some magazines began to push the envelope with outlines of genitalia becoming increasingly visible through posing straps. The first appearance of frontal male nudity on American newsstands were imported European publications which bore the alibi of promoting the

lifestyle, which began to appear as early as 1965. The first American magazines to feature frontal nudity were ''

Drum The drum is a member of the percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel-Sachs classification system, it is a membranophone. Drums consist of at least one membrane, called a drumhead or drum skin, that is stretched over a she ...

'' and the San Francisco-based ''Butch'', both in 1966, though these led to legal challenges. Photographs were sourced from a variety of photographers and studios, such as Bob Mizer's Athletic Model Guild. Some magazines included amateur photography sent in by readers. Compared to mainstream fitness and bodybuilding magazines, which focused on highly muscular physiques, physique magazines included models with a wider variety of body types, including men with more lean, "natural" builds. Models were mostly white men, a fact which has been attributed to weak demand for photos of racially diverse men among consumers of the magazines. Models were typically young adult men in their late teens or twenties, but

underage In law, a minor is someone under a certain age, usually the age of majority, which demarcates an underage individual from legal adulthood. The age of majority depends upon jurisdiction and application, but it is commonly 18. ''Minor'' may also ...

models were occasionally featured openly. For example, in 1955, ''Physique Pictorial'' used a 16-year-old cover model for its summer issue, and ran a 2-page spread of a 14-year-old model in its spring issue. Captions typically featured the name, age, and measurements of the model, along with varying amounts of biographical detail. However, these details were often fabricated to appeal to readers' appetites, and most studios allowed models to use pseudonyms.

Centerfold The centerfold or centrefold of a magazine is the inner pages of the middle sheet, usually containing a portrait, such as a pin-up or a nude. The term can also refer to the model featured in the portrait. In saddle-stitched magazines (as opp ...

spreads began to appear in physique magazines shortly after being popularized in corresponding heterosexual ("cheesecake") publications such as ''

Playboy ''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. K ...

''.

Artwork

Tom of Finland - Tattooed Sailor and the Hoods 1

Physique magazines often featured reproductions of homoerotic paintings and drawings by gay artists such as

George Quaintance George Quaintance (June 3, 1902 – November 8, 1957) was an American artist, famous for his "idealized, strongly homoerotic" depictions of men in mid-20th-century physique magazines.Etienne. Famed gay artist

Tom of Finland Touko Valio Laaksonen (8 May 1920 – 7 November 1991), pseudonym Tom of Finland, was a Finnish artist who made stylized highly masculinized homoerotic art, and influenced late 20th-century gay culture. He has been called the "most influential ...

came to notice in America after submitting his drawings to ''Physique Pictorial'' in 1956, and it was editor Bob Mizer who coined the credit ''Tom of Finland'' for the artist (whose real name was Touko Laaksonen). A sub-genre of physique magazines devoted themselves entirely to physique art, such as ''Fizeek Art Quarterly''. These magazines experienced a boom around 1963–1964.

Commercial content

Many physique magazines doubled as a sort of

mail order catalogue Mail order is the buying of goods or services by mail delivery. The buyer places an order for the desired products with the merchant through some remote methods such as: * Sending an order form in the mail * Placing a telephone call * Placing a ...

. ''Physique Pictorial'' began as a venue for selling Athletic Model Guild photo sets by mail, as had previously been done through the back pages of ''Strength & Health''. Though editors were careful to deny it, the photos sold by mail were often more explicit than those featured in the magazine, including frontal nudity or posing straps which were merely "inked on" and could be rubbed away by the consumer. Later, magazines expanded their offerings to include other items such as slides, calendars, and posing straps.

Connection to homosexuality

Though largely created by and for gay men, physique magazines initially avoided overt references to homosexuality, using a number of pretenses to explain their content. Magazines became more relaxed in their adherence to these pretenses over time, occasionally incorporating coy sexual allusions into editorial and photographic content.

Alibis

Thomas Waugh identifies three main "alibis" which physique magazines used to mask their true purpose and audience. Some, such as ''

Tomorrow's Man ''Tomorrow's Man'' was a digest size physique magazine published from 1952 to 1971. It was one of the first physique magazines, debuting a year after Bob Mizer's ''Physique Pictorial''. It was the creation of Irvin ("Irv") Johnson, a Chicago gym ...

