Geline Salac

'Toxic beauty': Rise of 'looksmaxxing' influencers

This illustration photo shows a video of male TikTok influencer hammering his cheekbone, playing on a smartphone in a bathroom next to a bottle of hydrogen peroxide and a hammer in Los Angeles, April 11, 2025. Hankering for a perfectly angular jaw, a male TikTok influencer hits his cheekbones with a hammer -- part of the popular online looksmaxxing trend that promotes unproven and often dangerous techniques to boost sexual appeal. Looksmaxxing influencers -- part of an online ecosystem dubbed the "manosphere" -- have surged in popularity across social media, capitalizing on the insecurities of young men eager to boost their physical attractiveness to women. Photo by Chris Delmas/AFP

Article (news)

Agence France-Presse

<div><span class="fr-img-caption fr-fic fr-dib"><span class="fr-img-wrap"><img src="https://od2-image-api.abs-cbn.com/prod/editorImage/1744777370271AFP__20250416__423N22R__v1__HighRes__ToxicBeautyRiseOfLooksmaxxingInfluencers.jpg" class="fr-fic fr-dib"/><span class="fr-inner" style="text-align:left">Looksmaxxing influencers -- part of an online ecosystem dubbed the &quot;manosphere&quot; -- have surged in popularity across social media, capitalizing on the insecurities of young men eager to boost their physical attractiveness to women. <em>Photo by Chris Delmas/AFP</em></span></span></span></div><p>WASHINGTON, United States — Hankering for a chiseled jawline, a male TikTok influencer strikes his cheekbones with a hammer -- highlighting the rise of &quot;looksmaxxing,&quot; an online trend pushing unproven and sometimes dangerous techniques to boost sexual appeal.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/health-science/2025/3/3/tiktok-health-traps-how-influencers-give-you-bad-advice-1054">TikTok health traps: How influencers give you bad advice</a></div><p>Looksmaxxing influencers -- part of an online ecosystem dubbed the &quot;manosphere&quot; -- have surged in popularity across social media, capitalizing on the insecurities of young men eager to boost their physical attractiveness to women.</p><p>In posts across TikTok, Instagram and YouTube, they promote pseudoscientific methods to achieve everything from pouty lips to chin extensions and almond-shaped &quot;hunter eyes,&quot; often while monetizing their popularity by endorsing a range of consumer products.</p><p>In more extreme cases, these influencers advocate taking steroids, undergoing plastic surgery and even &quot;leg-lengthening&quot; procedures to become more attractive.</p><p>While women may pay regular visits to aestheticians or buy new beauty products, spurring a global beauty retail market worth hundreds of billions of dollars, the manosphere at times promotes a DIY approach that draws on the nearest toolbox.</p><p>&quot;Babe, what&#x27;s taking you so long in the bathroom?&quot; reads the caption flashing across a viral TikTok video of a man seen hitting his cheeks with the sharp edge of a hammer, in what he calls his &quot;skincare routine.&quot;</p><p>Underneath the video are dozens of comments warning that &quot;bone smashing,&quot; also known as the hammer technique, was &quot;dangerous&quot; while others hailed it as a legitimate way to achieve an angular jawline.</p><p>In other videos, British influencer Oscar Patel promoted &quot;mewing,&quot; an unproven technique that involves pressing the tongue into the roof of the mouth for improving jaw and facial structure.</p><p>Without offering evidence, he told his nearly 188,000 TikTok followers that such tricks would turn them into a &quot;PSL god,&quot; an internet slang for exceptionally attractive men, short for Perfectly Symmetrical Looks.</p><div><strong>&#x27;TOXIC COMBINATION&#x27;</strong></div><p>In another video, US-based TikToker Dillon Latham misleadingly told his 1.7 million followers to whiten their teeth by applying hydrogen peroxide to their teeth with a Q tip.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/lifestyle/2024/2/29/tiktok-make-up-influencers-spark-health-warnings-1236">TikTok make-up influencers spark health warnings</a></div><p>Some dentists warn that regularly using store-bought peroxide could damage tooth enamel and gums.