beauty is only skin.: 50s Male Body Image

Since the 1950s, men have been concerned about four major areas of body alteration and enhancement. They have lavished great attention on their hair, they have worried about physical fitness and body shape, they have made forays into cosmetic surgery, and they have fretted about sexual dysfunction. Men's ways of dealing with their "problem areas" have changed drastically in this century, and it is impossible to understand current practices without first looking back at men's attitudes in earlier times.

http://www.nytimes.com/books/first/l/luciano-looking.html

The perceived attractiveness of muscular men has grown since around the 1950s, alongside the muscularity of male models. The body size of male Playgirl models gradually increased from the 1950s to the late 1990s with an increase in muscle and lean body mass rather than body fat.

http://theconversation.edu.au/boys-arent-immune-to-body-image-pressures-and-never-have-been-3801