ABSTRACT
For most gay men, June 1981 was the beginning of a carefree summer. The country’s leading gay magazine announced early in the month that bodybuilding had emerged as the pastime of choice among its readers, with bulging biceps becoming a far more accurate sign of a man’s homosexuality than limp wrists had ever been. “Aspiring hunks can be seen walking around San Francisco,” The Advocate observed, “with their gym bags-now a de rigueur piece of gay equipment-either going to or coming from their daily workout.” The men were tightening up their abs and firming up their quads so they could pose with appropriate attitude on the beach and at the gay bars and bathhouses that had mushroomed into a $100 million industry.1
