Hammer in hand, a young man strikes on his cheekbone, in order to redraw his face: on the Tiktok network, some influencers praise unrealed and dangerous practices like manners of accentuating a supposed form of male beauty.
The “looksmaxxing” is part of the online “Manosphere”, these masculine speeches – hostile and sometimes violent towards women – who have been developing on the networks for several years, for young men to whom the stereotype of the Alpha male is presented as an ideal.
From Tiktok to Instagram via YouTube, these influencers offer to make more fleshy lips, a chin – even legs – longer or a more sensual look, often by monetizing their advice thanks to advertising. Sometimes they also encourage steroid and cosmetic surgery.
In the video, the man who hits the cheekbone with the flat side of a hammer ensures that it is his “routine skincare”, these daily care practices for the skin that flood social networks, generally intended for young women.
Dangerous
Dozens of comments under the video note that this technique is dangerous, but others ensure that it really makes it possible to obtain a more square jaw.
In the same vein of “looksmaxxing”, the Tiktokeur Dillon Latham explains to its 1.7 million subscribers that they can whiten their teeth by applying oxygenated water with a cotton swab.
However, dentists assure that this commercial product regularly uses can damage the enamel of the teeth and gums.
Vogue models in this community are the Australian models Jordan Barrett or American Sean O’Pry.
“Toxic mixture”
This trend is fueled by “influencers who promote perfect bodies and faces”, often to take advantage of it, notes Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan, of the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. “It mixes with the misogyny of the manosphere, creating a toxic mixture”.
“More generally, it shows that unhealthy beauty standards also affect men,” says this expert.
The trend also draws its roots from the ideology “INCEL”, an English abbreviation for “involuntary singles”, designating men who have little success with women and began to feed a hatred towards them or towards feminism, deemed responsible for their failures.
“The +looksmaxxing +is actually a revamped version of ideology +INCEL +on Tiktok,” says Anda Solea, from the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice to Portsmouth (United Kingdom).
In her work, she found that Tiktok accounts linked to the “INCEL” movement could bypass prohibitions on hateful remarks by adopting more acceptable terms of “looksmaxxing”, on the improvement of oneself.
“We are trying to protect women from gender-related violence, but we should also pay attention to young men,” she said to AFP.
The “Adolescence” series
At the same time, “gymmaxxing” is also developing, which encourages muscle taking, and “moneymaxxing”, which focuses on improving its financial status, in order to increase its sexual desirability.
Algorithms that allow these influencers to reach millions of people can lead to concrete problems in the real world, according to experts.
This is the theme of the British mini-series “adolescence”, which is a card on Netflix and follows a young teenager accused of having stabbed a college student after being watered with misogynous content online.
Researchers from the Dublin City University who last year created false adolescent accounts on social networks thus made the observation that they were then targeted by masculinist content on Tiktok and YouTube.
