Is Looksmaxxing a New Issue

Men are only the most recent arrivals to the trend

Despite the validity of concern around looksmaxxing, despite the undeniable dangers posed by its extreme messaging about men’s intrinsic worth, and the methods which influencers suggest to “ascend,” I can’t help feeling bitter at the sheer volume of outbursts and cries on behalf of men. Following Louis Theroux’s Into The Manosphere, mainstream media has been agog with the phenomenon of ‘looksmaxxing.’ Derived from incel culture, it links young men’s attractiveness to their prospects for success and physical worth as a person. 

The extremity of the messages explored, and the tactics used by looksmaxxing influencers — ranging from sleep tapes that help to correct your tongue posture, to ‘bone smashing,’ literally taking a hammer to one’s face in hopes that the bones will grow back in a ‘more desirable’ shape — have attracted due concern from the media. 

A stark and ironic feature of this community is the extent to which women are excluded, even demonised. They are purported to be the root cause of the insecurities which drive young men into these channels (rather than the adult men online telling them they ought to feel this way), and are often told they don’t have a place in this “male space.” The influencer Clavicular, on a date with a female looksmaxxer, Mia Kirk, reportedly found himself torn between attraction towards her and his scepticism at her presence in a male-dominated community, believing it to be a sanctuary strictly for men.

Allegedly, it is men who are vulnerable to ‘lookism,’ men who are so discriminated against based on their appearance, and women who, apparently, have it easy. AWALT (all women are like that) is a phrase so popular within the community that it warranted abbreviation; ‘80% of women are attracted to 20% of men’ is another common mantra. 

Reactions to looksmaxxing seem to be working off the basis that young men have, themselves, invented/discovered the concept of looks bearing upon how one is treated — as if this is something unheard of? Journalists, therapists, and doctors alike have united to warn about the psychological damage of obsessive self-measurement, what a danger body deformation poses, and how physical change fails to offer a “sustainable” tonic to insecurities. 

Meanwhile, not fifteen years ago, diets such as the “master cleanse,” the cabbage soup diet, cotton ball dieting — restricting oneself to maple syrup, cayenne pepper, and lemon juice, vegetable mush, and cotton balls soaked in fruit juice (supposed to mimic the feeling of fullness) — were, at best, widely ignored by mainstream media and, at worst, promoted by it. Headlines such as ‘Shrink Yourself For Summer,’ along with the latest celebrity crash diets, essentially ran the social pages. When they applied mainly to women, obsessive eating and exercise routines were treated as gospel. 

It can’t be said either that looksmaxxing is filling a space now emptied of mainstream dieting. Online platforms are filled with women promoting unhealthy and unsustainable practices — from sharing their ‘morning shed’ of various face masks and lip tape, to ’skinnyisthefit’ once again trending online. BBL surgeries — which have the highest mortality rate of any cosmetic surgery — have increased in frequency by 800% in the last decade. Hospital admissions in the UK for anorexia, which has the highest mortality rate of any mental illness, have doubled in the past ten years. Meanwhile, runways and retailers are once again embracing the razor-thin, acid tall ‘look’ in models, all under the guise of health.

But that’s the thing, every part of this is hypocritical. Looksmaxxing derives from incel culture — a community infamous for misogynist leanings — yet encourages men to look better in order to be able to sleep with women. It almost perfectly mirrors 2000s diet culture — which fed entirely off of women’s insecurities — but mocks and rejects women from its ‘space,’ claiming that we have it too easy. 

As much as I am angry that women are still subject to the toxic culture surrounding their bodies, I worry for young men falling prey to this trend. As someone born in the full flames of diet culture, I can tell you with certainty: There is no end to the hamster wheel, no moment where it’s finally enough. Follow the flashing green signs and get the f*** out.

Illustration from Wikimedia Commons