This summer, I got cultural whiplash.
As a child of the ’90s and early 2000s, I grew up with my mother’s and grandmother’s generations’ fight for legal and workplace equality helping shed social misogyny.
In the past decade in particular, I saw the evidence of progress in my media diet. The movies, shows, books and advertisements I consumed were increasingly giving women a seat at the table. Heroin chic fell away, and body positivity entered the fashion world. Stories about a woman stealing your man were traded for celebration of the “girl’s girl” who resisted the competition for men’s attention.
And when my husband and I got married earlier this year, our vision of what our life could be included wide-ranging possibilities, influenced in part by the movies and shows we grew up with. We saw, read and listened to stories of involved fathers, successful mothers and well-matched partners who supported one another.
It seemed like women were taking a deeper breath without such heavy cultural restrictions.
Then there was a shift.
Was it around the 2024 presidential election? Or since the overturn of Roe v. Wade? Maybe when men’s rights activists pushed back against #MeToo? Whatever the catalyst, a change in the political environment seemed to connect with a social change that brought back narrow, and at times constrictive, ideas of womanhood depicted in media.
The recent rise of weight loss medications coincided with social media influencers sharing ways to get smaller and no longer celebrating bodies of all sizes. Advertisements followed suit, making men’s desire once again a dominating factor in how stories are told, and how women are portrayed.
How had these discarded ideas made their way back into circulation? Didn’t we all agree we were through with them?
The culprit, I have learned, is the male gaze. It was always there, but now it has stepped back into the spotlight.
Back to the male perspective
The male gaze came roaring back this summer.
American Eagle –– whose partner brand Aerie has been known for marketing underwear to women with imagery that celebrated stretch marks, cellulite and a range of body sizes –– ran a controversial ad campaign starting in July. The ads sell jeans to women featuring actor Sydney Sweeney, who many men see as a sex symbol, insinuating the clothing would make men find them more attractive.
Then there was e.l.f. Beauty’s campaign led by a comedian infamous for domestic violence jokes and disdain of a primarily female audience. And this year saw viral content around an OnlyFans star’s attempt to break the world record for most sexual partners in one day –– a lucrative career move made even more viral by her bashing the wives and girlfriends of her sexual partners and suggesting men cheating is the fault of the women who aren’t available enough for sex.
“Most typically, the male gaze is about representing women in media solely to satisfy heterosexual men,” said Dr. Linda Tuncay Zayer, professor of marketing and John F. Smith, Jr. Chair in Business Administration at the Quinlan School of Business at Loyola University Chicago.
In the eye of the beholder
If you are observing women in movies, TV, fashion, social media and marketing and they don’t feel as fully materialized as their male counterparts, that is the male gaze.
“The woman’s value is reduced in so far as existing for pleasure or basically an object,” Zayer said.
It’s Bond girls. And a long, lingering shot panning up a woman’s body in an advertisement for soda. It’s when an action movie accessory is running through explosions in tiny shorts and flowing curled hair before collapsing helplessly in the hero’s arms. And a social media star making a recipe while all dolled up and explaining her steps in a soft, sultry voice.
The male gaze has always been around — art in the eye of the male beholder — but the term came into modern existence as a feminist theory coined by film critic Laura Mulvey in 1975. Although it started as a lens through which to view film, Mulvey specifically calling out Marilyn Monroe’s appearance in “The River of No Return” and movie director Alfred Hitchcock’s “Rear Window,” it has expanded to encompass cultural perspectives that keep men’s stories, experiences and interest as the societal priority and treat women as objects rather than active participants.
The male gaze includes stories told about women in relation to a male character (think wife, daughter, victim) and media in which the camera angles and visual storytelling make the audience feel like they are viewing the women from a heterosexual male’s perspective, Zayer added.
It may even be hard to recognize when media is coming from the male gaze because it is so pervasive, Zayer said. “We’re kind of a goldfish in the water where this is part of our culture,” she added.
As you try to identify it, Zayer stresses the male gaze is not just about the way something looks –– it’s about power. And media matters.
Characters in TV and film have encouraged women to move into science, technology, engineering and math careers, research has shown. When women around the world were surveyed in 2016 about how fictional characters inspired them, 16% said they wanted to pursue more education, 12% said they took up a sport, and about 11% said they left an abusive relationship, said Madeline Di Nonno, CEO of the Geena Davis Institute.
“What happens in the world of make believe has real world impact,” she added.
What about the female gaze?
The dominance of the male gaze hasn’t gone unchecked. Storytellers have been presenting alternative ways of viewing women for many years.
