**Looksmaxxing: The trend pushing men to extremes - What in the World podcast, BBC World Service — Transcript & Summary | SozAI**
Source: https://sozai.app/transcript/looksmaxxing-trend-men-extremes/

Exploring looksmaxxing, a trend where men pursue extreme physical changes to boost attractiveness, linked to body image and incel culture.

## Key Takeaways

- Looksmaxxing reflects and amplifies societal pressures on male appearance and self-worth.
- The trend can lead to extreme behaviors, including surgery and hormone use, with potential health risks.
- It is linked to incel culture and a black-pilled ideology that equates attractiveness with overall life success.
- Community dynamics are often competitive and toxic, fostering negative mental health outcomes.
- Positive self-improvement should focus on personal growth rather than harmful comparison or misogyny.

## What the video covers

- Looksmaxxing is a trend focused on maximizing male physical attractiveness through grooming, fitness, and sometimes extreme measures like surgery.
- The movement has roots in incel and manosphere forums and emphasizes a hierarchy based on physical traits, often called 'sexual market value'.
- There are two types: soft maxxing (grooming, skincare, fitness) and hard maxxing (surgery, supplements, body modification).
- Looksmaxxing promotes a narrow ideal of attractiveness, often chiseled jaws, lean muscular bodies, and specific facial features.
- The community can be competitive, judgmental, and sometimes hostile, with a black-pilled worldview that attractiveness determines life success.
- Some participants experience body image issues and negative mental health effects due to unrealistic standards and peer comparison.
- There are racial and representation issues, with some Black men facing hostility and exclusion within the community.
- The trend impacts social attitudes, including misogyny and how men relate to women, both romantically and platonically.
- Personal stories highlight the obsession with self-improvement and the psychological toll of striving for 'chad status'.
- Experts and participants suggest focusing on self-betterment for oneself rather than comparison or external validation.

## Chapters

1. 00:00 Introduction and Personal Weight Loss Journey
2. 00:27 Overview of Looksmaxxing Trend
3. 00:54 Extreme Measures in Looksmaxxing
4. 01:24 Trevor's Looksmaxxing Story
5. 03:44 Motivation and Turning Point
6. 04:53 Discovery of Looksmaxxing and Community
7. 06:14 Journalist Thomas Morgan on Looksmaxxing Origins
8. 08:37 Soft vs Hard Maxxing Explained
9. 09:12 Community Tone and Black-Pilled Ideology
10. 11:59 Racial Issues and Representation Challenges

Answers

## Questions about this video

What is looksmaxxing?

Looksmaxxing is a trend where men try to maximize their physical attractiveness through grooming, fitness, skincare, and sometimes extreme measures like surgery or supplements.

How is looksmaxxing connected to incel culture?

Looksmaxxing originated from incel and manosphere forums and shares a worldview that physical attractiveness largely determines a man's success and social value.

What are the risks associated with looksmaxxing?

Risks include mental health issues from unrealistic body standards, toxic community dynamics, and physical risks from extreme procedures like surgery and hormone use.

## Full Transcript — Download SRT & Markdown

00:00

Speaker A

I was 18. I lost the weight, 130 pounds in a year. And then I was like, "Now I'm kind of getting obsessed with the self-improvement thing." You know, I want to look better now.

00:08

Speaker A

I want to see what I can do to look facially better. So then I was like, "Okay, how can I do that?" And that's when I kind of found, you know, looksmaxing.

00:15

Speaker A

Looksmaxxing has a real-world effect. And I think one of the main ones is body image issues.

00:21

Speaker A

It encourages you to aspire to something that's very unrealistic in a lot of cases.

00:27

Speaker A

Hey, I'm Iqra and this is What in the World from the BBC World Service.

00:31

Speaker A

Looksmaxxing has been all over the internet lately. This is the trend aimed at young men.

00:37

Speaker A

And as the name suggests, it's all about this idea of maximising your physical attractiveness.

00:43

Speaker A

Pouty lips, chiseled jaws, hunter eyes are just some of the traits that are being promoted by looksmaxxing influencers, and it's having an impact on young men, too.

00:54

Speaker A

Some of them are going to extreme lengths to be able to get these looks like surgeries, body modifications.

01:00

Speaker A

So in this episode we're going to talk about the looksmaxxing movement. Let's bring in Trevor who documents his looksmaxxing journey on TikTok.

