Looksmaxxing
In a world increasingly shaped by digital appearance, a phenomenon called looksmaxxing has emerged — a dedicated, often extreme, pursuit of maximizing physical attractiveness. What began in niche online forums has now exploded across mainstream platforms like TikTok, sparking both widespread interest and significant debate. This journey takes us from everyday beauty routines to controversial surgical interventions, revealing a complex intersection of self-perception, societal pressure, and digital influence. Looksmaxxing encompasses a wide range of practices, from common self-care routines to medically questionable or dangerous interventions, all aimed at enhancing physical appearance. Originating in obscure online subcultures, looksmaxxing has become a prominent social media trend, evolving in presentation but often retaining controversial elements. Experts criticize looksmaxxing for contributing to body dysmorphia, promoting unrealistic beauty standards, and encouraging potentially harmful physical and psychological practices.
AI Summary
In a world increasingly shaped by digital appearance, a phenomenon called looksmaxxing has emerged — a dedicated, often extreme, pursuit of maximizing physical attractiveness. What began in niche online forums has now exploded across mainstream platforms like TikTok, sparking both widespread interest and significant debate. This journey takes us from everyday beauty routines to controversial surgical interventions, revealing a complex intersection of self-perception, societal pressure, and digital influence.
- Looksmaxxing encompasses a wide range of practices, from common self-care routines to medically questionable or dangerous interventions, all aimed at enhancing physical appearance.
- Originating in obscure online subcultures, looksmaxxing has become a prominent social media trend, evolving in presentation but often retaining controversial elements.
- Experts criticize looksmaxxing for contributing to body dysmorphia, promoting unrealistic beauty standards, and encouraging potentially harmful physical and psychological practices.
The Quest for Peak Attractiveness
Looksmaxxing, sometimes spelled 'looksmaxing,' is a practice where individuals undertake various routines—from skincare and haircare to dietary restrictions and more extreme measures—all to optimize their physical attractiveness. It's about 'maximizing' one's 'looks' to achieve a perceived ideal.
This term first surfaced in the 2010s within male incel (involuntary celibate) message boards. Here, discussions often attributed romantic success almost entirely to perceived genetic advantages like height and muscle mass.
By the 2020s, looksmaxxing broke free from these obscure corners of the internet. It soared in popularity on platforms like TikTok and various social media groups, primarily among men, transforming from a niche concept into a widely discussed phenomenon.
Softmaxxing: The Accessible Side
At one end of the spectrum is 'softmaxxing.' These are fairly common body care routines undertaken to improve appearance, much like mainstream beauty or fitness advice. Think clearing up facial acne, hitting the gym, getting a stylish new haircut, or simply moisturizing.
A popular softmaxxing practice is 'mewing,' which involves attempting to suction one's tongue to the roof of the mouth. The goal is to achieve natural tongue and jaw posture, with some believing it can lead to a more defined, 'square' jawline—though medical evidence for this is limited.
These types of methods, often shared on TikTok, aren't entirely new. Magazines like GQ and Men's Health have long offered advice on skincare and hairstyles. For many, 'facial gains' from softmaxxing are a primary motivation.
Hardmaxxing: The Extreme Measures
On the more extreme side, we find 'hardmaxxing.' Those who practice it, 'hardmaxxers,' often pursue more drastic interventions. These can include surgical procedures like implants or limb-lengthening operations, or even dangerous practices like intentionally starving oneself ('starvemaxxing').
Other concerning practices associated with hardmaxxing include abusing anabolic steroids, using skin lighteners to appear 'whiter' ('whitemaxxing'), or even withholding sexual climax in an attempt to boost testosterone ('edging').
Perhaps one of the most alarming — and thankfully, often metaphorical — is 'bonesmashing.' This refers to the idea of hitting one's face with objects, like a hammer, to create a 'chiselled look.' While often treated as an inside joke, it has been widely condemned as dangerous misinformation.
Perceived Attractiveness and Online Ratings
Within some looksmaxxing communities, particularly those tied to incel subculture, individuals seek ratings of their appearance. This rating, combined with perceived status and wealth, contributes to what's known as one's 'sexual market value' or SMV.