Often when women are shown as sexy or sexual on screen, it is a performance for men and doesn’t include their own search for pleasure or complex storylines. On the other hand, there is the female gaze, with shows and movies like “Bridgerton” and “Portrait of a Lady on Fire” demonstrate how women can be sexual without being objectified.
Mothers and daughters weren’t accessories to the men in their lives when Greta Gerwig joined the ranks of the few female Academy Award-nominated directors — for the 2017 film, “Lady Bird.” The film’s focus on the mother-daughter relationship helped audiences explore coming of age and the experience of womanhood.
One of the most successful comedies of 2011 –– and all time –– is a film about an ensemble of women of different races, family structures and body types getting together in “Bridesmaids.” It’s hard to tell Maya Rudolph, Kristen Wiig and Melissa McCarthy that women aren’t funny — a trope that falls outside the narrow confines of the male gaze.
And beloved shows like the original “Star Trek” have appealed to audiences of all kinds while showing female characters and people of color in complex storylines and positions of power. NASA even gives credit to actor Nichelle Nichols (who played Lt. Nyota Uhura in the series that aired from 1966 to 1969) for working with the agency to help diversify its talent pool.
Some have called this kind of storytelling the female gaze. And while there have been powerful works of art and media with women at their center, they are still the exception and not the rule.
Take the Bechdel test, coined by cartoonist and graphic novelist Alison Bechdel in a comic strip. To pass it, a book, film or show must have at least two women; they must talk to each other, and about something other than a man. Failing the test is a good sign that media is part of the male gaze –– and you can probably think of plenty that can’t check any of those boxes.
The pendulum swings back and forth
Throughout history, when the pendulum swings one way, it tends to eventually swing back the other way. The same is true culturally. Although the male gaze has always been part of most cultures, there have been efforts to diversify perspectives, tell more stories and bring women into more positions of power.
Decades of fighting for women’s suffrage in the United States found success in 1920, which kicked off a decade of some relaxation of the restrictions on women. Instead of corseted dresses, women opted for looser-fitting “flapper” frocks with a boyish shape. But in the 1930s, trends changed again and women were in more feminine, cinched waists.
When World War II broke out in 1939 and women were brought into the workplace in the ’40s, fashion reacted with more functional, utilitarian wear. But when the war ended and women were forced out of the workplace, the full-skirted “1950s housewife” was the new (old) ideal of femininity.
“Historically speaking, there’s almost always a backlash after women have achieved something,” said Dr. Katherine Sredl, lecturer of marketing at Loyola University Chicago’s Quinlan School of Business.
More recently, women started going to college at higher rates than men, the gender pay gap started to close, women started having children later, LGTBQ rights made strides and body positivity pressed companies to diversify depictions of beautiful people.
But those trends were followed by the recent retro-popularity of “trad wives” and a resurgence of “thinspiration,” “skinny legends” and “what I eat in a day” videos that revived a restrictive beauty ideal on social media.
Using sexuality to sell
The male gaze remains a profitable marketing tool. Underlying many advertisements is the message that if only a woman could be more beautiful and appealing to men, they can find love, acceptance and a better version of their lives — all for the low, low price of these weight loss gummies or that workout program, these seductive undergarments or that new fragrance.
TV commercials for the fast-food chain Carl’s Jr. (or Hardee’s, depending on where you are from) used to feature models baring skin while taking a big bite. It started in the 1990s with men watching a woman eat a burger in another building through binoculars. In 2005, Paris Hilton’s ad showed her washing a car in a bikini. And celebrities including Kim Kardashian, Audrina Patridge and Kate Upton kept building on the commercial’s blueprint until about 2017.
That was when Carl’s Jr. changed to focus on using the food to market the restaurants. Many advertisers had stepped away from so obviously telling women they should buy a hamburger or other products to make themselves appealing to men.
The company GoDaddy launched its first commercial in 2005, when a model stood with the company name across the chest of her tank top before the strap breaks and she has to save herself from a wardrobe malfunction. The advertisements continued to feature beautiful, sexualized women –– sometimes a bit of a confusing choice for a website and marketing services company –– until 2013 when GoDaddy started to transition away from a strategy of scandalizing and toward a more inspirational and sophisticated approach.
But the changes haven’t always stuck. Social media influencer Alix Earle was featured in a 2025 Superbowl ad for Carl’s Jr., wearing a bikini top and taking a slow-motion burger bite.
Debate over a woman’s role
There is an ideological gap between women and men –– particularly younger men –– when it comes to men wanting to adhere to more stereotypical gender roles, according to research from Ipsos.
