When was the last time you looked at yourself in the mirror and saw just yourself, without any judgment, without searching for the bad, without evaluating those extra pounds, already thinking about the next diet or workout routine? But just yourself, as you are.
As I’m opening my browser to look something up, the first advertisement already screams at me about the newest diet culture. Protein loaded mediterranean meal prep plan today, fiber loaded vegan chia pudding tomorrow. Count your steps and your calories as well.
Liking yourself these days seems like a protest in itself.
“Those are the pants that are gonna make your legs look skinny, trust me!” is what the people in the ads try to tell me. Wait – they are fat? How many layers of make up are finally going to hide my insecurities? And what did I want to look up again?
No wonder most women struggle with body image issues early on leading to eating disorders, peaking around the age of 20 to 24, and it is increasing rapidly.
In the span of 20 years 10- to 17-year-old girls receiving inpatient treatment because of eating disorders doubled in Germany. So while we discuss whether body positivity has gone too far, the number of patients increased from 3.000 to 6.000 through 2003 to 2023.
Even though women have a higher chance of developing an eating disorder, men with eating disorders show a faster growth rate in the last 30 years. Especially in the last few years with the rise of social media, comparing yourself has become almost inevitable, a national sport, even for men. It is not just about who has the fastest car anymore but also the sharpest jawline. So when you start seeing men punching their jawline with a hammer you know you entered the sphere of looksmaxxing, a trend that took over the manosphere in the blink of an eye. An online world filled with misogyny and toxic masculinity where nothing is more important than a man’s level of attractiveness rated by, of course, other men, created by the incel community. A group of men being involuntary celibate.
To achieve the best result on their own invented scale of attractiveness, there are different categories starting with soft looksmaxxing which includes simple things like diet, skincare, grooming and mewing, an oral posture technique where you place the tongue against the roof of the mouth while keeping the teeth together and the lips closed. Looksmaxxer believe that this will help change the bone structure for a sharper jawline without any verified evidence.
Working on a healthier lifestyle and wanting to improve yourself is not something inherently bad. But those are just the soft strategies, hard looksmaxxing on the other hand means hair transplants, rhinoplasty, fillers and chin implants. Sounds familiar? Almost like plastic surgery, something women do since ages in an attempt to fit into societal standards.
But why are now specifically young men drawn to undergo such procedures as well?
Notably are influencers like Clavicular, an American tiktoker and one of the main protagonists in the looksmaxx universe. He gained over 1,1 million followers by streaming and posting videos about his ways of achieving the perfect face like bonesmashing, undergoing nose jobs and freely sharing his drug intake like steroids, all in the name of looksmaxxing, creating a community mainly of incels based on the same wish: to increase the sexual market value and becoming the ultimate alpha male. Despite his huge following he is surrounded by controversies as he was seen with Nick Fuentes, a holocaust denier, and Andrew Tate, an manosphere influencer that has been charged with sexual crimes.
Just like the looksmaxxing community seems closely connected to racism and misogyny which is not something shocking since a big part of looksmaxxing is “whitemaxxing”—based on the toxic theory that white features hold the highest value in dating and social status.
Even though we might now make fun or frown upon the looksmaxxing community it is only an extreme version of our society which is obsessed with the perfect face, body and life. It is especially obvious when it comes to celebrities with their perfectly surgically refined, wrinkle free bodies we still love to critique from head to toe. Even with all the money and resources in the world, someone will find something to critique about one anyways. Who even decides about the standards to fulfil beauty and why do we need that?
Therefore, chasing beauty standards forced upon you will not lead you to happiness, so start your own revolution by smiling at yourself the next time you look into the mirror.
Nelli Winzer
Sources:
Essstörungen| Statistisches Bundesamt
Mewing & Jawline Exercises | WebMD
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