Girl Explains How Men Gets Uncomfortable When The Power Balance Is Shifted In The Media

• By Malaika
• May 5, 2021
• 4 minutes read

Most media is filmed with the ‘male gaze’ in mind.

Now I am not going to sit here and say that it is naturally a bad thing but it is always nice to see this perspective changed at movies that flip this thing on its head are always appreciated. However, not always as some of this media doesn’t do as well according to the men. Take ‘Jennifers Body’ for example. Because of the marketing and the trailer, this movie was hyped up to be something that most men wanted to see because Meghan was in it and she was quite famous when it came out.

Although this movie was more about toxic friendships with a little bit of horror thrown in. I won’t say it was geared towards women in particular because nothing should be gender-specific but many people hated it when it came out. Granted it has garnered a cult following since then. But this is just one of many movies that might not have done so well because of what is usually expected in our media. The following Tumblr thread explains it perfectly.

Source: Tumblr

There is nothing wrong with enjoying these things as women have become accustomed to this sort of media.

However, what is wrong with women getting the same treatment as well? Who doesn’t want wish-fulfillment characters?

This runs rampant especially in horror movies like slashers and such.

Where women are degraded as just pieces of meat with extreme vi*lence done to them.

However, when it is the other way around, men become extremely uncomfortable even though it is just fiction.

This is, actually, evidence of a much greater problem and not one mentioned here – the fact that no one seems capable to perceive women as v**lent. Even in these movies, the men they kill ‘had it coming”, unlike many female victims in “regular” slasher movies. The problem with women-monsters in these movies is the fact that they are “empowered” and not simply monsters like Freddy Krueger and the likes. -Bole Perishon

A horror movie is supposed to invoke fear in the masses so what is wrong with doing it through a female gaze?

Is it so bad to have variety when we sit and binge through Netflix?

But time and time again, we have seen movies losing numbers just because they flip the usual power dynamic.

And this is not feminazis wanting every character to be a bada** female.

If it is fine in all of the following ways.

What changes when the woman is the one doing horrible things to a man in a movie?

Is it just because that is what we are used to and anything different makes us uncomfortable?

Or does it show something else?

There have been many discussions about this exact thing.

And people are becoming more and more aware of the male gaze.

I dunno, not being a sensitive new age male sort I’ve always enjoyed it when a woman who was about to be a**aulted or hurt manages to either hurt or k*ll the guy who was about to do evil unto them. And I really don’t like shows or series where women get assaulted and violated anyways but when they do have a scene where she gets away and starts trying to flee.

I’m always cheering for her to go back and finish the mf off so he can’t get up and give himself a shake and then pursue her which seems to be a standard set-piece scenario. So while all you seem to be giving yourselves a case of the vapors about movies and books showing women defending themselves or revenging themselves aggressively I’m over here cheering them on to grab that brick and put the arsewipes BRAINS on the floor with it! -Al Kenny

However, we still have a long way to go as this has always been present as shown in this comic from 1993.

What is your take on this whole thing? Do you think it is justified to become so uncomfortable when women are shown to be in power in the media? It is obviously not as simple as that. Comment down below and let us know what you think.