Dear Men: why ‘looksmaxxing’ won’t work, and what you can actually do
The deranged alt-right trend making young men hurt themselves
4 min readFeb 28, 2023
A friend leaps onto the bed, gleefully opening his laptop. I’m exhausted, but I know that expression. “You have to see this,” he tells me, pulling up iPlayer. “You absolutely having to see this.”
“Why are there little hammers? What’s looksmaxxing?” I ask him after a few minutes, bewildered. My friend grins at me, squeezing my arm reassuringly. This is weird. “Oh, you just have to watch and find out.” On the screen, the awkward, masked young man waves his little hammer around while he talks to the equally confused journalist.
Then the masked man explains. He’s using the little hammer to break the bones in his face to make himself more attractive to women. I’m speechless. My friend is in tears laughing. This is surreal, that weird blend of absurd, tragic, and hilarious. “Why would that work?” I ask aloud. “Why on earth would that work?”
