I want to talk a bit about the male gaze in the Dresden Files

A couple of disclaimers upfront: I’m a guy, and I’m a fan of the aforementioned series, so my viewpoint of this stuff will be shaped by those things. I’m also not here to contest people’s views of the series, only to share my perspective on it.

Oookay. **The Dresden Files by Jim Butcher** is probably the most prominent urban fantasy series out there. It features a wisecracking PI who also happens to be a wizard. The first book, **Storm Front,** was published when the author was in college, which is relevant to what I’m going to point out here.

The biggest criticism people make of the series, and what puts most people off, is that the protagonist Harry Dresden has a hmm… let us say questionable view of women. It’s not really reflected in his actions, other than him admitting that he has a slightly outdated view of chivalry towards women. It’s also worth pointing out that there are tons of interesting and compelling female characters in the work.

Still, after reading other urban fantasy series, I can definitely admit that those criticisms have merit. Heck, the character himself lampshades it more than once. But here’s the interesting bit:

If you look at the author’s other series, that kind of male gaze just isn’t there. Even Dresden Files short stories featuring the perspectives of other female characters, and a few other male characters, don’t feature this male gaze. And I found that, really, really interesting. Because it suggests the author deliberately wrote the character this way. When you consider that this character trait is probably the biggest thing that puts people off the series, it gets even more unbelievable. So why did he write it this way?

One thing might be that Jim Butcher was pretty young when he started the series, and it’s possible he just matured a bit as a writer. That’s definitely part of it, but when I picked up his two most recent works T**he Law** (part of the Dresden Files) and **The Olympian Affair** (another series) you can still see a tangible difference.

Another factor might be just that it’s part of the genres he took inspiration from. The Dresden Files was inspired by noir, filled with hardboiled PIs, and all the baggage associated with it. And yes, that includes the male gaze. Add that in to the factor that our protagonist Harry Dresden is a straight, young man, and it does make sense that the author might have deliberately made him look at women this way.

It gets more interesting when you consider how this effect varies based on Harry’s age, and whether he’s in a relationship in a particular book or not. There’s a degree of nuance that’s frankly rather surprising considering that this is a character trait that many readers actively hated.

My question is this: have you guys found any other books or characters like this? Ones with uncomfortable character traits that seem almost deliberately written with nuance? Most of the time it just feels like the author is exercising their fetish, but this doesn’t seem to be the case here. And I find that fascinating to consider.

**TL;DR: The protagonist’s male gaze is definitely present, but it’s written with an interesting amount of nuance that makes me doubt that it’s just the author writing what personally appeals to him.**

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by T_Lawliet