I love fantasy and my preference is those written in the ya-genre style (fast paced, relatively young characters etc)
But lately something has bothered me about how the female protagonists often describes their mmc. When I visualize them, I see body builder bodies.
Now, take the new show The other Bennet sister, where a man folding up his shirt sleeve is almost erotic. That is an example of female gaze.
I want suggestions to fantasy with more of this. Please 🙂
by MissNatdah
6 Comments
Fourth Wing
I think you might like the Shades of Magic series by V.E Schwab! It alternates between the MMC and FMC perspectives and has a fast pace & lot of male characters that are described in detail and (IMO) for women
Serpent and the Wolf by Rebecca Robinson
The MMC was raised by his mother and is compassionate, emotionally pretty stable (all things considered) but also big and strong, rugged and fierce. I see this as female-gaze oriented 😅
Not to nitpick but that’s not an example of the female gaze. The term comes from cinema and is meant to denote the difference between the male objectifying gaze and the female gaze, in term being more interested in the relationship between the subjects, the subject and the camera etc.
What you’re describing is still the male gaze, it’s still objectifying.
Male gaze: object for consumption, fragmenting, aestheticizing(eroticism), no regard for the subject interior
Female gaze: subjective, interiority, the experience of being in a body instead of being looked at, relational
I have a couple recs, but they may miss the mark because I’m a guy and I’m not sure I totally get what you are asking for. But I have a couple great books written by women with fantasy and romance.
First is the Scholomance series by Naomi Novik. There’s an “enemies to lovers” thing for the whole first book so we never get the “I just ran into the hottest guy” moment. I don’t *remember* any descriptions of how the MMC looks so it might not hit this mark. I do know he isn’t a body builder. First book is “A Deadly Education.”
Next is the Saint of Steel series by T Kingfisher. Now, the men in this series *are* all buff knights, but they’re also all so deeply emotionally broken that their hotness is overshadowed by their issues. Has a terrific overarching story I am desperate to see finished. First book is “Paladin’s Grace.”
Sorry I can’t be more exacting in my recs, but these are great books and as a guy, I never felt uncomfortable or inadequate the way some romance books with ab-forward covers do
r/femalegaze