TLDR: Younger friend I know like to incite bad takes for clout (I shake my head every time and I've been starting to call him out on it) but I said the magic words 'Alita' in my reasoning and I summoned this guy who checks all the marks of 'oh this guy is a stubborn asshoel'
I've thought about responding back about how this is literally the first time I've heard Alita be accused of the male gaze and maybe bring up maybe Toxic Masculinity is actually a problem and should be called out especially when your characters never seem to grow from it.
When you realize you're talking to an immovable object...
But... I have a better way to spend my saturday