01:12

Speaker A

He's on the line from LA right now. Hey, Trevor. How's it going? Yes, I'm good. How are you?

01:18

Speaker A

I'm doing good. Pretty early in the morning, but obviously we're chatting. Excited to talk about my journey. Definitely.

01:24

Speaker A

I definitely have a pretty crazy story. I want to hear all about that crazy story then.

01:29

Speaker A

Tell us about when you first started - I guess when you wanted a bit of a change and what drew you into looksmaxxing?

01:38

Speaker A

Well, so growing up, I'll just start kind of at the beginning. I'll go through it quickly. I've been acting since I was a kid.

01:44

Speaker A

I've been in over like 20 shows and I was always, you know, the overweight, red-headed kid.

01:48

Speaker A

People, you know, might know me from Fresh Off the Boat, True Detective. You know, many shows that I've done in my past.

01:55

Speaker A

And I think growing up kind of always being stereotyped as just the fat, you know, funny kid who's just getting picked on, or the bully or just somebody who, you know, never really would get attention from girls or from, you know, never really respected.

02:12

Speaker A

I think growing up, that always took a toll on me. So when I turned 18 years old, I was 300 pounds at that time.

02:18

Speaker A

And I remember I looked at the scale and I was like, well, I'm turning 18 now.

02:24

Speaker A

You know, it's kind of like, not now or never, but it's like, if I'm going to make a change, I need to make the change now because I'm turning into an adult, you know, it's not like, oh, I can push this off more.

02:35

Speaker A

I need to lose the weight. I need to better myself, you know, just to change not only the way that people treat me, but also the way that I looked at myself, the way that I respected myself.

02:45

Speaker A

So I went ahead and did that. I started a weight loss journey. I did that all completely naturally.

02:49

Speaker A

That was before like Ozempic became like a big thing. This was like years ago.

02:53

Speaker A

I was 19 years old and then I was like, okay, I lost the weight. Now I'm kind of getting obsessed with the self-improvement thing.

03:01

Speaker A

You know, like the self-improvement thing. I'm like, okay, you know, I want to look better now.

03:05

Speaker A

I want to see what I can do to look facially better. So then I was like, okay, how can I do that?

03:09

Speaker A

And then that's when I kind of found, you know, looksmaxxing. That's when I was like, okay, what's this looksmaxxing thing?

03:14

Speaker A

So then I started doing research on that. I would say there's darker sides. Like there's sides that I don't like to like kind of associate myself with, but there's also sides that I like to stay with where it's very, not necessarily supportive,

03:27

Speaker A

but like they give the information to you to help you as well as themselves, if that makes sense.

03:32

Speaker A

It's like a community, like, it's like a class where there's like, you know, people, it's like a group project and they're all, you're all trying to better yourself to make yourself look better, if that makes sense.

03:40

Speaker A

We've got Thomas Morgan, who's a BBC journalist, to break this one down for us. Hey, Thomas.

03:44

Speaker A

Hey, so, Thomas, talk me a little bit about your story because I know you came across looksmaxxing videos, right?

03:52

Speaker A

How did you come across them? How did they make you feel? Yeah. So I was scrolling on my For You page on TikTok.

04:00

Speaker A

I was looking for general skincare tips, fitness, gym tips and I noticed that there was a looksmaxxing hashtag at the bottom of most of these videos.

04:12

Speaker A

I looked into it and I found this whole online subculture of looksmaxxing. So it's based on the idea that a man's life outcomes depend heavily on looks and what they refer to as their sexual market value.

04:29

Speaker A

It originated about ten years ago in the early 2010s, out of some of the manosphere incel online forums.

04:36

Speaker A

And it's having a moment right now online, made popular through TikTok. You mentioned the link from looksmaxxing to incel culture - that's being 'involuntary celibate', an online community of men who are kind of frustrated by their lack of sex, blame women for it.

04:55

Speaker A

In looksmaxxing, it's very focused on hierarchy and ranking - men are ranked by attractiveness, and the goal is to ascend to achieve the top tier status of attractiveness, according to them.

05:10

Speaker A

They refer to that as 'chad status', but I think it's important to distinguish between soft maxxing and hard maxxing.

05:17

Speaker A

Hard maxxing is the more extreme side, so that is encouraging men to get surgery, to take supplements, testosterone, peptides and extreme body modification.

