Around when did the idea that you can’t have an attractive woman in artwork or entertainment come about? Is the “male gaze” nonsense something fairly new? I remember seeing the “your just mad because you can’t jack off to it” not too long ago on gaming forums if someone pointed out that they seem to make women to look like men.
Yet I’ve heard plenty of women gushing over the Witcher because of Cavill or women who loved Mamoa in GOT and Aquaman. But if I say I’m going to see this movie because the lead actress is hot I’m sexist. Also, it’s interesting how stuff like romance novels have men with rippling muscles but women have to look “realistic”
This bullshit was definitely around since the second wave.
I am struggling to find a date and more specific origins.
John Berger's Ways of seeing from 1972 is one of the origins to the modern version that originated with Barbara Lee Fredrickson and Tomi-Ann Roberts, which I am not sure originated in 1970 or 1997.