The shirtless cute boy is a pinup who displays his sixpack (or in the case of New Moon's Taylor Lautner, pictured, his tenpack) for the delectation of his fans. It's the male version of a starlet (Megan Fox, anyone? everyone?) posing in a string bikini for Maxim or Sports Illustrated. Lately the vealcake on parade (vealcake being the teen version of beefcake) is inescapable. You can't open a magazine (or an Internet site) without seeing a shirtless cute boy (Zac Efron? Corbin Bleu?) bare abs and assets. It's not a new phenom: These male starlets are just giving us the shirt off their backs as Paul Newman (Cool Hand Luke), Burt Reynolds (The Longest Yard), John Travolta (Saturday Night Fever), Denzel Washington (Glory) and Brad Pitt (Thelma & Louise) did before them.
While neither a consumer of beefcake nor of cheescake, I suppose the shirtless cute boy is an index of gender equality in that males as well as females are objectifying themselves. But isn't this as dubious an achievement as actors being as ready as actresses to have face work done?
Are you a fan of the shirtless cute boy? If so, which pin-up is indelibly burned in memory? Not a fan? Why? While I have no objections to nudity in films when called for by the narrative, to me there's something self-conscious and gratuitous about pinup shots. I can think of an exception to this: In Alien when Sigourney Weaver walks around the space ship in her bikini underwear, the viewer is so distracted by her body that the shock of what happens next is doubly shocking.
who is his trainer?! and i suppose he's never known the philly cheese steak... or chickies and pete's fries... or a lee's hoagie...— avidreader- Well, avidreader, Cynical me mused that his tenpack may be a product not of situps but of the airbrush.— carrierickey
- I can only think of Lisa Simpson's Non-Threatening Boys Magazine when it comes to shirtless teen pics of vealcake.— garyk
- Carrie is spot on about the airbrush and the gratuitous omni-sexual character of such pinups. I'd kill for a real sixpack. Then again I already sometimes kill for a real philly cheese steak, avidreader, and my chances for such muscular definition are forever sealed in those sandwiches. And my low-ride jeans keep sliding down because of my girth and not because of my style. Oh, well. Whatever sells tickets, as long as the censors agree, eh?— californiafan
- He can probably eat lots of cheesesteaks and hoagies. He's a kid. I think it's an age, metabolism and alcohol factor, basically. Case in point, the once extremely lithe, handsome (and fairly virile) Alec Baldwin (a fine actor, nonetheless, although a silly celebrity and ridiculous political commentator). I credit him for consistency on each of those points, however.— ccjroberts
- Hey, Carrie-- The Contrarian here. Sorry, but this photo looks suspiciously photoshopped - at the very least, airbrushed. Even his navel seems highlighted. I've a hunch he has less of a ten-pack in person. Just a theory.— Pash
- Hey, Carrie-- The Contrarian here. Iagree with you. This photo looks suspiciously photoshopped - at the very least, airbrushed. Even his navel seems highlighted. I've a hunch he has less of a ten-pack in person.— Pash
- The vealcake shot (nice coinage) I most remember is the one of David Cassidy taken by Annie Liebovitz, published a good 35+ years ago in Rolling Stone. Although it allowed the viewer to see - thanks to Randy Newman for this phrase - all the way to Argentina, the effect was of seeing a creature who was essentially pre-sexual. This, I think, is always the attraction of the current vealcake pin-up, from Peter Noone to the doofus pictured above: a completely non-threatening presentation of sexuality for girls who are just beginning to experience their own sexuality. And that's probably not a bad thing, all things considered.— wwolfe
- VIEWED
- Commented
- News | Sports | Business | What's Happening | Restaurants & Food | Entertainment | Living | Marketplace | Jobs
