'Looksmaxxing' — the manosphere beauty cult

Young men who identify with the "manosphere" — an online movement promoting toxic masculinity and misogyny — are being promised a better life and a higher "sexual market value" by becoming more attractive through "looksmaxxing."

The online trend comes with its own lingo, significant costs — and a good dose of pain. Lookmaxxing influencers are promising isolated young incels, or involuntary celibates, that they can get better jobs and attract more sexual partners though a rigorous diet ("starvemaxxing"), plenty of steroids and weights, plastic surgery and a jawline made more angular with a hammer to the face ("bonesmashing").

Looksmaxxing is about ascending to the rank of a "chad," or alpha male, by changing one's attractiveness or deceiving others about it ("chadfishing"), or engaging in "mogging," looking down on inferior men.

The current superstar of the looksmaxx universe is Clavicular (real name Braden Peters), a 20-year-old US influencer who TikToks and streams about his alpha male "ascension." He routinely takes high doses of amphetamines and testosterone — which he says have likely made him sterile — and smashes his cheekbones to supposedly give them height. He is said to make $100,000 (€86,800) a month from his live streams on the Kick platform.    

"When you are not attractive, your life is hell, I've experienced it," Cavicular said in a TikTok post. "Then when you start to get a little bit of good looks, everything changes."

Racism and misogyny underpin looksmaxxing

Spawned from the misogynistic, MAGA-aligned manosphere, looksmaxxers are often racist, hence "whitemaxxing" to change your skin color.

Clavicular was seen with Holocaust denier and white supremacist Nick Fuentes and manosphere influencer Andrew Tate, who has been charged with sexual crimes, among other things, at a Miami nightclub singing along to the Ye (formerly Kanye West) song "Heil Hitler."

The extremist scene is documented by journalist Louis Theroux in his new Netflix documentary, "Inside the Manosphere," which dives into the world of toxic "ultra-masculine" influencers.

Donald Trump has long been courting influencers likes Fuentes, whom he infamously dined with at Mar-a-Lago, to strengthen support among a base of young men who routinely express resentment about feminism, immigration, queer culture and even democracy.

That's according to Ozan Felix Sousbois, an associate researcher in sociology at the University of Stavanger who has written widely on incel culture. He told DW that looksmaxxing comes out of an era of "hyper-masculinity" and "male anger" that sees "governments, the manosphere, incels, and more traditional forms of men's rights movements converge."

Jordan Foster, an assistant professor in sociology at MacEwan University in Edmonton, Canada, recently co-authored an article on looksmaxxing and modern masculinity. In an interview with DW, he described looksmaxxing as "a potent form of bait for men and especially vulnerable young men, who may already hold certain anxieties or frustrations about their future and the state of affairs in the nation."  

'Lethalitymaxxing' —the manosphere goes to war

Looksmaxxing speak has also begun to appear in US government communications.

A Department of Defense (which saw its name changed to Department of War under Trump) post on the platform X in February read, "Low cortisol. Locked in. Lethalitymaxxing," backgrounded by the facial profile of a square-jawed marine. "Low cortisol" refers to the practice of avoiding the high adrenaline that leads to a puffed-up, as opposed to chiseled, face. 

The post appropriated insider manosphere jargon to communicate military strength — and it did so a couple of weeks before the US and Israel attacked Iran.

"The administration has deployed a unique vocabulary to connect with corners of the internet previously untapped by mainstream politicians," Foster said of the post.

He added that the administration has sought to draw a "sharp distinction between idealized, 'manly' men and others who fall short" as part of "broader efforts to mobilize the military, frame conflict and buttress agencies like ICE."

Sousbois also said that an incel subculture "centered on control, hardness and readiness for conflict and violence" has made a timely entrance into the mainstream.

But as this language is normalized among its young target audience, looksmaxxing's dark side could become more apparent.

Sousbois warns that the movement could produce "visible harm for women, gender- and sexual minorities," in addition to "ethnic and religious minorities."

Edited by: Cristina Burack