“The inventor of the mirror poisoned the human heart” – Fernando Pessoa
The silvered-glass mirror was invented in 1835 by Justus von Liebig – for the first time in history ordinary people could afford a mirror of their own.
We haven’t been the same since.
No longer were we looking at ourselves in the vivid reflection of water’s surface. From now on we would be able to see our reflection every single morning.
From now on we would be critiquing, dissecting, finding flaws and obsessing over every detail of our own faces and bodies.
Technology moved from the mirror to the photograph. From the photograph to digital photograph. From the digital camera to the in-built camera in our smartphones.
The story of body image arrives here in 2019. With the introduction of social media we now see our own faces and body’s more than any humans in history.
While our hunter gather ancestors would have been largely unaware of their own appearance, we’re exposed to our own appearance on a daily basis. In bathroom mirrors, in the photos we’re tagged in and on our smartphone screens as we spin that camera around into selfie mode.
In 2019, we spend a strange amount of time looking at our own faces and our own bodies.
And no wonder. In the modern world your appearance is incredibly important many aspects of your life.
Your aesthetics (especially your facial aesthetics) are a cruel genetic lottery. Some receive all of the incredible advantages of being born beautiful while others are left to suffer the brutally unfair repercussions of being born ugly.
Forget racism or sexism. The most widespread discrimination in 2019 is lookism.
Can we really call a 10/10, drop-dead gorgeous black woman “oppressed”?
Can we truly claim that a 5’0 tall, balding, chubby, ugly white man is “privileged”?
Given the importance of looks in our society – it figures that there are online communities taking drastic measures in order to improve their aesthetics.
The Looksmaxing Ideology
While women having been getting plastic surgery for a long time, Looksmaxers are exclusively men.
Looksmaxing is an online community of men who are dedicated to improving their appearance – by any means necessary.
They are closely linked to the now well-known Incel and “Black Pill” communities.
Like many internet rabbit holes, this one has it’s own ideology. It goes like this:
Looks are everything.
Facial aesthetics are the most important part of life. Not only for dating, but for life in general.
If you’re ugly, you have to do everything in your power to make yourself beautiful.
That includes reasonable “softmaxing” techniques such as skincare, haircuts, hitting the gym and so on. But if the “softmaxing” techniques aren’t enough, you need to start “hardmaxing”
“Hardmaxing” involves everything from plastic surgery to growth hormones. Whatever it takes to look good. Health be damned. Integrity be damned.
Users will post images of themselves and other users will provide feedback on their appearance, as well as suggestions for which facial surgery they need.
Looksmaxers suggest all kinds of plastic surgery: rhinoplasty, canthoplasty, cheek bone implants, acne scar laser surgery, sliding genioplasty, orbital rim implants, leg lengthening, otoplasty, overbite surgery orthognahic surgery, eyebrow lifts and countless others.
Any other suggestions for improving your life, such as improving in your career, socialising more or improving your character are classified as “cope”.
One user showing the results of his zygo implants
According to Looksmaxers, the only solution to your problems is improving your appearance. Anything else is running away from the reality of the situation. Anything else is coping.
So that’s Looksmaxing. Just one of many insane rabbit holes that the internet has created.
Those Looksmaxing community are the most extreme cases of people who are hyper-focused on aesthetics, but this isn’t only limited to this fringe group.
Men across the world secretly have this idea: that aesthetics are the most important thing about attracting women. And perhaps even the most important part of life itself.
What do you think? Do you need to be attractive to have a good-life? Do you need to be visually pleasing in order to date the women you want? If you search within yourself, you might find that your honest answer to those questions is: Yes.
You might find that when you examine your beliefs, you too believe that you need to be good-looking in order to have the life you want. And if you do feel that way, you’re not alone.
But I’m about to explain to you that you formed these beliefs around appearance not through real-world experience, but through media and technology.
This is how the media created the Looksmaxing community
Hollywood
Isn’t it amazing how similar most of the lead male actors in Hollywood are in appearance? White, dark hair and handsome. (With some exceptions from other races). Strangely enough, there are far less blonde or redhead lead male actors.
