Little information is publicly known about Kevin, or @strangek3vin on TikTok. He has over 3 million followers and lives in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He posts videos of himself lip-syncing to popular music—a pretty typical use of the video platform.
So why has Kevin garnered so much attention? Something about him has fascinated viewers. He acts out a character in his videos, starting out seemingly nervous or awkward, then suddenly locking into a direct, confident gaze.
Kevin’s most viral video, seen a whopping 26 million times since November 10, shows him lip-syncing Justin Bieber’s song “Boyfriend.”
He starts out looking flustered, blinking exaggeratedly with a mid-aborted wave. His eyes flicker side-to-side as he adjusts his collar. Then suddenly he stands still, gazes straight at the camera and looks the viewer up and down. The video ends with him seeming to realize that he was caught staring and nervously shifting his gaze away.
His comments section has exploded with divided reactions. A host of viewers said they were transfixed, while the rest said that Kevin’s appeal was lost on them.
“Someone [please] describe what just happened to me,” said a comment with 10,000 likes. “I’m planning our wedding. What is this?”
“Lowkey giggling, twirling my hair and kicking my feet in the air [right now],” commented another viewer.
A different video, in which Kevin acted out the same routine to the tune of Lady Gaga’s “Paparazzi,” prompted a similar response.
“He knows the female gaze and [has] us on the palm of his hands,” a viewer commented.
However, others professed they didn’t get it.
Twitter user @arch_kt said that Kevin’s gaze made them feel “viscerally unsafe” and “not seduced but rather scared.”
“[To be honest] I find it creepy, especially that deep gaze,” they tweeted.
The feminist theory of the “female gaze” was conceptualized in the 1970s, a response to film theorist Laura Mulvey’s characterization of the “male gaze” in classic Hollywood films. The idea flipped the traditional lens of films that drove viewers to identify with a male protagonist.
But the female gaze signifies more than a reversed objectifying gaze stereotypically associated with men. According to the Video Librarian, the concept allows for a “representation of how women view each other and the world around them.” Recent “female gaze films” noted by the Video Librarian include Lady Bird, written and directed by Greta Gerwig, and Fleabag, written by Phoebe Waller-Bridge.
Tori Telfer, author of Confident Women and Lady Killers, wrote in a 2018 Vulture article that the female gaze “seeks to empathize rather than objectify” and “sees people as people.”
According to Kevin’s fans, his gaze is attractive because he appears to interpret and interact with the viewer, not just consume her as a sexual object.
“I’ve made it to strange Kevin TikTok,” tweeted @LadyWoodville. “Master class in the female gaze, and straight guys don’t get it because he’s not ‘conventionally’ attractive. They are trying to copy him [and] failing.”
Newsweek has reached out to Kevin for comment.
