Does this fig leaf make me look gay? Strongmen, statue posing and physique photography

Studies of the male nude in photography assume a necessity to ‘desexualize’ early physique photographs, which they treat as evidence of proto-gay sensibilities, by reference to classical sculpture. The satirical prints of Thomas Rowlandson inspired in the antiquarian craze of the late eighteenth century, including that of Emma Hart who helped to establish the conventions of the modern living statue genre, indicate that audiences of that time understood the underlying sexual nature of her fully clothed performances and the potential homosexual implications associated with representations of male classical statuary. The adoption of statue posing by itinerant strongmen of the same period provided a context within which male living statue performances could be seen as reinforcing ‘classical’ masculine attributes. Their subsequent popularization by English-born equestrian acrobat Andrew Ducrow furthered their normalization on the popular stage. The nineteenth and early twentieth century reception of living statue performances by strongman Eugen Sandow and dancer Ted Shawn, along with other living statue acts on the vaudeville stage, suggests an enduring social acceptance of male statue posers that did not extend to their female counterparts, at least within the United States. Their repertory and the performance conventions, including their lighting, descended directly from living statue performers who flourished before the invention of photography. Rather than interpret physique photographs as images intended for a homosexual audience, this essay argues they are better understood as souvenirs of a durable popular entertainment tradition intended for a mass audience.