Male Gaze / Literature

---

• Roman Kendar's POV scenes in City of No End have a few Male Gaze moments, particularly when he meets Sibyla Leibowitz and when the Norns bring out singers to entertain him on his diplomatic mission. This doesn't happen in scenes from the POV of other characters, however.
• In The Hunchback of Notre Dame, when Esmeralda is being taken to the gallows, Victor Hugo spends an inordinate amount of page space describing her "long black hair... more lustrous than the raven's wing," her "half-naked shoulders" and "bare legs," and her desperate attempts to hold her garment closed with her teeth.
• In a lot of Lin Carter's works, (particularly Zanthodon) he'll often spend a paragraph repeating descriptions of all the naked or scantily-clad female characters' attributes every couple of pages. You could make a drinking game out of all the times he uses the phrases like "flawless breasts", "supple body", "luscious mouth". Doesn't help that they are often threatened with rape by pirates or savages every few chapters as well.
• A short story by French author Anna Gavalda centers around the Male Gaze. The protagonist, a single woman, goes to the bar in search of some fun. A man starts talking to her boobs, but she refuses to acknowledge him. He even switches language from French to English, before he thinks to look two decimeters higher. "Fancy that! I have a face, too!" she thinks, before telling him off.
• Milton's frequent descriptions of the beautiful, graceful Eve in Paradise Lost.
• Most of the female characters in the entirety of The Dresden Files, especially the many fairies and White Court vampires.
  Harry (narrating): One thing Spenser fails to mention is that the Faerie Queen has a great ass.
  • Although it might not immediately be obvious, this tends to be much more blatant when Harry (the first person narrator for the entire series) is single and particularly when he's sexually frustrated, and is considerably toned down when he's in a relationship.
• Elizabeth George is guilty of this in her book Careless in Red, where everyone, including the women make assessments of the women's looks by zooming in on their body type and clothing. This is where we get women doing almost pornographic descriptions of other women "as if to check out the competition", as George puts it although there is no man around. For some reason all the characters also seems to have the same standards of beauty, and write off women who are too fat or too skinny as impossible love interests for the victim, since "she could never be the subject of a young man's lustful gaze".
• John Carter of Mars is an officer and a gentleman. Except for a reference to Dejah Thoris' 'perfectly symmetrical figure' and an occasional 'bare shoulder' you would never guess he is surrounded by pulchritudinous damsels clad in nothing more than leather straps and jewelry.
• In Lee Child's Without Fail, Jack Reacher's partner Frances Neagley has buttocks which regularly get noted approvingly (even by the book's other main female character). This actually proves to be plot-relevant. When they have a word with the man handling Secret Service surveillance tapes - who tampered with them as part of the plot to assassinate the Vice-President-elect because the people responsible kidnapped his wife - he's so nervous he never even notices Neagley's behind, which he would certainly have done otherwise.
• Knaves on Waves directly subverts this. At one point, Sheridan strips naked in front of Trigger, who is solely interested in her countless tattoos. Sheridan even remarks that this make him an anomaly.
• Pool of Radiance: The female tailoress has to remind Tarl to stop looking at Shal while the young mage has to get new clothes made for her.
• Gammla, the Shallow Love Interest of Quest for Fire is framed almost entirely though this lens unfortunately. Interestingly though, because this is specifically a male neanderthal gaze, it often lingers on parts of the body not traditionally considered beautiful by modern man such as her hairy arms and round belly.
• In The Wheel of Time, so many of the main cast are implausibly beautiful, this happens a lot in-universe.
  • Happens to Min a fair amount. Other important female characters frequently call her breeches indecent, while themselves showing off vast ... tracts of land.
  • Elayne and Nynaeve roller-coastered this trope during their adventures. To the point of being unreliable narrators about it.
  • As usual for them, the Aiel completely ignore this trope, except in shaming "Wetlanders". Their sweat tents are co-ed.
  • Special mention to Birgitte, who wears high heels and wears pants in an era of corsets. After Birgitte ranted about how all of the Elayne's allies' houses sent children to help fight, Elayne's advisor points out that they have to work with what they have, others (including her) have survived similar circumstances, and then serves Birgitte:
  "... If you can't keep him reined in as Captain-General, I suggest you try walking for him. The way he was eyeing those breeches of yours, he'll follow anywhere you lead."
• At one point in War of the Dreaming, Wendy and Galen enter the dream-world to consult with Prometheus. On "waking" up, Wendy demands to know why, if they are climbing a mountain, she is dressed in high heels and fishnet stockings. Galen starts to explain that it's his dream they are in, and this is how he always thought of-- uh, that it's symbolic.
• In Shadowboy, the narrator is a Hormone-Addled Teenager, leading to moments of distraction, in particular when he first meets Pam.
• The Honorverse is actually very good about avoiding this.... except when it comes to Eloise Pritchart, one of the later series' anchor characters. This is less "Male Gaze" and more "Everyone's Gaze", though, as she really is apparently just that gorgeous — something which every character who personally meets her for the first time will invariably dwell upon for a paragraph or two before moving on with the plotline. To the author's credit, this does not in any way diminish her well-rounded characterization or her many moments of badass.
• In the western series of William Johnstone and his niece, J.A. Johnstone this is fairly common. One notable example comes from the book Sidewinders:Bleeding Texas, when The Dragon is watching the daughter of the family he works for walking away and thinking about how nice her jeans fit. Unfortunately for him, he isn't too discreet about it and his boss notices.
  Nick Fontaine: Stop leering at my sister's behind and get in here.
• The titular character in the Ciaphas Cain ^note HERO OF THE IMPERIUM!! series likes to check out ladies' butts. In Duty Calls, this actually saves his life, as craning his neck to see the butt of a female just a little bit longer lets him see assassin drones coming down from the ceiling before they attack him.
• We Can Remember It For You Wholesale: In every scene Shirley, the topless Rekall receptionist, appears in, the narrator describes how shapely her melony breasts are and have a tendency to bounce.
• When Zachary Beaver Came To Town: Toby often admires the height and tightness of Scarlet's jeans, not to mention her bikini top.
• Yumi and the Nightmare Painter: Between Design's human form being very curvy and her not being very careful when she leans over, Painter spends a significant amount of time trying very hard to look her in the face.
  Hoid: Granted, he did overdo it—his eyes lingered on her the entire time she worked. But don't judge him too harshly. He was nineteen, and I'm a uniquely talented artist.

---