05:28

Speaker A

The soft maxxing is just male grooming, gym, skincare and lifestyle. But all of this does link to sort of incel culture.

05:38

Speaker A

And they do share a similar worldview. Content is often pushed alongside this as well.

05:44

Speaker A

So can you describe, I guess, the tone of the comments, what's happening in the comments of these looksmaxxing videos, what are people saying?

05:52

Speaker A

So the tone is quite extreme. It's extreme and it's very competitive. It's constant peer ranking, comparison and in a lot of cases, humiliation.

06:03

Speaker A

The underlying ideology of this, a lot of looksmaxxers are described as and would maybe describe themselves as 'black pilled'.

06:12

Speaker A

Now being black pilled is the belief that your attractiveness determines your success in life. So, no other qualities.

06:19

Speaker A

Not how you treat people, how good you are as a person, but purely your physical attractiveness.

06:25

Speaker A

And I think if you're not - in the eyes of other looksmaxxers - if you've not won the genetic lottery or you've not achieved 'chad status', then it can lead to quite a depressing negative space where you feel

06:41

Speaker A

like there's nothing you can do and you've been dealt bad fortune in life. The ideal man often for people in this looksmaxxing community - there is commonality when you look at the chads, they do all have a similar look.

07:00

Speaker A

Chiseled jaw, very lean, muscular. So it sort of encourages this uniform look of what the top tier of attractiveness is.

07:10

Speaker A

I've been speaking to Stephen, who's a 20-year-old college student who discovered looksmaxxing through social media, and he spoke to me about his experience.

07:19

Speaker A

I started last year, sophomore year in college, and I was like, I want to be the first I guess black looksmaxxer because like, there was no black looksmaxxers.

07:26

Speaker A

It was only like white people. So I was like, okay, let me be the first. And then I posted two videos like, oh, I'm gonna be a black looksmaxxer and stuff.

07:33

Speaker A

Two videos - in that time span I got, I'm thinking of how many death threats. I got death threats.

07:40

Speaker A

And then I got called slurs I didn't even know existed. It got weird, like really quickly because I was saying like there was no representation at all.

07:47

Speaker A

It was only white people. I did start seeing the JBW, which means 'just be white', quotes until like later.

07:54

Speaker A

It took a dark turn really, really quickly. But yeah, I just feel like it wasn't for me.

08:00

Speaker A

Like, why am I looking for white beauty standards as a black man? They really think like, if you're white, you're automatically beautiful, which is, I mean, to each their own, but that...

08:11

Speaker A

Looksmaxxing isn't only about men and the way they view themselves. What about the way men are viewing women because of looksmaxxing?

08:18

Speaker A

Most of the looksmaxxing community are heterosexual men, and the goal is to increase their sexual market value, as they say and increase their appeal to women.

08:29

Speaker A

How they speak about women, often it's objectification. Women are treated as status markers within the hierarchy.

08:39

Speaker A

The same ranking system that we spoke about earlier that they rank other men is applied to women as well.

08:45

Speaker A

In some cases, women are portrayed as manipulative and that a lot of these looksmaxxers view women as something to conquer rather than to build healthy relationships with.

09:03

Speaker A

So we're getting an idea how this is a whole other world in its own.

09:07

Speaker A

A whole other internet subculture with all the different terms. People are being affected, ranked in different ways.

09:14

Speaker A

Why is looksmaxxing really taking off with men then, would you say? I think the appeal for a lot of young men and boys is that it offers a solution.

09:27

Speaker A

You know, insecurity is widespread amongst a lot of people. They might be insecure about their looks.

09:36

Speaker A

And I think looksmaxxing offers a solution to that. Albeit unrealistic in a lot of ways.

09:45

Speaker A

And I think it also offers a sense of community, you know, there's a shared language and an identity.

09:51

Speaker A

Although there are a lot of aspects of the community, which is, you know, negative, judgmental. It still is a community.

10:01

Speaker A

So I think it offers a sense of belonging and also validation as well. I think a lot of people, you know, seek validation from others.

10:11

Speaker A

And I think that's something they get from it when they feel like they're moving up the scale of attractiveness.

10:16

Speaker A

I think the downside is that it can reinforce insecurity. A lot of the methods that are encouraged may not be financially out of reach for a lot of people.