This year, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg said that the corporate world has become “culturally neutered” and generally offices need more “masculine energy.” Meanwhile, both fringe influencers and more mainstream role models have taken to podcasts and social media to assert that women should be responsible for homemaking, and men for protecting and providing.
Kansas City Chiefs player Harrison Butker spoke at a college commencement in 2024 and told the women that they have been told lies about their futures and probably were more excited about being wives and mothers than taking on careers. And figurehead of the online “manosphere” Andrew Tate has preached male dominance and female submission to young boys.
However, those voices are being met with other perspectives: men advocating that sharing the mental load of running a household is part of being in a family or that protecting and providing includes supporting your wife and caring for the emotional well-being of those you love. Men can be strong, good listeners and be of service to their family, they say. Men who can take care of themselves (think laundry and cooking) aren’t just good adults –– they may be more attractive to women, the counter-messages say.
And women often push back against narrow ideas of who they are and what they can be.
Women want to see media that resonates with their lived experience, according to research from the Geena Davis Institute, which studies representation in media. That can mean stories of women being powerful, flawed, beautiful, ugly, mothers and professionals.
Ultimately, women –– who control a lot of spending power in society –– often express loyalty to brands who give them that content, Zayer said.
“The business of it makes sense,” she said.
When women sign on to the male gaze
Although the concept of the male gaze originally came from film and has expanded to television, art and literature, it is deeply connected to finance, Joyrich said.
When the prevailing perspective in stories, art and advertising is White and male, then those who don’t align with those identities have less power, she said. And no one is immune from the societies and cultures in which they live.
Women sometimes turn the male gaze on one another. It happens when they objectify themselves, promote traditional gender roles as the ideal way of living and enforce beauty standards for others, Sredl said.
Sometimes women think it is empowering to utilize the male gaze, or to make a living in a society that profits financially off their exploitation, and others do it to feel in control, Joyrich added. “I might as well sell my own sexuality before you do,” she said.
But still, it’s large corporations that profit most, Joyrich said.
The dominant perspective most of the time
There may be ebbs and flows in how pervasive the male gaze is, but it has never really gone away, Joyrich said.
Women have made strides when it comes to representation in media –– take Reese Witherspoon’s production company championing women-led stories and films, and “Selma” director Ava DuVernay’s critical and box office success.
But film and television has historically been dominated by male writers and directors. The efforts of female storytellers have largely been a push against the status quo. And often, the lens under which the works are viewed represent a dominantly male perspective.
Who cares if ‘male’ is the main viewpoint?
If women want to be trad wives and men want to see a sexy sidekick in their action movies, why not let them?
The concern isn’t a woman baking in her finest pearls or wanting to be sexy –– that is fine, and she should be allowed to do that, Zayer said. There are real-life implications, however, when spreading a message that women should only strive to please men and men should only see the women in their lives in one way.
Often the traditional beauty standards put forward by the male gaze are unrealistic. They favor thin bodies that few people can maintain in a healthy way, Zayer said. And usually, the standards prioritize Whiteness, Joyrich added. Women who don’t naturally meet those ideals are left struggling to win a competition stacked against them.
Both men and women should feel empowered to do what is right for themselves, whether that’s climb the corporate ladder or stay at home as a parent, Zayer said.
The male gaze also limits men when it encourages viewing women as objects rather than complex, multidimensional human beings, Zayer said.
In a world where male loneliness is a crisis, the isolation problem gets even worse when the culture tells men that women (about half the population) are for beauty, sex and running a household, and are not viable options for real emotional connection and partnership.
Changing the male-led narrative
If you want more full and rich stories about people of different genders, races, cultures and sexual orientations, you have to engage with artists of those identities, she said.
Fortunately, there is no shortage of fun, meaningful, interesting and high-quality movies and TV shows that offer a wide range of perspectives.
You can dive into the closeness of female relationships with movies like “Booksmart,” “Steel Magnolias” or Greta Gerwig’s “Little Women.” Or watch women be brilliant even when their sexuality isn’t in focus with “Hidden Figures,” Netflix’s “The Residence,” or “Lessons in Chemistry.”
Seeing women be the heroines of the action instead of –– as Reese Witherspoon cited when talking about launching her production company –– helplessly asking “What do we do?” is also important. For that, I can turn to “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” “A Quiet Place,” and “Black Panther.”
Maybe your list is different, but I think it helps to be able to identify the media around you that expands the perspectives you are immersed in and the possibilities they present, and which ones, alternatively, make the box around identity feel a little smaller.
“By talking about it, by reading different things, by getting media literacy, by creating different things, by seeing the variety of media out there –– including atypical, non-normative ones ––people can start to think differently,” Joyrich said.