Most lead Hollywood actors have either a positive or a neutral canthal tilt. Very rarely does a lead actor have a negative canthal tilt. (Confused? See below image)
But it’s not just the canthal tilt. Lead male Hollywood actors also tend to have high cheekbones, deep-set eyes, a compact midface, warrior skulls and many other aesthetic features.
Take a look at almost any scene from a Hollywood movie and you can usually tell immediately who is the main character and who are the side characters. From appearance alone.
At a glance, who is the main character of this movie? And who are the side characters?
There are no clues from how the characters are arranged on screen. But it’s immediately obvious that Tom Cruise (left) is the main character of the show.
Granted, you may be familiar with the Mission Impossible franchise that this shot was taken from. Nevertheless, judging by the dark hair full head of hair and the attractive facial features (including the positive canthal tilt) it’s obvious who’s the main character.
Simon Pegg (right), with his receding hairline and less attractive facial features couldn’t possibly be the lead character of a Hollywood movie. Predictably, Simon Pegg is the “nerd” character of this movie.
While the lead actors of action movies usually have a warrior skull, nerd characters almost always have a “wimp skull”
Top: The Warrior Skull Bottom: The Wimp Skull
So why do these patterns emerge across so many Hollywood movies? Money.
Hollywood runs on profit. Creating great movies is secondary to producing a reliable profit from each movie it churns out.
When it costs $100,000,000 to produce a Hollywood blockbuster no producer is going to risk playing with the tried and tested conventions that have successfully produced a profit in the past
If a casting director is looking for the lead actor of an action movie, they’re going to look for all of the typical facial features you’re used to finding on action heroes.
No casting director of a Hollywood movie is going to take a chance on casting an unattractive and wimpy looking man as an action hero. They’re going to stick to the conventions that have worked before.
The facial aesthetics of each character on-screen have to reflect their role within the movie. The hero has to look like a hero. And the side characters have to look like side characters. Otherwise mainstream audiences may become confused about each character’s role.
In Hollywood facial aesthetics reflect an individual’s role. But in the real-world they do not.
In the real world an ugly man with poor facial aesthetics can be a hero saving a baby from a burning building. In the real world a handsome man with attractive facial aesthetics can be a scardy-cat who’s afraid of heights.
In the real world, an ugly man can attract women. (More on this later)
You watch these Hollywood movies again and again. For decades. The ideas and patterns in these movies are gradually buried within your subconscious.
Overtime (unnoticed by you) a quiet assumption begins to build in your mind: You begin to believe that if you want to be the lead actor of your own life then you have to look a certain way.
You believe that if you look more like a Hollywood side character, then you should act as a side character in your real life.
Perhaps you don’t follow your highest dreams. Perhaps you don’t ask that girl out. Because subconsciously you believe that you’re a side character. And that’s not what side characters do.
No. You won’t ask that girl out. You’ll wait. Wait until you’re good-looking enough to approach her. Only once your appearance matches that of the main characters you’ve seen on screen can you give yourself permission to act as the main character in your own life.
This is the subconscious mechanism that has been instilled in the heads of millions of men by Hollywood. And this makes many men believe they can’t have the life they want unless they look a particular way.
Hence, the Looksmaxing community.
Online Dating
In the real world – Behaviour is the biggest measure of attractiveness for men.
On online dating – Appearance is the biggest measure of attractiveness for men.
The problem is, people look at which men women choose on online dating and assume that this is the reality about what women like. But online dating is not a reflection of reality. It’s a distortion of reality.
(This Is Why Online Dating Drives Men Crazy)
On online dating you look at people frozen still. The digital photograph freezes time. There is no movement. No body language. No vocal tonality. No eye contact. Only appearance.
In the real world, people aren’t frozen still. They’re in motion. They’re gesturing with their hands. They’re funny. Or they’re not funny. They’re interesting. Or they’re not interesting. They make eye-contact. Or they don’t make eye contact. They’re charming. Or they’re arrogant. And most importantly, each individual has a particular vibe that you can feel coming off of them.
A photograph strips an individual everything except their appearance. The photograph is a very strange medium to view another person through.