A key focus for men is often achieving 'hunter eyes.' This involves a neutral or positive canthal tilt, minimal upper eyelid exposure, and low-set eyebrows, supposedly resembling the intense gaze of a predatory animal. Other desired features include hollow cheeks and a defined jawline.
Tragically, those who receive low ratings on these anonymous forums sometimes face severe harassment. This can include cruel encouragement for suicide, often expressed with terms like 'It's over' or 'ropemaxx'—an incitement that has serious legal and ethical implications.
These communities also coin terms to assert dominance. 'Mogging' refers to overtly demonstrating physical superiority over another person, while being 'Y-pilled' signifies a belief in one's own heightened masculinity, echoing phrases like 'redpilled' from similar online subcultures.
From Incels to TikTok: A Cultural Shift
Initially rooted in incel message boards, looksmaxxing heavily linked romantic success to genetic advantages like height and musculature. As it transitioned to mainstream platforms like TikTok, its presentation often softened.
On TikTok, users initially focused more on 'softmaxxing' techniques, often presented with self-deprecating humor. However, certain trends, like the 'blackpill' worldview, still carry toxic elements similar to those found on older, more extreme forums.
The Criticism and Concerns
Looksmaxxing has drawn significant criticism, particularly due to its origins in incel subculture. Experts like Jamilla Rosdahl of the Australian College of Applied Psychology worry that TikTok algorithms could inadvertently funnel young men into incel ideologies.
Rosdahl also suggests that in an unstable world, young people may turn to trends like looksmaxxing as a way to control some aspect of their environment. This is especially true amid economic anxieties and rising struggles for young men in forming relationships.
The medical community also voices strong concerns. Paediatrician Dr. Milan Agrawal notes that looksmaxxing 'perpetuates unrealistic physical expectations, prompting disordered eating habits among teenage boys.' Many of the purported methods, like mewing and bonesmashing, are dismissed as misinformation by doctors.
Article
Looksmaxxing
Looksmaxxing is a 21st century Internet neologism referring to the process of maximizing one's own physical attractiveness. The term originated on male incel (meaning: "involuntarily celibate") message boards in the 2010s. Previously, the phrase's usage had been limited to obscure internet forums, but in the 2020s became popularized on TikTok by men. Currently, the term refers to a specified view of male beauty, and is not frequently a term used by women in a non-satirical context.
Online looksmaxxing communities can be judgemental and sometimes harmful, through rating individual's looksmaxxing attempts without much concern or care for their overall well-being. They range from encouraging superficial practices to improve appearance to also promoting more extreme interventions, such as jaw surgery. According to a 2024 BBC report, looksmaxxing has been criticized for contributing to body dysmorphia. These communities can also even lead to suicidal ideations, through it turning into a competition between one's peer, or simply by comparing oneself to ideals that they see online, such as the prominent online looksmaxxing influencer known as Clavicular, who popularized it for a larger audience on social media.
Those opposed to these practices voice concern over their potential to be popularized in online spaces to promote hegemonic masculinity.
Overview
Softmaxxing
Softmaxxing, a form of looksmaxxing, is a practice in which people perform fairly common body care routines in an effort to improve physical appearance, such as clearing up facial acne, going to the gym, getting a new haircut, or moisturizing.
Additional practices have been associated with softmaxxing, with a popular example being the act of "mewing", which involves suctioning one's tongue to the roof of the mouth with the goal of changing tongue and jaw posture. Certain looksmaxxers also mew in an attempt to gain a "square jawline". These methods are the most popular ones shared around TikTok. These methods were previously popularized with magazines such as GQ, Esquire, and Men's Health sharing around skincare and hairstyle advice.
Hardmaxxing
Some people who perform looksmaxxing have also performed more extreme methods. This has been coined as "hardmaxxing", and those who practice them refer to themselves as "hardmaxxers". Practices associated with hardmaxxing include getting implants or limb-lengthening surgeries, intentionally starving oneself ("starvemaxxing"), abusing anabolic steroids ("roidmaxxing"), using moisturizers to attempt to appear more white ("whitemaxxing"), and withholding sexual climax in an effort to boost testosterone ("edging"). An additional method, known as bonesmashing, refers to the act of hitting one's face against objects such as a hammer in order to create a "chiselled look". While this practice is considered an inside joke and few have actually done it, it has been labelled misinformation.
