Hollywood often casts conventionally attractive men in roles under the tense that female viewers will automatically find them attractive. These are physically fit men, with great bone structure and a macho personality. Shows often convey these as the characters that get all the attention of the other gender but in reality, it’s often the charming, nerdy side characters that have all the female viewers falling in love.

From the very beginning of Teen Wolf, Stiles Stilinski stole the hearts of the viewers. Though Stiles is one of the few “human” characters in the show, his quick wit and quirky personality were enough to make him a fan favorite. Though Dylan O’Brien is an attractive man, the writers always portrayed Stiles as the nerdy best friend (even though his grades are terrible). He chases the same girl throughout the series, who doesn’t return his affection until the last season furthering this stereotype.

The female fan favorite being less macho and less conventionally attractive proves true in “Criminal Minds” as well. In the show, the majority of the characters are these conventionally attractive men since they’re all FBI agents that are supposed to be tough. Ironically enough, the favorite character of the female viewers is none other than Spencer Reid. Spencer is a genius with an IQ of 187, whose main purpose on his team is to solve the cases- not fight the criminals. Though he isn’t the biggest or strongest-or most physically attractive- on his team, his charming personality is enough to make anyone fall in love.

The main idea behind the female gaze is that women aren’t as predictable as they seem. Most aren’t satisfied with just a pretty face, they want someone who can keep up with them mentally too. This is something that male directors just can’t seem to wrap their minds around, since this is the opposite of the way they think.

“Whenever someone says that a man is written by a woman it’s literally just because they’re not being misogynistic,” said Sam Anderson. “I don’t think we should praise them for that.”

On Tiktok, there have been trends about men being “written” by a woman. This pretty much describes men that are emotionally open and not scared to embrace their feminine side or be vulnerable.