{"id":799,"date":"2025-08-07T13:11:00","date_gmt":"2025-08-07T19:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mbnovels.com\/?p=799"},"modified":"2025-07-22T00:18:55","modified_gmt":"2025-07-22T06:18:55","slug":"the-male-gaze-could-never-survive-my-pen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mbnovels.com\/es\/2025\/08\/07\/the-male-gaze-could-never-survive-my-pen\/","title":{"rendered":"The male gaze could never survive my pen"},"content":{"rendered":"
2 – 3 minutos<\/div>\n\n\n

The male gaze never stood a chance. Not in my books. Not in my characters. Not in a single sentence I’ve written for as long as I’ve been conscious of my existence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because I don’t write women to be admired. I write them to be understood<\/em>. To be messy, contradictory, overfeeling, unlikable, unforgivable, sacred, wounded, and sometimes dangerous. I don’t dress them up for male approval. I write them how they live inside of us. Fully.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If that makes some people uncomfortable? Good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Women, but for real<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

So many “strong female characters” were clearly written by men who think our bodies are a personality trait and motherhood is the only goal we have. What I write instead are women with blood under their nails. Women who cry and then manipulate. Women who want love but don’t trust it. Women who snap \u2014 not because they’re hysterical, but because no one listened the first 17 times.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Miniature Novels I<\/a><\/em>, the girls don’t beg to be seen \u2014 they dare you to look. In Miniature Novels II<\/a><\/em>, they don’t exist to teach lessons or give redemption arcs to men who barely know themselves. In Things You’ll Never Understand<\/a><\/em>, womanhood isn’t an aesthetic. It’s a battlefield. Quiet, internal, and haunting. And in How to Get the Girl<\/a><\/em>, womanhood involves taking back power in our sexuality.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\n