'', relied on the pretense of promoting health and fitness, including short articles on diet and weightlifting, reporting on bodybuilding competitions, and commentary on models' muscular development. Others claimed to be providing reference photographs for artists. For example, a 1954 issue of ''Physique Pictorial'' claimed that the magazine was "planned primarily as an art reference book and is widely used in colleges and private schools throughout the country." A third alibi, mostly limited to European publications, was a claimed affiliation with the nudist movement. Waugh considers it likely that the true nature of physique magazines was an "open secret", with these alibis existing mostly as a polite fiction. An example of contemporary skepticism is a 1959 exposé in ''

Sports Illustrated ''Sports Illustrated'' (''SI'') is an American sports magazine first published in August 1954. Founded by Stuart Scheftel, it was the first magazine with circulation over one million to win the National Magazine Award for General Excellence twic ...

'', which noted:

...and all the magazines, they keep saying, operate under principles that are almost embarrassingly respectable. When accused, as some of them have been, of catering only to homosexuals, they act shocked; editorially they protest that they are eminently "cultural," devoted to "esthetic appreciation of the male physique," no naughtier than ''
The Atlantic Monthly ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...
''...

Adherence to these alibis became more relaxed over time. By the 1960s, most magazines had moved away from the rigid poses associated with bodybuilding and toward more relaxed poses and naturalistic settings such as the bachelor pad.

References to homosexuality

A subtle early signal to gay audiences was physique magazines' ubiquitous use of classical Greco-Roman imagery and language. This connection was embodied in the names of several publications, including ''

Grecian Guild Pictorial ''Grecian Guild Pictorial'' was an American physique magazine published from 1955 until 1968. While ostensibly dedicated to art, health, and exercise, like other physique magazines of the time, it was understood that, in practice, its homoerotic ...

'', ''Apollo'', ''Vulcan'', and ''Young Adonis'', as well as the frequent use of Grecian columns and props in photographs. Even covert textual references to homosexuality were rare in the early years of physique magazines. One early example cited by Kenneth Krauss is a 1956 announcement of the marriage of famed physique model Glenn Bishop in ''Body Beautiful'', which joked that "The Broken Hearts chapter of the GLENN BISHOP FAN CLUB will sponsor a mass drowning at

Fire Island Fire Island is the large center island of the outer barrier islands parallel to the South Shore of Long Island, in the U.S. state of New York. Occasionally, the name is used to refer collectively to not only the central island, but also Long ...

"—many gay men in the 1950s would have understood this as an inside joke, given the status of Fire Island as a gay hotspot. As time went on, some magazines became more daring in their willingness to discuss homosexuality directly. The July 1959 issue of ''VIM'' included an article titled "Males, Morals & Mores" which offered a measured defense of homosexuality as merely "different", and quoted

Alfred Kinsey Alfred Charles Kinsey (; June 23, 1894 – August 25, 1956) was an American sexologist, biologist, and professor of entomology and zoology who, in 1947, founded the Institute for Sex Research at Indiana University, now known as the Kinsey Instit ...

's study of male sexuality. The article warned that homosexuals and readers of physique magazines were being unfairly scapegoated as causes of juvenile delinquency. ''

'', published by

Clark Polak Clark Philip Polak (15 October 1937 – 18 September 1980) was an American businessman, publisher, journalist, and LGBT activist. Polak was from a Jewish, middle-class family in Philadelphia. He was the youngest son of Arthur Marcus Polak and A ...

from 1964 was an example of a hybrid format combining physique photography with editorial content devoted to the

homophile movement The homophile movement is a collective term for the main organisations and publications supporting and representing sexual minorities in the 1950s to 1960s around the world. The name comes from the term ''homophile'', which was commonly used by the ...

. The circulation of overtly gay magazines increased tenfold between 1965 and 1969. The increased acceptability of such publications contributed to the extinction of the physique magazine.

Format

Early physique magazines were

digest size Digest size is a magazine size, smaller than a conventional or "journal size" magazine but larger than a standard paperback book, approximately , but can also be and , similar to the size of a DVD case. These sizes have evolved from the printin ...

