MAXXED OUT

Ary by Sarah McConnell

Self-esteem is something we all strive to achieve. Developing confidence and self-worth is a unique journey for everyone. Whether it’s working out, dressing well or developing hobbies, it’s important to become confident in who we are and develop our self-esteem.

But what if we could just buy it?

The process of looksmaxxing first came to be in the early 2010s. According to looksmaxxing.com, the definition of the term is “the process of optimizing your physical appearance through strategies like skincare, grooming, fitness and styling. It’s a structured approach to becoming more attractive, confident and socially effective.”

At first glance, there doesn’t appear to be anything abnormal about this. Practices like working out and finding your sense of style not only build confidence, but are generally things that lead to a healthy lifestyle. Authors, coaches and other creators have written and spoken ad nauseam about becoming the best version of yourself. However, looksmaxxing deviates from this behavior with an unhealthy and obsessive approach to self-improvement.

It gained its popularity through chat forums, on websites like looksmax.org, the Reddit thread r/looksmaxxing and 4chan, where people— particularly young men—would discuss either their discomfort with feeling unattractive or the methods they were using to achieve their most physically attractive state. While its earliest philosophies were mostly pure, with most of the users relaying normal and healthy advice to other users, the culture in these forums quickly became radicalized.

Much of modern looksmaxxing draws several parallels to “incel culture,” where young men blame society or women for their inability to find a sexual partner. This culture typically paints heterosexual women as shallow and vapid, only caring about the physical appearance of their male partner. If being a self proclaimed “incel” is the problem, then looksmaxxing and achieving a peak physical form is the solution. This reinforces sexist stereotypes that women are shallow, and that one’s only currency in this world is their looks.

Some of these practices include bonesmashing (hitting heavy objects on your jawline to create a more defined look), taking intense and unnecessary supplements like steroids and appetite suppressors, forgoing eating for long periods of time (starvemaxxing) and promoting plastic surgery. All of this combined leads to the possibility of developing body dysmorphia and a lost sense of self.

For many college students, looksmaxxing first entered their radar as a punchline last year.

"Most people who are aware of it are aware of it because it's a joke on Instagram or TikTok," Owen Ormes, a Syracuse University senior, said. "It's more of an ironic internet meme than a legitimate practice in my opinion."

Charlie Aubitz, another SU senior, agreed that the line between self-improvement and absurdity is clear.

"I think it's fine if you want to be more attractive," Aubitz said, "but some of the things are a little ridiculous, like bonesmashing."

These TikToks also became the place where the slang used to describe looksmaxxing was popularized. Unique terms like “mogging,” “mewing,” “gigachad” and "ascending" became commonly used terminology. Influencers like Clavicular, who has accrued over 1 million followers on his socials, have exploded in popularity over the past few months with their divisive and polarizing looksmaxxing lifestyles. His use of steroids, his endorsement of plastic surgery and even meth usage to reduce hunger has propelled him to become the face of the looksmaxxing movement.

A common theme with influencers like Clavicular is that their accounts feature links to their “coaching” websites. Clavicular has “The Clavicular System,” where he charges his mentees upwards of thousands of dollars to learn about how he "evolved a data-driven framework using experimental methods to genetic potential.” The website claims to have over 1,000 paid subscribers, all of whom want to learn how to “ascend” physically.

This is where the creator-consumer relationship becomes predatory. While plenty of social media users interact with creators like Clavicular because of his wild, entertaining content, others truly connect with the core messaging. Edits from these creators show before and after photos with visible change, essentially saying, “if it can work for me, it can work for you.”

This messaging is deliberate. The young men who desire physical changes and relate to the “before” pictures in these edits will do anything to escape the feeling of inadequacy. Looksmaxxing creators double down on this insecurity in their messaging, saying they should feel shame for their appearance—that if you’re not trying every method to achieve peak attractiveness, you’re basically subhuman. The demeaning and vain messaging force-fed to users who have trouble feeling confident in their looks is what drives sales and gets views, and according to Ormes, for those who take it seriously, the result can lead to "unrealistic body standards, body dysmorphia and a negative body image."

Looksmaxxing's inherent evil lies in its business model: it manufactures and amplifies the very anxieties it claims to solve, then profits from the desperation it created.

This predatory model isn't unique to looksmaxxing. It is eerily similar to the marketing strategy that has long been used in women’s spaces. The beauty and wellness industries have perfected the formula of creating impossible standards, then selling the "fix." From anti-aging creams to diet cultures that take part in triggering eating disorders, women have been the target of this kind of exploitative advertising for decades.

What makes looksmaxxing particularly gross is how it repackages these same exploitative plans as “male self-improvement,” building on a predatory industry that now profits from convincing people of all genders that they're defective and need to purchase their way to worth.

These influencers profit from a lie they need you to believe: that authenticity is a weakness, that your natural self is something to be ashamed of and that transformation is the only way to have value in this world.

However, the only truth that matters is that self-acceptance can't be bought. It can’t be surgically implanted or swallowed down in pill form, no matter how much r/looksmaxxing tries to convince you otherwise.