What is looksmaxxing?

Anyone who has spent time online in the past decade will recognize the impact that the glow up trend has had on popular culture. From 15-second TikTok videos where someone’s childhood photo transitions to a clip of them now to hour-long YouTube videos that provide a step-by-step guide to “glowing up,” people seem obsessed with finding answers to the age-old question of how to be hot. 

The looksmaxxing trend seen on TikTok today is essentially a reiteration of former glow-up trends. The only difference is that looksmaxxing in particular caters to a predominantly male audience and has some not-so-subtle incel undertones. Broadly speaking, looksmaxxing is any attempt to improve one’s appearance, and these methods most commonly include things like going to the gym, getting a haircut or improving one’s style.

Looksmaxxing largely rose from the concept of lookism, which is the incel theory of objective beauty grounded in both eugenics and racism — more on that later. Looksmaxxing methods have the primary goal of turning one into the “ideal man,” equipped with big muscles, glass skin and a jawline that can cut through stone. In this spread, we will dive into the looksmaxxing rabbit hole to uncover the causes and consequences of this controversial trend.