CNN boldly declares that “the male gaze” is back… as if it ever left

Months removed from nationwide panic over an American Eagle ad featuring Sydney Sweeney in a pair of jeans and the national media still can’t stop themselves from melting down about it. CNN can’t get enough and just this week stepped up to boldly declare that “the male gaze is back” as if it ever left in the first place.

Nothing shocks me anymore. You’d think CNN just discovered a new virus the way they’re treating it.

You know what I mean…

CNN is acting like this is groundbreaking information while trying to cause division and panic when in reality, it was nothing more than a common cold. However this time around, it’s not COVID. It’s the sight of a beautiful woman wearing denim that is being treated like a public health emergency.

CNN Sounds The Alarms: “After years of progress on gender, the male gaze is back”

CNN is upset they weren’t able to convince men not to like hot chicks. pic.twitter.com/QCJlgX9yOu

— Clay Travis (@ClayTravis) October 13, 2025

Honestly, I don’t even know what “years of progress on gender” even means. I’m sure it has something to do with the fact that there’s a million “genders” these days.

Personally, I don’t give a shit what people what to call themselves. Leave me out of it. I would question how that’s considered progress though but again, not interested in discussing any of that so I’ll leave that to the comment section to figure out.

As for the article itself, it’s a masterclass in moral panic, accusing your fellow Americans of “regressing” because men shockingly find attractive women… attractive.

The author, Madeline Holcomb, and a professor from Loyola University, Dr. Linda Tuncay Zayer, go on about how ads like Sydney Sweeney’s are proof that the “male gaze” has “stepped back into the spotlight.”

Right… we were really doing fine before Sydney Sweeney ruined society with her ridiculously good looks. What a life.

Get a load of these two crazies:

CNN (paywall) –  As a child of the ’90s and early 2000s, I grew up with my mother’s and grandmother’s generations’ fight for legal and workplace equality helping shed social misogyny.

In the past decade in particular, I saw the evidence of progress in my media diet. [B]ody positivity entered the fashion world. Stories about a woman stealing your man were traded for celebration of the ‘girl’s girl’ who resisted the competition for men’s attention. …

Whatever the catalyst, a change in the political environment seemed to connect with a social change that brought back narrow, and at times constrictive, ideas of womanhood depicted in media.

The recent rise of weight loss medications coincided with social media influencers sharing ways to get smaller and no longer celebrating bodies of all sizes. Advertisements followed suit, making men’s desire once again a dominating factor in how stories are told, and how women are portrayed.

How had these discarded ideas made their way back into circulation? Didn’t we all agree we were through with them?

The culprit, I have learned, is the male gaze. It was always there, but now it has stepped back into the spotlight. …

The male gaze came roaring back this summer. American Eagle … ran a controversial ad campaign starting in July. The ads sell jeans to women featuring actor Sydney Sweeney, who many men see as a sex symbol, insinuating the clothing would make men find them more attractive. …

“Most typically, the male gaze is about representing women in media solely to satisfy heterosexual men,” said Dr. Linda Tuncay Zayer, professor of marketing and John F. Smith, Jr. Chair in Business Administration at the Quinlan School of Business at Loyola University Chicago.

If you are observing women in movies, TV, fashion, social media and marketing and they don’t feel as fully materialized as their male counterparts, that is the male gaze.

Reality check for CNN: the “male gaze” isn’t some cultural conspiracy.

It’s biology. It’s literally part of the human operating system. Attraction is embedded in our DNA. It’s what’s kept the species going for thousands of years. From cave paintings to Renaissance sculptures to 90s supermodels, humans have always celebrated beauty.

It’s not a crime. It’s not oppression. It’s instinct.

Trying to eliminate the “male gaze” is like trying to convince birds not to like colorful feathers. You can’t shame nature out of existence but unfortunately, those freaks over at CNN are giving it one hell of a try.

The lack of self-awareness here is off the charts. CNN spends 1,500 words lecturing us about the evils of objectifying women, then runs photo galleries, red-carpet slideshows, and celebrity puff pieces featuring the same “problematic” women they’re scolding us for admiring. They don’t want to end the male gaze.

They just want to control it and mold it into their own sick and twisted views of what men should be attracted to. It’s ridiculous to even attempt such a thing.

None of that even considers the fact that the more CNN and “that side” of the equation tries to control things, the more men and “the other side” will do the opposite.

The majority of men just want to rage against the other side because it drives them insane. Watching certain corners of the internet unravel every time someone like Sydney Sweeney dares to exist is objectively hilarious.

You can practically hear the think-pieces being typed in real-time.

So why even publish something like this? Obviously, outrage pays.

CNN doesn’t actually believe men finding women attractive is dangerous. They just know their audience does. It’s clickbait for the perpetually offended.

I can say that with confidence because the “male gaze” never left. It’s been here since the dawn of time. The only thing that’s really changed is how desperate CNN and its audience are to pretend they can redefine human nature.

So go ahead, let the rest of us appreciate beauty as nature intended while CNN writes another think-piece trying to cancel attraction itself.

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