"Cheesecake" origins (nudity)

[BigT]

I couldn’t find anything on a quick Google search. Anyone know the etymology of “cheesecake” being used to describe female (upper) nudity?

And does it predate beefcake? (I assume “beef” refers to muscles, but tell me if I’m wrong.)

[Saturn_Dreams]

As I understand it, cheesecake doesn’t refer to nudity, but rather to pin-up girls. As for etymology, nothing definitive. I’ve heard anything from comparing the model’s exposed legs to creamy white cheesecake, to the photos of the girls being hailed as, “Better than cheesecake”.

[Jragon]

nm

[bob_2]

There are several theories - this seems the most likely (and well researched).

Curiously, the term “cheesecake,” in connection with a beautiful woman, seems like a fairly recent term. It has a kind of a 1920s or '30s sound to it. But no, cheesecake was used in Britain in the 1660s! Even then, the term was used to describe overly sexy or promiscuous women.

It can be found in Poems and Songs Relating to the Late Times, published in 1662. Shortly after Oliver Cromwell died, it was used to regret the occasion of Cromwell driving certain ladies (of questionable repute) out of the town:

But ah! It goes against our hearts,
To lose our cheesecake and our tarts.

Fast forward to 1912, when James Kane, a photographer, was working for The New York Journal. One day James was posing an attractive young woman when a breeze blew her skirt up. When more leg than usual came on display, Mr. Kane (who reputedly loved cheesecake) exclaimed, “Wow! This is better than cheesecake!”

The Origins of the Terms Cheesecake and Beefcake

[ZipperJJ]

I’ve never heard of this before, but it sure gives a weird new meaning to Louis Armstrong’s song “Cheesecake” (“My giiiiirl looooves cheesecake!” “Cheesecake, munchin’ on the cheesecake…”)

[md2000]

@ZipperJJ

I’ve never heard of this before, but it sure gives a weird new meaning to Louis Armstrong’s song “Cheesecake” (“My giiiiirl looooves cheesecake!” “Cheesecake, munchin’ on the cheesecake…”)

Also performed by the Muppets. At the end the cheesecake makes a run for the door.

[Exapno_Mapcase]

This Pin Up page gives the same anecdote as bob++'s site, but attributes it to a different photographer in 1915.

The classic pin-up genre - cheesecake - fulfills our definition perfectly. Cheesecake (Which Webster defines as “photography displaying especially female comeliness and shapeliness”) is said to have gotten its name when, in September 1915, a newspaper photographer, George Miller, noticed a visiting Russian diva, Elvira Amazar, just as she was debarking her ship in New York. Miller asked the opera singer to hike up her skirt a little for the sake of the picture. Later, the photographer’s editor, something of a gourmet, is supposed to have exclaimed, “Why, this is better than cheesecake!”–Kevin Freeman , http://www.mutoworld.com [Jun 2004]

Some poking around shows that the story seems to have been taken from Barry Popik, perhaps the dean of all modern etymologists.

The James Kane version, however, is not some recent variation but probably the older story, having been known for decades.

Famous quotes are frequently attributed to multiple people, but this is odd since neither person is now remembered.

[samclem]

@bob_2

There are several theories - this seems the most likely (and well researched).
The Origins of the Terms Cheesecake and Beefcake - Neatorama

Horribly researched and absolutely made up. Not true.

@Exapno_Mapcase

This Pin Up page gives the same anecdote as bob++'s site, but attributes it to a different photographer in 1915.

Some poking around shows that the story seems to have been taken from Barry Popik, perhaps the dean of all modern etymologists.

The James Kane version, however, is not some recent variation but probably the older story, having been known for decades.

Famous quotes are frequently attributed to multiple people, but this is odd since neither person is now remembered.

Barry Popik’s great site The Big Apple belies the early attribution.

The term, American in origin, to mean photos(usually leg photos) of sexy women, is first attested to in print in 1934, Time Magazine. No one has ever found an earlier example.

Time magazine writers quite often originated slang words, especially in the 1920-1950 period.

[Exapno_Mapcase]

I was using this footnote about Popik. Apparently the writer misunderstood the column.

To be honest, it’s not absolutely clear to me either. That column can be read as him saying that somebody used the term cheesecake earlier, but it’s coincidental, or that it never really happened.

And to nitpick Popik’s column, the word used by Time in 1934 is “cheese-cake.” You won’t find it in Time’s archives by searching for “cheesecake.”

[BigT]

Well, that article answers my questions, including the one about whether beefcake came later. (It did.) So thanks.

The context in which I’d always seen it, I’d associated it with at least some level of nudity. But it doesn’t surprise me that such is not a requirement.

[bob_2]

Before reading this thread, I had always associated the description “cheesecake” with the display of teeth that usually accompanied these pictures. Photographers say “Say Cheese” to get their subjects to smile.

There seems to be no connection to “cheesy” as in shoddy or inferior, as that came from the British in India.

[j_sum1]

@samclem

Time magazine writers quite often originated slang words, especially in the 1920-1950 period.

So Time was the Seinfeld of the day?