. Eventually large-format titles would appear, some with full color. Among the earliest were the

Joe Weider Joseph Weider (; November 29, 1919 – March 23, 2013) was a Canadian bodybuilder and entrepreneur who co-founded the International Federation of BodyBuilders (IFBB) alongside his brother Ben Weider. He was also the creator of Mr. Olympia, Ms. O ...

magazines ''Young Physique'' and ''Demi-Gods'', debuting in 1958 and 1961, respectively.

Circulation and scale

At their height of popularity, physique magazines were a major industry. It has been estimated that their circulation exceeded the serious political magazines dedicated to the

(what would now be called the ''gay rights movement'') such as ''ONE'' magazine and the ''

Mattachine Review The Mattachine Society (), founded in 1950, was an early national gay rights organization in the United States, perhaps preceded only by Chicago's Society for Human Rights. Communist and labor activist Harry Hay formed the group with a collection ...

'', by a factor of ten, or even one hundred. One factor affecting this discrepancy was that homophile publications faced greater barriers to being carried by newsstands. In 1964, a large newsstand in

Dayton, Ohio Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Day ...

was found to be selling about twenty different physique magazines, each of which would likely have sold around twenty to forty thousand copies per issue. One publisher estimated a total annual circulation, across all physique magazines, of nine million in the United States. The United States led the world in physique photography, and American physique magazines were consumed internationally, but other countries also developed their own local titles such as: ''Male Model Monthly'' in the UK; ''Muscle Builder'' in Australia; ''Sciences culturistes'', ''La culture physique'', and ''Apollon-Venus'' in France. Several Canadian titles had wide international circulation, including those of

and of photographer Alan B. Stone (operating under the name "Mark-One Studio").

Notable publishers

's ''

'', founded in 1951, is widely regarded as the first in the tradition of physique magazines targeted to a gay audience, and also the first magazine of any kind in the US to target gay men. Mizer's photography, distributed via his Athletic Model Guild, also appeared in other magazines, including overseas. Canadian bodybuilder and entrepreneur

published the bodybuilding magazine ''

Your Physique ''Muscle & Fitness'' is an American fitness and bodybuilding magazine founded in 1935 by Canadian entrepreneur Joe Weider. It was originally published under the title ''Your Physique'', before being renamed to ''Muscle Builder'' in 1954, and acq ...

'' starting in 1940, but later branched out into publishing several physique magazines in the 1950s and 60s, including ''Adonis'', ''Body Beautiful'', and ''The Young Physique''. Unlike other prominent publishers, Weider was heterosexual. He employed Hal Warner, a gay man, to edit several of his physique publications. Weider would go on to found several major American fitness magazines in the 1980s, including ''

Men's Fitness ''Men's Fitness'' was a men's magazine published by American Media, Inc and founded in the United States in 1987. The premier issue featured Michael Pare from the television series ''The Greatest American Hero''. The magazine's slogan was "How th ...

''.

Lynn Womack Herman Lynn Womack (1923–1985) was an American publisher, and the founder of Guild Press, a Washington, D.C., publishing house that catered almost exclusively to a gay male audience and played a major role in expanding the legal protections for ...

, founder of

Guild Press A guild ( ) is an association of artisans and merchants who oversee the practice of their craft/trade in a particular area. The earliest types of guild formed as organizations of tradesmen belonging to a professional association. They sometimes ...

, created a number of original physique magazines, and acquired several other existing publications including ''

'', ''Vim'', and ''MANual''. He fought the landmark Supreme Court obscenity case ''

Manual Enterprises, Inc. v. Day ''MANual Enterprises, Inc. v. Day'', 370 U.S. 478 (1962), is a decision by the United States Supreme Court which held that magazines consisting largely of photographs of nude or near-nude male models are not obscene within the meaning of . It was ...