Not your tragic muse<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The male gaze loves to romanticize women in pain. To turn suffering into spectacle. To make her heartbreak poetic \u2014 as long as she stays beautiful while breaking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My characters? They shatter out loud. They get ugly. They leave messes behind. They scream, they shut down, they make you sit in the discomfort. They are not anyone’s muse. They are the authors of their own undoing \u2014 and that’s what makes them art.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There’s a reason people call female characters “too much” \u2014 too angry, too sexual, too soft, too cruel. It’s code for not written for men to consume comfortably<\/em>. And I don’t write for comfort. I write for truth. I write for the girl who’s been told she’s dramatic. For the woman who’s been gaslit into silence. For every reader who’s felt monstrous for wanting too much, or guilty for needing less.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This isn’t about excluding men from reading my work. It\u2019s about not shrinking the story so they’ll stay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because I don’t write to be looked at. I write so we can see ourselves<\/em>. Unfiltered. Unforgiving. Unapologetic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And absolutely unforgettable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2014 Montse<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The male gaze never stood a chance. Not in my books. Not in my characters. Not in a single sentence I’ve written for as long as I’ve been conscious of my existence. Because I don’t write women to be admired. I write them to be understood. To be messy, contradictory, overfeeling, unlikable, unforgivable, sacred, wounded, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":134972872,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_wpcom_ai_launchpad_first_post":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[20562775,782781792],"tags":[7758714,178,1747,3330,349,59708],"class_list":["post-799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-the-heart-of-the-story","category-writing-beyond-comfort","tag-bookish-thoughts","tag-books","tag-fiction","tag-publishing","tag-writing","tag-writing-tips"],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pfZGWd-cT","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":2370,"url":"https:\/\/mbnovels.com\/es\/2026\/06\/04\/some-of-us-were-writers-before-we-were-brands\/","url_meta":{"origin":799,"position":0},"title":"Some of us were writers before we were brands","author":"Montse \"M.B\" Benavides","date":"junio 4, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Indie authors often face assumptions that their primary goal is attention, yet true fulfillment stems from writing for passion, not recognition.","rel":"","context":"En "Indie Author Confidential"","block_context":{"text":"Indie Author Confidential","link":"https:\/\/mbnovels.com\/es\/category\/the-writing-life\/indie-author-confidential\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2758,"url":"https:\/\/mbnovels.com\/es\/2026\/09\/15\/writing-letters-to-myself\/","url_meta":{"origin":799,"position":1},"title":"Writing letters to myself","author":"Montse \"M.B\" Benavides","date":"septiembre 15, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Finding your voice in writing involves listening to yourself, exploring unexpressed feelings, and creating honest narratives that connect with others' experiences.","rel":"","context":"En "Behind the Drafts"","block_context":{"text":"Behind the Drafts","link":"https:\/\/mbnovels.com\/es\/category\/the-writing-life\/behind-the-drafts\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1601,"url":"https:\/\/mbnovels.com\/es\/2026\/02\/05\/my-muse-wears-mud-splattered-boots\/","url_meta":{"origin":799,"position":2},"title":"My muse wears mud-splattered boots","author":"Montse \"M.B\" Benavides","date":"febrero 5, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"I find beauty in imperfect, neglected spaces, believing they hold deeper stories and emotions than polished, idealized scenes.","rel":"","context":"En "Creative Pulse"","block_context":{"text":"Creative Pulse","link":"https:\/\/mbnovels.com\/es\/category\/creative-pulse\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2597,"url":"https:\/\/mbnovels.com\/es\/2026\/08\/11\/writing-for-everyone-is-how-you-reach-no-one\/","url_meta":{"origin":799,"position":3},"title":"Writing for everyone is how you reach no one","author":"Montse \"M.B\" Benavides","date":"agosto 11, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Critiques of the notion of writing solely for market trends, advocating for authenticity and originality in literature, which ultimately fosters deeper connections with readers.","rel":"","context":"En "Indie Author Confidential"","block_context":{"text":"Indie Author Confidential","link":"https:\/\/mbnovels.com\/es\/category\/the-writing-life\/indie-author-confidential\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":217,"url":"https:\/\/mbnovels.com\/es\/2024\/09\/09\/in-case-you-were-wondering-who-writes-this-stuff\/","url_meta":{"origin":799,"position":4},"title":"In case you were wondering who writes this stuff","author":"Montse \"M.B\" Benavides","date":"septiembre 9, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Welcome to my corner of the literary world. I\u2019m Montse, a writer whose journey began in the shadow of childhood dreams and evolved into a full-fledged adventure. Born on June 26, I\u2019ve always been drawn to the enigmatic and the profound. From my early, whimsical attempts like Alien School to\u2026","rel":"","context":"En "Pen & Punch"","block_context":{"text":"Pen & Punch","link":"https:\/\/mbnovels.com\/es\/category\/pen-punch\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mbnovels.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/585801fb-176e-4f64-8b9f-8df5d12a59c7.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mbnovels.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/585801fb-176e-4f64-8b9f-8df5d12a59c7.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mbnovels.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/585801fb-176e-4f64-8b9f-8df5d12a59c7.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mbnovels.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/585801fb-176e-4f64-8b9f-8df5d12a59c7.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mbnovels.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/585801fb-176e-4f64-8b9f-8df5d12a59c7.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/mbnovels.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/09\/585801fb-176e-4f64-8b9f-8df5d12a59c7.jpg?resize=1400%2C800&ssl=1 4x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1082,"url":"https:\/\/mbnovels.com\/es\/2025\/10\/30\/i-write-about-murder-but-i-swear-im-nice\/","url_meta":{"origin":799,"position":5},"title":"I write about murder but I swear I’m nice!","author":"Montse \"M.B\" Benavides","date":"octubre 30, 2025","format":false,"excerpt":"A cheeky, candid piece in which the author explains her obsession with murder in fiction: not as celebration, but as a blunt tool to probe grief, fear, and what people become when faced with death.","rel":"","context":"En "The Heart of the Story"","block_context":{"text":"The Heart of the Story","link":"https:\/\/mbnovels.com\/es\/category\/the-heart-of-the-story\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbnovels.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbnovels.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbnovels.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbnovels.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/134972872"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbnovels.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=799"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/mbnovels.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":848,"href":"https:\/\/mbnovels.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/799\/revisions\/848"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mbnovels.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbnovels.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mbnovels.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}