10:28

Speaker A

So achieving the top tier of attractiveness is unrealistic. And I think you're drawn into it by an easy fix but a lot of people find out that it's not the case most of the time.

10:42

Speaker A

But what about trickling through into real life, how it affects everyday life? Yeah. So looks looksmaxxing has a real world effect.

10:51

Speaker A

And I think one of the main ones is body image issues. It's a very judgmental ranking system.

10:58

Speaker A

And it encourages you to aspire to something that's very unrealistic in a lot of cases.

11:05

Speaker A

So a lot of men experience muscle dysmorphia and it can also have an effect on your mental health.

11:10

Speaker A

If you cannot achieve the top tier of attractiveness. Limb lengthening in some cases, bone smashing, some of these things that fall under hardmaxxing, have been condemned by health experts as quite dangerous.

11:24

Speaker A

And I think a lot of the extreme misogynistic views that are pushed alongside this content can have a real social impact on the people that are taking them in, in how they nurture relationships with women, whether platonic or romantic.

11:41

Speaker A

Did you feel pressure? Did you feel included to be part of this community? It depends. I'd say a little bit of both. Yes and no.

11:49

Speaker A

I think people, especially - any time that there's looks involved, there's always people who are very, I'd say rude.

11:56

Speaker A

I think it's a somewhat inclusive space because people understand the struggle of, you know, not looking your best, the way that people treat you because of that.

12:04

Speaker A

What I try to, you know, teach other people is to uplift others with what you have learned for yourself instead of, you know - you don't want to bring other people down, you want to try to lift everybody up and somewhat ascend with everybody else,

12:16

Speaker A

if that makes sense. Trevor, it won't be news to you, a lot of people associate looksmaxxing in the community with being quite toxic, having misogynistic views.

12:25

Speaker A

What would you say about that? I will say that because of some of the bigger figures and some of the things that have been said-I don't, me personally, I'm not a misogynist.

12:36

Speaker A

I don't, I don't think that it is the right route to go. Most guys who looksmaxx come from, it comes from deep insecurity and it comes from a feeling of worthlessness because of not getting a woman from like a younger age.

12:52

Speaker A

And this could be from personal experience too. I mean, I never had a girlfriend for a long time, you know.

12:58

Speaker A

So I think when you start making yourself look better and then you kind of understand, oh, now I look better now.

13:07

Speaker A

Now I'm getting more attraction from females. It's almost like a resentment thing. It's almost like, oh, I'm going to get revenge now.

13:12

Speaker A

Like I'm going to get revenge because now I look better. If you look better, I mean, the truth is you probably will get treated better and you'll definitely get more attention from the opposite sex.

13:19

Speaker A

Like that's just kind of like a fact in my opinion. I think that you should better yourself for yourself and not to get back at anybody and not to, you know, definitely not to be misogynist.

13:31

Speaker A

I don't think that that's right. And what would you say to the people who say looksmaxxing is adding on like an unnecessary pressure onto men?

13:40

Speaker A

People face so much pressure these days anyway. It's just another pressure to be added on.

13:45

Speaker A

If you're hyper fixated on like fixing every little thing about your face, it can turn into a bad thing.

13:50

Speaker A

I 100% agree with that, but I think that something that people need to drill through their head is stop comparing yourself to people and try to compare yourself to before and just try to like better yourself naturally, because it can go down the wrong path.

14:01

Speaker A

Thank you so much. Have a good rest of your day. Of course. Thank you so much for having me, I appreciate it.

14:06

Speaker A

Okay, Thomas. So what I'm hearing is looksmaxxing works for some people. There's nothing wrong with wanting to change your appearance.

14:14

Speaker A

It's important to get that medical advice anytime you want to do any surgeries or change your appearance in any way.

14:20

Speaker A

But there are also some misogynistic, toxic parts of this community. We can't deny that it's affected people's mental health and how they viewed themselves as well.

14:31

Speaker A

So remember, you guys, if you come across any type of content that's affecting your mental health, it's important to remove yourself or you can take a break any time you need to as well.

14:40

Speaker A

Thomas, thank you so much for coming by and chatting to us about this. Thank you. Thank you for having me. And that's it for today.

14:45

Speaker A

Thank you for joining us. But for now, I'm Iqra Farooq, this is What in the World from the BBC World Service.

Topics: looksmaxxing male grooming body image incel culture self-improvement male attractiveness TikTok trends body modification black pill social media

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