''. The studios which provided photographs for physique magazines received little in the way of direct compensation from publishers; instead, the magazines served to advertise their mail order sales of photographs directly to readers. Many of the most prominent physique studios, such as those of

Bruce Bellas Bruce Harry Bellas (July 7, 1909 – July 1974) was an American photographer. He was influential in his work with male physiques and nudes. Bellas was well known under the pseudonym Bruce of Los Angeles. History and influence Bruce Harry Bellas ...

and

Lon of New York Alonzo "Lon" Hanagan was an American physique photographer during the 1940s and 1950s. He produced erotic images of men under the alias "Lon of New York", or simply "Lon". Biography Early years Alonzo James "Lon" Hanagan was born in 1911 in ...

, started their own magazines, which essentially served as advertising catalogues.

Legal challenges

Both producers and consumers of physique magazines in the US faced frequent legal challenges, particularly from the

US Post Office The United States Postal Service (USPS), also known as the Post Office, U.S. Mail, or Postal Service, is an independent agency of the executive branch of the United States federal government responsible for providing postal service in the U. ...

, which, at the time, took an active role in preventing the circulation through the mail of what it deemed obscene materials, under the

Comstock laws The Comstock laws were a set of federal acts passed by the United States Congress under the Grant administration along with related state laws.Dennett p.9 The "parent" act (Sect. 211) was passed on March 3, 1873, as the Act for the Suppression of ...

of 1873. The determination of obscenity in the United States originally followed the

Hicklin test The Hicklin test is a legal test for obscenity established by the English case ''Regina v Hicklin'' (1868). At issue was the statutory interpretation of the word "obscene" in the Obscene Publications Act 1857, which authorized the destruction of ...

, which applied to any material which had the tendency to "deprave and corrupt those whose minds are open to such immoral influences" (typically taken to be children). The Hicklin test was replaced following the Supreme Court case ''

Roth v. United States ''Roth v. United States'', 354 U.S. 476 (1957), along with its companion case ''Alberts v. California'', was a landmark decision of the Supreme Court of the United States which redefined the Constitutional test for determining what constitutes o ...

'', which established a narrower standard of being "utterly without redeeming social value". According to David K. Johnson, "almost all" photographers and publishers associated with the physique magazine industry faced arrest and trial at some point, with many, including Bob Mizer, Lynn Womack, and John Barrington, being jailed as a result. In the 1940s, before the first physique magazines, physique photographers like Bob Mizer and Al Urban were the subject of investigations by postal inspectors for distributing their photos through the mail. A pattern which continued through the era of the physique magazine was that the photographer or publisher would usually ultimately succeed at trial (sometimes after one or more appeals), but bore a significant financial burden in fighting the case. In addition to producers, consumers of physique magazines were also sometimes subject to prosecution. Among the best known examples was a 1959 case in Massachusetts involving seven "physique enthusiasts" found to be in the possession of "obscene photographs and literature" which included physique magazines like ''

'', ''MANual'', and ''Gym''. As a result of the scandal, one of the seven,

Newton Arvin Fredrick Newton Arvin (August 25, 1900 – March 21, 1963) was an American literary critic and academic. He achieved national recognition for his studies of individual nineteenth-century American authors. After teaching at Smith College in N ...

, an esteemed professor of literature at

Smith College Smith College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts Women's colleges in the United States, women's college in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was chartered in 1871 by Sophia Smith (Smith College ...

, was forced out of his teaching position and subsequently hospitalized for suicidal depression.

List of magazines

According to Thomas Waugh, there were "well over one hundred" pre- Stonewall physique magazines in the English-speaking world, and many more non-English publications originating from northern Europe. However, many of these were of a "fly-by-night" character, and are therefore poorly documented.

Legacy

Scholar

David K. Johnson David K. Johnson (born c. 1962) is an American historian and author who has taught at the University of South Florida since 2003. He specializes in LGBTQ and gender history in the 20th-century United States. His first book, ''The Lavender Scare'' ...

identifies the years from 1951 (the debut of ''Physique Pictorial'') to 1967 as the "physique era". Thomas Waugh describes the magazines as peaking between 1955 and 1965. Physique magazines had largely disappeared by the end of the 1960s, as new legal precedent allowed full-frontal nudity and frank discussion of homosexuality. Some titles transitioned to more explicit content in order to remain viable. ''Physique Pictorial'' transitioned from physique photos to full nudes in 1969, and remained in print until 1990.

Notes

Citations

References

* * * * * * *