Since the fall of 2025, an eyebrow-raising new trend known as “looksmaxxing” has been making its way into mainstream internet culture, promoting the practice of radical physical self-improvement to maximize one’s looks, hence the name. This trend is championed by sensationalist, looks-obsessed internet personalities, such as Clavicular, a TikToker and streamer who has been a guest on The Michael Knowles Show and referenced by SNL.
Photos courtesy of @clavicular0 on Instagram
Clavicular, and “looksmaxxers” generally, have garnered significant criticism for condoning steroids, synthetic peptides and plastic surgery as ways to become more attractive, but just as concerning is the way this trend presents its philosophical perspectives on the world as cold, hard truth. Looksmaxxing is not simply a recommendation that we start putting more effort into our appearances; at the center of this movement is an esoteric ideology that claims physical appearance is the single strongest predictor of success in life. The only logical conclusion, according to the purveyors of this ideology, is to prioritize physical improvement above all else.
Myriad dangers lurk in this trend. For one thing, looksmaxxing will only intensify the self-image issues already plaguing young adults. Audiences of looksmaxxing content are not only urged to compare themselves to others, but to take extreme measures to improve their looks. And on an ideological and philosophical level, additional, more subtle damage is being done. Looksmaxxing presents not just questionable advice but a dangerous mental map of the world, and I believe it’s important to seriously challenge the assumptions and conclusions it carries.
It’s no secret that looks are highly valued in our society. Using longitudinal data, Scholz and Sicinski (2015) found “a durable, persistent, and economically large correlation between the facial attractiveness of men … and their earnings in their mid-30s and their early 50s.”Other articles have found similar evidence, supporting the notion that our society does indeed harbor superficial attitudes. But does this mean that attractiveness matters more than any other factor? Or that it should be everyone’s top priority? At first glance, the success of figures like Clavicular might suggest that there is undeniable truth in the claim that looks matter above all else, and this is likely just the conclusion many of his audience members are reaching. Clavicular has reached hundreds of thousands of followers on multiple social media accounts and gained success along with notoriety very rapidly.
To his fans, Clavicular’s fame may be the prime example of the importance of looks in one’s life, but there are other ways to explain it, as well as the sudden prominence of looksmaxxing generally. This movement has proliferated on platforms entirely dedicated to the spreading of visual information and visual sensation. One glance at the American red carpet will clue anyone into the fact that attractiveness is almost mandatory in our entertainment industry. Looks are certainly important in spaces such as these, but that’s precisely why looksmaxxing as a phenomenon exists and remains mainly in platforms where visual appeal is especially rewarded. Usingits online prominence as evidence for a society-spanning maxim is disingenuous.
Faulty though the assumptions in looksmaxxing ideology are, I find the conclusions it reaches the most deserving of scrutiny. If looks are what is most highly valued by others, why would it ever follow that we should value them most highly ourselves? This movement is spreading an endorsement of total conformity and uniformity, under the pretense of empowering its audience with niche secrets about the way things truly are. Looksmaxxing reckons with the reality of a superficial society, and rather than seeking change, it urges the utter reinforcement of this trend for personal benefit.
Photos courtesy of @clavicular0 on Instagram
These approaches make all the more sense when we consider the origins of looks obsession: in involuntary celibate or “incel” culture. Looksmaxxing originated from within online forums for men unable to find partners, bringing hope of a fix to romantic frustration. From its inception to now, the concept of looksmaxxing has always been not an antidote to superficiality or the insecurities it breeds, but an embrace of them. This is not a movement that reveals a deep secret about the world, nor is it a movement of empowerment or enlightenment, all of which it purports to be. It is rather an operation of surrender to one’s own insecurities.
Ultimately, this phenomenon provides us with a lesson about the folly of internalizing societal flaws as individual ones. It is important to recognize openly unwritten societal values such as attractiveness, but it is as important not to internalize these values, else they become defining to our worldviews. Identifying these issues should rather motivate us to be truer to and more appreciative of ourselves.