Who Is Kevin, And Why Are People Saying He Has Mastered The 'Female Gaze?'

Discussions about the portrayal of women in media have been prevalent since women appeared in the lens. This gave rise to theories about the male gaze, which is meant to analyze the ways men depict women. But have you heard of the female gaze?

It appears that many women online have a very distinct idea of who qualifies as attractive under the female gaze, and the thirst-trapping specimen shown below appears to epitomize it.

Where Does "The Female Gaze Kevin" Come From?

Primarily, TikTok. Sometime in the Fall of 2022, people began to pay attention to his thirst trap videos on TikTok, where he feigns being nervous and timid before snapping into an expression that warrants a trip to horny jail. Kevin has also deleted his entire account since things blew up in his face, so here's a video of a woman lusting after his feminine gaze-y ways.

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7166824122021088558

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7167594637551521066

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7167883287623388458

When Did The Tides Turn Against Kevin?

Kevin began to grow popular in November 2022, with his original video gaining over 22 million views. TikTok's algorithm tends to be very personally curated, so most people that were shown Kevin tended to like his vibe, even dubbing it "the female gaze." There's no definitive consensus on what "the female gaze" could possibly mean, but it appears as though people meant for it to mean "attractive in a non-conventionally masculine way." But other people found Kevin to be truly, deeply abhorrent. And they were loud about it.

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7169761730904526126

https://www.tiktok.com/embed/v2/7169705026615610630

But Being Cringe Isn't A Crime…

Neither is making skits about beating women, but Kevin did it anyways. Soon after the female gaze connoisseur went viral in a bad way, people began digging up serious dirt on him. This included older videos where he play-acted beating his imaginary girlfriend (played by him in bad drag, of course). His account has been deleted in its entirety, but the video can be accessed via reupload to Twitter, which is where a majority of his haters reside.

This man is going viral on TikTok for being “what women want” and the “female gaze”. He is a misogynist with multiple videos of him pretending to abuse women. pic.twitter.com/QshbJDCPle

— lilian (@liliandaisies) November 28, 2022

All in all, Kevin experienced the great highs and lows of TikTok virality. If there's a lesson to be learned here, it's that routine social media clean-ups are necessary to withstand life in the social media panopticon.

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For the full history of "He Is The Female Gaze", be sure to check out our entry on the slang term here for even more information.