</p><p>The looksmaxxing trend is fueling &quot;an industry of influencers who promote &#x27;perfect bodies and perfect faces&#x27;, often to feather their own nest,&quot; Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan, an analyst at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, told AFP.</p><p>&quot;Among men, this is mixed with the misogyny of the manosphere, which often blames women for male insecurities, creating a toxic combination,&quot; he added.</p><p>Many looksmaxxing influencers appear to have a financial incentive, frequently leveraging their popularity to promote products ranging from skin cleansers to pheromone perfumes, and even Chinese knock-off watches.</p><p>Looksmaxxing is rooted in &quot;incel&quot; -- or involuntarily celibate -- communities, an internet subculture rife with misogyny, with men tending to blame women and feminism for their romantic failings.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/life/10/02/23/meet-10-year-old-fashion-influencer-taylen-biggs">Meet 10-year-old fashion influencer Taylen Biggs</a></div><p>&quot;The incel ideology is being rebranded to looksmaxxing on TikTok,&quot; Anda Solea, a researcher at the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Portsmouth, told AFP.</p><p>In a study, Solea found that incel-inspired accounts on TikTok were circumventing a ban on hateful language with a focus on looksmaxxing and more palatable words about self-improvement.</p><p>&quot;There are a lot of pressures on men –- we want to protect women from gender-based violence but we should also be careful about young men and boys,&quot; Solea said.</p><div><strong>&#x27;DEEPLY DAMAGING&#x27;</strong></div><p>Other related maxxing trends have also gained traction, including &quot;gymmaxxing,&quot; which focuses on building muscle, and &quot;moneymaxxing,&quot; which centers on improving financial status -- all with the ultimate goal of increasing sexual desirability.</p><div><a href="https://www.abs-cbn.com/news/health-science/2024/12/3/chinese-plus-size-influencer-spreads-body-positivity-through-fashion-1212">Chinese plus-size influencer spreads body positivity through fashion</a></div><p>Looksmaxxing influencers –- many of whom idolize male models such as Australian Jordan Barrett and American Sean O&#x27;Pry -- have amassed massive followings as algorithms propel their content to millions.</p><p>These algorithms can lead to real-world harm, experts warn.</p><p>The danger was dramatized in the recent Netflix hit &quot;Adolescence,&quot; which follows the case of a 13-year-old boy accused of killing a classmate after consuming misogynistic content online.</p><p>The fictional crime drama references the popular but unfounded &quot;80/20&quot; theory that claims 80 percent of women are attracted to 20 percent of men.</p><p>In a study last year, researchers at Dublin City University created fake accounts registered as teenage boys. They reported that their TikTok and YouTube feeds were &quot;bombarded&quot; with male supremacy and misogynistic content.</p><p>&quot;More widely, this does feed into toxic beauty standards which affect men as well as women,&quot; said Venkataramakrishnan, from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue.</p><p>&quot;The idea that if you don&#x27;t look like a Hollywood star, you might as well give up trying for a relationship is deeply damaging.&quot;</p><div><strong>— By Anuj Chopra with Rachel Blundy in London, Agence France-Presse</strong></div><div><strong>RELATED VIDEO</strong></div><div><span class="fr-video fr-deletable fr-fvc fr-dvb fr-draggable" contenteditable="false" draggable="true"><iframe width="640" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/_73JxNMnY64?&amp;wmode=opaque&amp;rel=0" frameBorder="0" allowfullscreen="" class="fr-draggable"></iframe></span><br/></div>

<p>Looksmaxxing is an online trend pushing unproven and sometimes dangerous techniques to boost sexual appeal.</p>

Looksmaxxing is an online trend pushing unproven and sometimes dangerous techniques to boost sexual appeal.