The Evolution of Looksmaxxing

If you’ve been on the internet at all recently, it’s difficult to not have heard the word looksmaxxing. This phenomenon has been impacting primarily young men on the internet and essentially is a trend of “maximizing” one’s appearance, particularly masculine features such as the jawline. Methods of looksmaxxxing span from dieting and skincare to steroid use and cosmetic surgery (Farrell 2024).

Social media is constantly expanding and becoming more accessible to developing youth, influencing how teenagers interact and express themselves. This rise in social media use has been correlated to an increase in eating disorders in adolescence, stemming from harmful body image issues which can be triggered by toxic content seen online (Suhag and Rauniyar 2024). The looksmaxxing trend is another example of a digital beauty culture being promoted by online content. This trend can be extremely harmful through comparison, as a large part of the looksmaxxing community is critiquing other members’ physical traits. This can even go as far as some members encouraging others to commit suicide (Halpin et al. 2025). 

Comparison and criticism from others can have detrimental effects on the mental health of members of looksmaxxing communities. There are also physical harms that can come from these looksmaxxing methods. One extreme method of looksmaxxing is called “bonesmashing”, which essentially involves hitting bones (particularly jaw bones) to create injuries with the intention of them healing and making that feature more pronounced (Halpin et al. 2025). This is an extreme case, but other methods can also be physically harmful. The use of anabolic steroids to improve physical appearance can have serious health impacts. Anabolic-androgenic steroids are synthetic derivatives of testosterone, which activate the androgen receptor leading to muscle-building and development of adult male physical characteristics (de Ronde and Smit 2020). The use of these steroids can induce apoptosis and alter the function of the mitochondrial respiratory chain, leading to side effects such as long term toxicity mainly to the reproductive and cardiovascular systems (Albano et al. 2021).

The motivation behind looksmaxxing is sometimes related to improving an individual’s body image, but is more often than not rationalized as a means to increase sexual success (Halpin et al. 2025). Sexual selection is a type of natural selection, favouring traits that help an organism obtain a mate. Humans exhibit sexual dimorphism which is associated with sexual selection in other species. The mechanisms of sexual selection in humans primarily include contest competition (use or threat of force against same sex competitors) and mate choice (influenced by traits that attract mates) (Puts 2016). Both these mechanisms align somewhat with methods in the looksmaxxing community, contest competition is exhibited in the form of criticizing other community members, and the idea of looksmaxxing to enhance physical appearance is a form of increasing their attraction to mates.

Looksmaxxing seems to be motivated by sexual selection in humans, however it stems from harmful ideologies and interactions on social media. The practice of Looksmaxxing can be detrimental to the physical and mental health of participants. The methods involved in looksmaxxing can have serious health impacts internally and externally, and the attitudes and behaviours within the community can negatively impact mental health and self-image. 

References

Albano, Giuseppe Davide, Francesco Amico, Giuseppe Cocimano, et al. 2021. “Adverse Effects of Anabolic-Androgenic Steroids: A Literature Review.” Healthcare 9 (1): 97. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare9010097.

Farrell, Riley. 2024. “Inside Looksmaxxing, the Extreme Cosmetic Social Media Trend.” March 26. https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20240326-inside-looksmaxxing-the-extreme-cosmetic-social-media-trend.

Halpin, Michael, Meghan Gosse, Katharine Yeo, Ingrid Handlovsky, and Finlay Maguire. 2025. “When Help Is Harm: Health, Lookism and Self‐Improvement in the Manosphere.” Sociology of Health & Illness 47 (3): e70015. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9566.70015.

Puts, David. 2016. “Human Sexual Selection.” Current Opinion in Psychology, Evolutionary psychology, vol. 7 (February): 28–32. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2015.07.011.

Ronde, Willem de, and Diederik L. Smit. 2020. “Anabolic Androgenic Steroid Abuse in Young Males.” Endocrine Connections 9 (4): R102–11. https://doi.org/10.1530/EC-19-0557.

Suhag, Khushi, and Shyambabu Rauniyar. 2024. “Social Media Effects Regarding Eating Disorders and Body Image in Young Adolescents.” Cureus, ahead of print, April 21. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.58674.