Beefcake - 1970 To Present

1970 To Present

Since the 1970s, Gary Sweet, Sam J. Jones, Tom Selleck, Mark Harmon, Victor Webster, former Calvin Klein underwear model Antonio Sabato Jr and Type O Negative frontman, Peter Steele have posed for beefcake photographs. The 1970s proved a golden age for beefcake with the debut of Playgirl magazine and its completely nude pictorials of men, Cosmopolitan magazine's famous semi-nude centerfolds of actors like Burt Reynolds, and the rise of pornography directed at gay male audiences in both magazines and films.

Today, it is about as common to see beefcake shots of male sex symbols like actors Gary Sweet, Brad Pitt and Hugh Jackman on the cover of general interest magazines as temptress poses of female sex symbols. While for many actors and models shirtless poses are the least demure in line with their 'conservative' image, for others it looks almost prudish compared to the more revealing, sometimes even pornographic work.

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

In Bollywood, Salman Khan often appears in his movies shirtless and hence is referred to as "beefcake".

In 1997, the second episode of the popular animated TV show South Park featured Eric Cartman as a spokesperson for a fictional product called Weight Gain 4000. In the episode, Cartman repeatedly bellows the trademark phrase "BEEFCAKE!"

Many professional male bodybuilders advertise their services, offering advice concerning nutrition, training etc., often marketing their videos in which training programmes are demonstrated. Celebrities who appear shirtless in public also give confidence to men who wish to do the same.

A 1999 movie of the same name Beefcake details the history of the Athletic Model Guild, an early company known for their photos of men in various publications.