Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

At times interesting, but mostly just completely out of my wheelhouse. Perhaps those closer tot he authors age will enjoy the book more, as it is steeped in Gen X/Millennial pop culture references, but I wasn't able to get much from it as I didn't understand it.

Wow. This was an excellent read.

Betancourt's analysis of media is one that I have been missing and am so happy to have found. Manuel discusses media that has been discussed so many times that I feared he would sound like a repeat of other things I had read, and yet he did not. He brought in new perspectives and presented them in a way that made want to sit with him and ask for more of his thoughts on everything.

This is a must read. I will be purchasing a physical copy for myself.

I had a great time reading this. It’s an excellent bridge between personal essays and more academic looks at the different topics throughout the book. The Male Gazed is about the ways that the media portrays masculinity and homoeroticism and how that impacts the ways that men, especially gay men, think about themselves and others. There were so many pieces of media being analyzed here that I personally haven’t read about before. Or even when it was a topic like Disney movies, the angle was different than what most pieces of pop culture criticism focus on.

Manuel Betancourt grew up in Colombia, so it was interesting to see his perspective on US media. I also enjoyed being introduced to TV shows, figures, or concepts that I hadn’t heard of before. A telenovela from the mid-90s called Hombres was the focus of one chapter, and through Betancourt’s description of the show and analysis it was easy to understand the landscape when it came to masculinity in Colombia as he was growing up.

I really love books where people dive deep into the media that had a big impact on them, especially when it relates to sexuality. The Male Gazed covers so much ground, from Saved by the Bell, anime, Pedro Almodóvar, Ricky Martin, Walter Mercado, wrestling singlets, to so much more. I’d definitely recommend it to anyone who enjoys a blend of memoir and pop culture criticism that skews a bit more scholarly.