Looksmaxxing. . .

Do you ever have a day when something comes up in front of your screen and you have never heard of it before but it turns out to be stranger than you could have imagined?  So it was when an article in The Spectator (US edition) came to me with the title The Homoeroticism of Looksmaxxing.  What does that even mean?  Truth is stranger than fiction, as we all know only too well.

Apparently, looksmaxxing has become an online subculture fad that considers itself a form of self-improvement but actually is more like a cult for young, impressionable men still forming their identity and the high chieftain of this cult is a twenty something Tik Tok sensation who has his own oddities and affectation.  Meet Clavicular, real name Braden Peters, who has become the face of “looksmaxxing,” an  internet sensation who seems to have developed it into a religion or at least a belief systems — he teaches boys that their self-worth is about their appearance and that it is visible, measurable, and correctable through altering that physical appearances. Plastic surgery anyone?  So for the novice and those without deep pockets, looksmaxxing might resemble rather conventional self-care: skincare routines, time at the gym with a trainer, grooming helps, and such. But take it further and it enters the dark world of hormone (especially testosterone) injections, unregulated peptides, and pseudosciences such as “bone-smashing,” which is an attempt to shape facial bones by repeatedly striking the face with blunt objects.  I told you truth was stranger than fiction.

Looksmaxxing teaches boys to measure their worth by appearance, to distrust their bodies as they are and to treat them as a canvas for improvement, and to see masculinity as an external self-improvement toward an impossible goal. You want to know what happens when dating, marriage, having children, working to support a family, and providing for those you love at some cost to yourself disappears.  Looksmaxxing.  That is what happens.  In a desperate pursuit of meaning and purpose, our boys are turning inward but only as shallow as appearance.  Are we concerned?  It used to be an unkept boy in sweat pants and a tee shirt living in his parent's basement, stealing their internet, and living for video games but it has become now a crazy pursuit of an aesthetic ideal of appearance without concern for the cost in money or to the body and self-esteem.  Crazy is too small a word for this.  Braden Peters is making something like $100K per month doing content that is not quite erotic but certainly has an erotic sense to it and is cashing in on the move to make yourself the ideal.  But for whom?  Not for wife or children or work or even play.  Not for the greater community but only really for self and those who fawn over your self.  Wow.  That is just plain crazy.

For a generation of men increasingly either disinterest in or disillusioned with dating, status, career, and social mobility, why are we surprised that they are seeking comfort and solace in the mirror?  Can we offer them something more than a Christianized version of their vice?  I hope so.  This is exactly why raising up boys to be men is a cause within the Church but also for the sake of the world.  Think about it.  What can we do to rescue our boys from their worst selves (which was once drugs and alcohol)?  What can we challenge them to become?