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White teeth, athletic body, impeccable hair, flawless skin, square jaw: young generations of men no longer skimp on ways to improve their appearance and adopt the codes of standardized, sometimes stereotypical beauty, to the point of resorting to controversial tricks. Deciphering a phenomenon that has gone viral, ‘looksmaxxing’, which already has millions of followers on social networks.
To believe the Urban Dictionary, “looksmaxxing” is none other than “the process of improving self-image commonly used by incels”, in other words involuntarily celibate men. The idea is simple, it involves using all possible means, sometimes even the most dangerous, to improve one’s physical appearance in order to appear more attractive in the eyes of others, particularly women.
Contrary to what one might think, although the term is gaining popularity, it is far from being new, and was born on incel discussion forums and the manosphere before becoming a trend on social networks, like the ‘explain the New York Times. It is now the younger generations who are embracing “looksmaxxing”, and are increasingly contributing to making men into women like any other.
Optimize your beauty routine
We can no longer count the videos published under the hashtag #looksmaxxing which highlight complete and demanding beauty routines intended to embrace a certain ideal of beauty. And if women are usually the first targets of these tutorials, it is men who are targeted here, determined to find all the possible and imaginable tips intended to boost their physical appearance. Be careful however, make no mistake, “looksmaxxing” is not limited to cosmetics, although social users suggest the opposite, it is a much broader process, which includes fashion, sport, or even diet.
“Last year, I dug into the things girls did to look prettier and told boys to do the same.“, tell Dillon Latham, now followed by more than 1.4 million subscribers on TikTok, to the New York Times. On the young man’s account, we discover a myriad of videos intended to advise those who wish to become more attractive – or at least embrace certain beauty criteria. How to have abs, how to smell good, what clothes to wear or not to wear, how to get rid of acne, how to have attractive features, or even how to have a perfectly symmetrical face are among the advice given by the socionaut.
From the most basic to the most controversial
A beauty routine that is basically basic and safe, which translates into relatively classic practices and gestures, such as going to the hairdresser, waxing, whitening your teeth, playing sports, adopt an optimal skincare routine, learn facial yoga, or indulge in “mewing”, a technique which consists of practicing exercises to re-educate the placement of the tongue to have a square jaw, get rid of his double chin, or make his face more harmonious. Relatively common practices that we find under the name “softmaxxing”, and which are very similar to those adopted for a long time by… women.
But young men are also now turning to more extreme – and controversial – practices known as “hardmaxxing”. This time it involves resorting to dangerous, or at least radical, techniques to achieve a physical metamorphosis. This obviously involves cosmetic surgery, notably through the installation of implants, but also through skin whitening, or even extreme diets. One of these practices, “bone smashing”, has recently gone viral. It was then a matter of breaking the bones of his jaw to obtain a squarer one, a sign of virility according to some. A dangerous trend which, contrary to what its virality suggests, is in reality far from gaining a crowd of followers, even among “looksmaxxers”.
The community of these men in search of a better appearance continues to grow, reflecting a desire to embrace certain norms and injunctions linked to masculinity. Something which can partly be explained by the impact that certain social networks can have on self-esteem and self-confidence, but which can also be seen as a shame at a time when women are trying to make things fly. shatters all these stereotypes and injunctions. Just like, undoubtedly, absolutely wanting to put a name to a banal beauty routine designed by men for men.