“Technology is neither good nor bad; nor is it neutral.” – The first law of technology (Dr Melvin Kranzburg)
Looksmaxers like to use “chadfishing” tinder experiments like this one to prove their point that looks are the most important thing when attracting women.
They assume that an experiment like this is an accurate reflection of reality. But someone who molests children (as this fake male model claims to have done in his bio) would likely have an incredibly creepy demeanour in the real world.
A child molester would probably have strange mannerisms and off-putting body language. Because surprisingly enough, child molesters don’t tend to be particularly normal people.
The springbok shows off it’s ability to jump when predators are nearby. It’s an honest signal that says “You won’t be able to catch me, so don’t even try”
Honest Signals
The PUA community (Pick up artists) – who get their information through real-world experience rather than through the distorted lens of technology – often talk about honest signals.
When women are assessing the attractiveness of a man, they’re looking for traits that will increase her and her future children’s chance of survival. Confidence, high status behaviour, physical strength, social skills and congruence.
Just like the springbok showing off it’s jump, women look for sexual honest signals from men.
Honest signals are attributes that are very difficult to fake. A confident demeanour. Strong eye-contact. Relaxed body language. Deep resonant vocal tonality. How others react to a man in a social setting. A man who has resources. Leadership. Indifference. And yes, an attractive face and body.
This is a law of nature that applies throughout the animal kingdom. It’s called signalling theory.
Woman subconsciously search for honest signals of an attractive man.
Any man can lie about how they’re rich, confident and high status. But they can’t lie about unconscious behaviours such as body language, strong eye-contact or resonant vocal tonality.
Positive honest signals are incredibly attractive to women.
The biggest problem with online dating is..
Online dating doesn’t allow men to communicate honest signals.
The main thing that women are biologically evolved to look for is very difficult to communicate through the images and text that online dating platforms allow.
The only honest signal that can be communicated through online dating is appearance. Therefore appearance is the most important factor in online dating. But things don’t work the same way in the real world.
This is the subtle way in which technology changes the way you think. The Looksmaxing ideology only holds truth in the alternate world of technology. But simply doesn’t hold up in the real world.
Some might claim that online dating is changing the way women think – that online dating has influenced female psychology and now they have much higher standards for appearance than before.
But honest signals have been a part of human psychology for hundreds of millions of years. In fact, honest signals are so old that they’re older than human race itself.
In the real world, true confidence, being high status, a resonant vocal tonality, strong eye-contact and relaxed body language will always attract women.
That’s why this guy is able to attract beautiful women into his life despite being less than gifted in the looks department.
(Pick Up Artist RSDTyler). You probably don’t believe it’s possible that this guy could have ability to attract beautiful women. And yet he proved it time and time again on his Youtube channel.
The Digital Echo Chamber
The internet is full of bubbles.
These bubbles have a gravitational pull towards the exact centre. The longer you spend in these bubbles, the harder it is to get out.
Each of these bubbles has it’s own ideology. It’s own zeitgeist. Liberals. Conservatives. Feminists. Marxists. MGTOW’s. MRA’s. And Looksmaxers.
They’re not full of crazy imbeciles. They’re full of well-reasoned, thoughtful arguments that seem to make sense. Arguments that take real effort and thought to debunk.
The Looksmaxing ideology can be found on Lookism.net and across other platforms where the broader Incel ideology is present.
The Youtube algorithm also does a good job of dragging unsuspecting men into the bubble by suggesting Looksmaxing videos in the “recommended for you” section.
In the Looksmaxing bubble, people continually validate each others ideas. Users in this bubble certainty don’t agree with each other all the time (in fact they’re constantly abusing one another), but they all agree with the basic premises of the ideology.
Eventually an ideology with thousands of believers is created. Gradually thousands of men are drawn to the conclusion that the only route to happiness is through some kind of plastic surgery.
A conclusion they would have never come to were it not for the media presence in their lives.
Technology interacts with human psychology in the strangest of ways. And we’ve only just began to see the rise of communities like this across the internet.
The idea that you can change your life and become attractive to women through plastic surgery is an idea that will draw in young men for a long time to come.
Teenagers and young men will continue to be drawn in by these ideas.
The Looksmaxing ideology is here to stay.
