The female gaze. One of the most popular phrases of the past two years that I am, admittedly, very happy to have in my vocabulary now. My favorite way of explaining the female gaze is the prompt: “Tell a man that more women are attracted to Loki than Thor and then just watch what happens.” Usually it breaks their brain, and I’ll admit, it’s really funny to me. To break it down into simpler terms, this is a list of reasons as to why many women (myself included) find Loki more attractive than Thor.
*These are in no particular order. Reference articles linked below*
- Backstory – If you remember the first Thor film, we learn the story behind Loki’s adoption. Not only is he of a completely different race, Odin adopted him as a political maneuver against the Frost Giants. Loki was completely unaware of his true identity and realized that Odin had always treated him like he was less valued because he didn’t see Loki as his son. In short, traumatic. When we see people hurting we feel endeared to them and have a desire to comfort or help them, though often there’s nothing we can do. We can see that this breaks him mentally and emotionally, and as an audience we take on his pain.
2. Motive – The climax of the first Thor film reveals that Loki’s real plan was never to take over Asgard, but to destroy the Frost Giants. Despite the reality of where he came from, he doesn’t see himself as one of them. Loki wanted to prove his loyalty to his adoptive family by destroying their enemy. Unfortunately, this doesn’t get Loki the approval that he wanted from Odin. And thus, he resigns himself to being the outsider of his family.
3. Personality – Putting the murderous tendencies aside for a moment, Loki is undeniably very charming. He has a very dry sense of humor that keeps him from appearing too cold and a drive to accomplish his goals that puts some Straight A college students that I’ve met to absolute shame. It’s a really good balance of charisma and dedication that I think is attractive to a lot of people. Also, if someone’s passionate enough to try to prove their love to their family by trying to destroy a much stronger enemy, then I think it’s safe to imagine that person would be a very dedicated partner. (Yes I’m aware of how absurd that sounds. It’s jokes)
4. Facial features – Speaking personally here for a moment, I’m very attracted to nice faces. Many women are, actually. From what I can tell, a lot of men are very focused on their body image and fitting the mold of the “perfect” male physique. The reality is that attractive and unique faces really help a person stand out. Thor is a very handsome man, but Loki has a few key features that fit into what most women find attractive. According to one 2015 study, most women seem to prefer men with a softer jawline, darker hair, and a clean shaven face. So, the complete opposite of Thor, then. Interesting…
5. Physique – I knew I wouldn’t be able to avoid talking about this one (eye roll). As I said before, a lot of men are under the impression that the key to attractiveness is having this so-called perfect physique. Physical health is very important, there’s no denying that, but not every woman wants to date Hercules. I’ve dated guys who told me they hated how skinny they were and they were genuinely surprised when I told them that I really didn’t care. While Loki’s still incredibly strong, his build is slightly more lean and athletic rather than that of a bodybuilder. I also feel like a man with a very large muscular stature would scare me more than it would intrigue me. Strength is attractive, but overcompensating by intimidating people is probably not the best way to go in the dating world. That’s also a good way to injure yourself too now that I think about it, yikes. Exercise smarter everyone, not harder.
6. Fluidity – Loki is the first primary character in the MCU to be openly queer. This is something that fans have suspected for years now, as he’s openly flirted with men and women throughout his time in the franchise. However when asked by Sylvie in the Disney+ series about his preference for women or men he responds with “A bit of both. I suspect same as you.” The bisexual lighting in that episode makes this revelation all the better in my opinion. The series also confirmed that Loki is genderfluid, as it’s written on his TVA paperwork. This isn’t the MCU just attempting to be woke either. Both Loki’s gender and sexuality have been canon in Marvel Comics since 2014. Not gonna lie, this makes my little queer ally self so happy! I know that the bulk of this list is pretty heteronormative, but it felt like a disservice to leave this information out. Not only that, but being sexually open is an attractive quality, and Loki is comfortable with this. He’s not ashamed of the fact that he’s bi, and he’s secure in his gender identity. Heck, he’s even disguised himself as a woman on occasion to trick people. So gents, if you’re worried about people viewing you as less of a man for whatever reason, maybe ask yourself why that bothers you so much.
7. Pain & Loss – Emotional vulnerability and a willingness to open up to others is a sign of maturity, which is definitely an attractive quality in a person. Sorry boys, your hypermasculine life coach was wrong! In all seriousness though, if a person trusts you to let you see them at their most vulnerable without fear of judgment from you, that’s a really big deal. Loki’s story is filled with feelings of betrayal and heartbreak. His mother is the only person to make him feel as though he belonged, and he loses that security after Freya’s death in Thor: The Dark World. The only person he really trusts is himself. And even though we don’t actually see him connect with anyone on a personal level until the Loki series, as an audience we get to see what he went through in his vulnerable moments on screen.
8. A New Project – This one’s pretty silly in my opinion, but I think it’s true for a lot of people so I decided to include it here. There are a lot of story formats that have been recycled over and over throughout history. A favorite among romantic comedy writers is as follows: Boy is sad, boy meets girl, girl shows him all the ways that life is beautiful, they catch feelings for each other, there’s a cliche misunderstanding, they make up and live happily ever after. There are some people out there who love the idea of “fixing” someone. Of being the reason that another person sees the good in the world. I’m willing to bet there are women out there who’d like the idea of bringing Loki over to the good side because they fixed him through, I don’t know, I guess the magic of love? A nice idea, sure, though I don’t really think it applies in this scenario.
9. Color palate – It’s been proven through multiple studies that red is considered the most attractive color. Along with other primary colors, red is also associated with heroes. Thor’s cape, Spiderman’s suit, Ironman’s armor, Captain America’s suit, the list goes on. Chances are, the hero’s are going to be wearing some combination of red, blue, yellow, white and/or black. Primary colors are bold and attention grabbing, and the idea is to draw your eye to what you’re meant to focus on, i.e. the hero. You’ve also probably noticed that the majority of villains you’ve seen in the media are, usually in green and or purple. This can be said for classic comic villains like Green Goblin, Mysterio and Lex Luthor, but also characters like Maleficent, Ursula, Dr Facilier, and the entirety of Slytherin House. Why? Well we also associate colors with deeper meanings. Green is used to represent sickness, greed, envy and even ambition. We definitely see some of these traits in Loki’s character. And I think that perfectly leads me into the final item on this list…
10. The “Forbidden” Element – No I’m not talking about Loki’s obsession with the Tesseract.This, in my opinion, is the primary reason women are attracted to Loki. If we’re told we can’t have something, it can cause us to desire it more. Think about the insanity around Twilight back in the day. The entire story is about forbidden love! People wanted the main characters to overcome the obstacles keeping them apart so they could be together. In this situation, the obstacle is that Loki is, well, pretty damn evil. I’m very aware that if Loki was real he’d probably kill me, but there is an enticing element to these dark-sided characters. It’s exciting and you want to know more about them. It’s why the stereotype of girls liking “bad boys” was such a big deal for a while. It’s probably part of why people like horror movies (I don’t, but to each their own). A lot of famous love stories have this forbidden element to them because people are naturally drawn to it.
In the end, everyone has different tastes, but it seems that this fact is often overlooked in favor of praising one specific type of person. Everyone has attractive qualities, we just showcase them differently. So don’t hold yourself to a specific standard of attractiveness, and don’t belittle another person from having different tastes than you do. We’re all human, and we deserve to enjoy what we love ❤
https://screenrant.com/comic-supervillains-green-purple-colors-joker-lex-luthor/
https://www.slashfilm.com/581899/loki-sexuality-episode-3/
Grace Lafferty 