“Lookmaxing”, the practice of young men going to sometimes drastic measures to “maximise their looks” and appear more attractive, has grown from a niche subculture into a mainstream social media phenomenon.
The term “fast-growing digital community”Male“And online message boards for unwilling singles (Incels) in 2014 The New York TimesThis suffix comes from role-playing games, where “maximum” means “to fully develop a single character trait, such as strength.”
But the practice has recently “exploded” onto mainstream social media, he said. Parents On TikTok in particular, look-maxed influencers have amassed huge followings and algorithms promote their videos to viewers in the millions. The phenomenon has “baffled parents and teachers and raised concerns that young people are finding more and more excuses to do so.” Feeling disgusted with yourself” “.
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Softmax, hardmax, and bone-breaking
Jamila Rosdahl, a senior lecturer at the Australian University of Applied Psychology, says lookmaxing starts with a “softmax,” which includes “basic hygiene” such as hair removal, brushing your teeth, skincare, fashion and exercise habits, she writes. conversation.
These are “not cutting-edge proposals,” The New York Times said, “at least not to anyone who has ever read a women’s magazine.”
But there’s one more unusual trend: “me-ing,” or tongue exercises to tone facial muscles and sharpen jawlines. Me-ing is based on the discredited theories of British orthodontist John Mee and his son Mike, who claimed tongue exercises could transform the beauty of your face. “Promoted by LuxMaxima as a facehack, me-ing has gone mainstream,” notes The Guardian. It’s also the subject of the Netflix documentary “Open Wide.”
Other methods include facial exercises such as jaw training, facial fitness gum and “powered facials” to achieve a so-called “snatch jaw.” On TikTok, advocates “often promote the hard-to-chew gum as an alternative to more extreme methods like jawline surgery,” reports The Cut.
Many look-maxi maniacs believe that “hunter eyes” — a downward slant towards the nose — create “a dominating gaze that women can’t resist,” says Rosdahl. But the “soft maxi” has evolved into the “hard maxi,” where men will do whatever it takes to improve their appearance, including steroids, plastic surgery, penis-lengthening pumps, “starve maxis” (extreme dieting) and “bone-smashing” (breaking bones in the face to make them look more defined or “more masculine”).
The bone-breaking practice became popular last fall, with doctors complaining it was “extremely dangerous and clearly ineffective,” he said. Rolling StoneThis idea is based on the mistaken belief that bones get stronger as they heal — a misinterpretation of Wolff’s Law, a 19th-century German surgeon who noted that bones adapt to stress.
But it belongs to the “toxic subculture” of incels, which dates back “to at least 2018.” It seems to have started as a “troll-like suggestion” that was somewhere between a “provocation and a challenge.” After all, some incels “openly encourage suicide among themselves.” The recent wave of videos is likely the work of “a mix of trolls and true believers.”
The Guardian noted that while “there has been much concern expressed in the media” about bone-breaking, “there is little evidence that anyone is actually doing it.” But cosmetic surgeons say they’ve seen an increase in enquiries from young men about facial cosmetic procedures such as chin implants. Luxmax forums are rife with “harsh judgement”, giving users “an attractive new outlet for venting their insecurities.”
The Manosphere and Patrick Bateman
Luxmax content “reaches a wide audience of teenage boys who are algorithmically aligned with the ‘manosphere’ subculture”, the BBC said, adding that the online network “promotes masculinity and misogyny”.
One of the most famous names in TikTok looks is Kareem Shami, a 22-year-old Syrian student living in California with more than 1.5 million followers. His username, “syrianpsycho,” is a reference to the novel “American Psycho,” and his profile picture is incel pin-up Patrick Bateman (the serial killer played by Christian Bale in the film version).
“LuxMax may seem harmless on the surface,” Rosdahl said, but it is “fundamentally” linked to violence and suicide. LuxMax videos “lure boys and men into the dark incel subculture,” where they can be bombarded with videos encouraging suicide or sexist hate speech “within minutes.”
Men posted their photos seeking feedback, and those who were rated as having a low “sexual market value” were harassed and “told to kill themselves,” Rosdahl said.
Young people are growing up in an “increasingly unstable world,” she says. “Contrast this with neoliberal hyper-individualism, hypersexuality and consumer capitalism,” she says. “When young people feel they have no control over their environment, they may turn to trends like Luxmax as something they can control.”
“As a young Syrian, I lost control,” Shami told the BBC. “I live with the idea of striving for stability.”