Other concepts
Some that partake in looksmaxxing also look for others to rate their appearance, with some engaging in anonymous message boards associated with incel sub-culture. This rating, together with one's perceived status and wealth has been considered to be one's "sexual market value" (also known as SMV). Those that look to determine someone's attractiveness usually check for a variety of facial features. One of the features checked for in men is "hunter eyes", which refers to a neutral/positive canthal tilt, little to no upper eyelid exposure and low-set eyebrows, resembling the eye area of a predatorial animal. Additional features checked for include hollow cheeks, a defined jawline and "pursed lips". In order to achieve these features, some perform acts such as the aforementioned "mewing", rubbing against the orbital area, or even getting surgery.
Those who receive a low rating are sometimes harassed for their appearance afterwards, with some forms of harassment including suicide encouragement (known in some legal jurisdictions as "Incitement to Suicide"). Additional terms have been coined by these communities in an effort to "dominate others". These phrases include "mogging", which refers to asserting dominance over another person based on their appearance, and being "Y-pilled", which refers to one viewing themselves as more masculine than the other and is a spin on the phrase "redpilled". Although the term "mogging" in the context of looksmaxxing is used to rate oneself's physical appearance as being higher than another's, this term can be used in harmful ways. Young, impressionable, children on social media using it to describe their appearance in relation to their friend's could be taken the wrong way and lead to insecurities down the road for a generation of children. The term also comes from "AMOG" which is a new acronym for "alpha male of the group." These underlying reinforcements of toxic masculinity culture regress the progress that has been made towards accepting many forms of gender expression.
History
Looksmaxxing
The practice originated on incel message boards in the 2010s that heavily attributed romantic success to the perceived genetic advantages held by tall and muscular men. Looksmaxxing later spread beyond its original manosphere roots, entering mainstream culture and becoming a TikTok trend in 2022–2023. In contrast to "hardmaxxing" discussions on message boards, TikTok users originally generally promoted "softmaxxing" techniques, most using self-deprecating humor. By 2025, Kick live streamer Clavicular had become closely associated with looksmaxxing online.
Criticism
Looksmaxxing
Looksmaxxing has been connected to incel sub-culture since its origins within it. Writing for The Conversation, senior lecturer and researcher Jamilla Rosdahl of the Australian College of Applied Psychology considered the practice to convert young men into incels as a result of TikTok algorithms. On the popularity of looksmaxxing amongst young people overall, she wrote that "where young people feel like they can't control their environment, they may turn to trends such as looksmaxxing as something they can control," attributing several real world problems such as an unstable economy and the increase in young men struggling to get into relationships. Paediatrician Milan Agrawal in an interview with BBC News, stated that "looksmaxxing perpetuates unrealistic physical expectations, prompting disordered eating habits among teenage boys".
Several acts associated with looksmaxxing have been criticized by doctors and dismissed as misinformation, including mewing and bonesmashing.
Clavicular's system of rating looksmaxxing that he promotes in interviews and on social media is the P.S.L. scale, which sorts men into three tiers: "subhuman," "normie," and "Chad." In her New Yorker criticism, journalist Becca Rothfeld explains, "The moral objections to looksmaxxing are numerous, severe, and obvious. A system that designates any person as 'subhuman' is beneath contempt, and that's to say nothing of the racial slurs to which looksmaxxing stalwarts help themselves regularly." She also cites a recent interview in which Clavicular "approvingly notes that Brad Pitt 'mogs' Mother Teresa."
Looksmaxxing demoralises and hurts the health of men and boys of all ages, but particularly young ones. A study published in the National Library of Medicine argues that lookmaxxing promotes a hegemonic masculine gaze on male bodies. Hegemonic masculinity is a social concept developed by R.W. Connell that defines the ideal form of dominant and physically attractive male bodies, legitimizes sexism, and reinforces patriarchy. The study's findings support its argument, and proves that the looksmaxxing community revolves around male supremacy and hegemonic masculinity.