this post was submitted on 29 Jul 2026
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I actually covered Male Gaze and Video Games in a podcast episode https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/23-the-male-gaze-and-video-games/id1551478278?i=1000530607780
Big grain of salt: it was several years ago, and I have no idea if my egg had cracked at this point.
But the long and short of it is that it's normally something for media specifically. Media is normally given to the person who is partaking in the media through a lens of the creator(s). The way the creator views the world will drastically affect how the media comes across. (This is where Hegemony comes in) The male gaze specifically tends to be how women are viewed through a specific lens of hegemony, aka the patriarchy.
If I remember, there are three things to consider. The male gaze of the character, the camera, and then the audience itself. Each one has their own element that they contribute.
I would recommend starting with the original theory piece by Laura Mulvey https://dn710700.ca.archive.org/0/items/mulvey-visualpleasure/mulvey-visualpleasure_text.pdf
Of course it has been expanded upon, but it's a good place to start. There are a lot of good pieces that go into this in depth. (also take a shot every time someone brings that clip from Transformers cause it's a classic and used as an example all the time for good reason)