This column contains mentions of self-harm, sexual assault and suicide. Reader discretion is advised.
Looksmaxxing is defined by Merriam-Webster as “practices, especially among young men online, to enhance their physical appearance.” It has existed for years, but recently exploded on TikTok. Rooted in historically destructive involuntary celibate culture, social media has turned this practice into a new monster where men want to be “the most attractive one can possibly look according to a set of prescribed criteria, with particular importance given to jawlines, eyes and physique.”
The goal is simple: raise your “score,” a number tied to masculine features like jawline sharpness and big muscles. Looksmaxxing attaches a higher score to these features, increasing luck with women.
Looksmaxxing is creating more “defined and demanding” beauty standards for young men, resulting in insecurity and body image issues.
On the surface, looksmaxxing and its popular buzz words, like mewing, seem relatively harmless; however, since looksmaxxing became mainstream, it has become much darker. Looksmaxxing is a dangerous pipeline preying on vulnerable, self-conscious young men, exposing them to harmful ideas and dangerous looksmaxxing tactics, destroying them from the inside out.
Looksmaxxing operates on a spectrum ranging from self-care to potential self-harm. There is softmaxxing, which can be seen as the self-care side, where men go to the gym, take care of their skin and whiten their teeth.
The other side is hardmaxxing, which consists of dangerous and more permanent methods like steroid use, skin-whitening, starvation and cosmetic surgery.
If skin-whitening didn’t make it obvious, looksmaxxing beauty standards are rooted in racism and white supremacy.
On an online Looksmaxxing forum, one user asked, “Do you believe in white supremacy?” The top reply featured a picture of a white man and said, "It's hard not to when you see a perfect shaped white Northern skull.”
Looksmaxxing standards put whiteness at the center and white features as the ideal. Incel culture mirrors this racism. White men are believed to have sexual advantages over other races, and entire online communities try to prove “the undesirability of non-white men in the West and beyond.”
Sexism also runs deep in incel culture, where “men blame women and feminism for their romantic failings.” Incels use this unjustified hatred of women as motivation for rape, murder, assault or other types of “gender-based violence.”
Looksmaxxing also funnels young men into the manosphere subculture, “a network of websites and online communities (propagandising masculinity and misogyny),” which is a whole different and deeper misogynistic beast to be tackled another time. Disgraced influencer Andrew Tate is the poster child of the manosphere movement, which opposes feminism by spreading false and sexist information and increasing the risk of online violence towards women.
In looksmaxxing groups, women are nowhere to be found, because incel groups cater to insecure men. On an online forum, one user asked if girls were allowed in the looksmaxxing group, and one user responded no, it was in the rules of the forum.
Women are constantly objectified and labeled as animals who “only care about having the most physically attractive partners” in looksmaxxing and incel communities.
In online looksmaxxing groups, men asking for advice are greeted with vicious attacks on their appearance. Beyond creating insecurities, some members within looksmaxxing forums suggest dangerous techniques, or even encourage suicide if a member is “beyond saving.”
Streamer Braden Peters, known as Clavicular online, is dubbed the “lord of online looksmaxxing” by GQ.
Peters has exploded in popularity as a looksmaxxing streamer after explaining his techniques, including smashing his jawbone “to make bones regrow sharper,” smoking meth and self-injecting testosterone with no medical guidance, leaving him infertile.
I only knew about Peters’ existence from social media mocking his absurdity, but his behavior goes beyond dangerous looksmaxxing advice. During his livestreams, which he does on the streaming platform Kick, Peters frequently uses racial slurs, “eviscerates women’s looks” and even danced to Ye’s pro-Nazi “Heil Hitler” song in a club.
As Peters sits at the modern looksmaxxing throne with 770k TikTok followers and 190k followers on Kick, it's no wonder the culture is incredibly toxic.
Beyond Peters' influence over teens, Patrick Bateman, the lead role in the movie “American Psycho,” released in 2000, is the original incel blueprint.
Bateman’s character is deemed the "superior ‘sigma’ male: a lone wolf and capitalist hustler who attracts money-hungry women.” What many don’t understand is that “American Psycho” is meant to be satire, mocking toxic masculinity and “finance bro” culture.
In an interview with Variety, the director of the film, Mary Harron, says the way young men are idolizing Bateman on TikTok is “another sign young men are lost,” glamorizing Bateman’s violent, sociopathic and misogynistic behavior.
Looksmaxxing has thrust incel culture into young men’s social media feeds, and it will have devastating consequences. By destroying body image, promoting racist beauty standards and blaming women for every failure, the looksmaxxing community is going to destroy everything in its path, including the mental and physical health of many young men.
Abby Shriver is a freshman studying journalism at Ohio University. Please note the opinions expressed in this column do not represent those of The Post. Want to talk to Abby about their column? Email/message them at as064024@ohio.edu / @abbyshriver_
