Mayte Gómez Molina and the male gaze: when the criticism turns on the critic

Who is looking when one woman criticizes another for her weight?

Granada-born poet Mayte Gómez Molina, winner of the National Young Poetry Prize, sparked a storm with a line from her debut novel La boca llena de trigo: "When you look at another woman and think she is fat, it is actually a man looking through your own head." Her interview with El Mundo eleven days ago not only reignited the debate over body standards and the male gaze, but provoked a visceral reaction pointing to something deeper: the discomfort caused by questioning women's self-criticism.

The thesis that divides

Gómez Molina argues that the gaze one woman directs at another to judge her is not her own, but inherited from patriarchy. The idea is not new — Laura Mulvey's concept of the "male gaze" dates from the seventies — but applying it to criticism between women draws rejection. Opponents argue it strips women of agency: "with reasoning like that, what I understand is that women are mentally incapacitated," one strand of the debate summed up. Others point out the argument cuts both ways: what happens when a man judges a bald man or a short one? The question exposes a logical snag the author does not address.

The response: an all-out pile-on

The attack on Gómez Molina was personal, not intellectual. It focused on her tattoos, her weight — repeatedly branded "fat" by her critics — her presumed sensual orientation and her physical appearance. "It looks like she's carrying Saint Christopher of the holy erection on her right arm," one quipped. Others reduced the debate to its crudest: "For a man, women come in two categories: able and not able." The harshness of the language and the absence of substantive arguments suggest the discomfort is not with the thesis, but with who holds it: a young, tattooed woman with a literary prize and a feminist discourse.

The background noise: media, subsidies and agenda

One strand of the analysis points to the outlet's responsibility: "The question is who gives such a powerful megaphone as El Mundo to this [….]" some wondered. Cultural funding and what some call "the regime" — referring to the promotion of discourses opposed to traditional masculinity — loom in the background. When criticism shifts from the thesis to the person, and from the person to a conspiracy, it is the clearest sign the debate has been hijacked by prejudice.

The paradox of self-criticism

The oddest contribution came from a comment recalling that the word "hysterical" comes from the Greek hystera (uterus). It was written to justify the claim that women "are just like that"; the irony is that the very etymology reinforces Gómez Molina's point: the male medical gaze pathologized the feminine. But the debate had no room for nuance.

On this material, the likeliest outcome is that the author and her novel come out ahead of the noise. In the attention economy, being mobbed on Twitter — or on a forum — remains free and profitable.