What is ‘Looksmaxxing’? Mogging, Clavicular, ascending, and everything else you need to know

What once lurked in the depths of online message boards for incel (involuntary celibate) communities in the 2010s has permeated the zeitgeist and become a regular fixture of social media.

In a controversial corner of the internet, mostly populated by young men, an unrealistic body image is plastered everywhere, accompanied by steps and tools on how to achieve it.

“Looksmaxxing” has taken off in an extraordinary fashion over the past few years, with influencer Clavicular spearheading its rise. We’ll return to him later in the article.

What is ‘looksmaxxing’?

While beauty standards and norms have certainly evolved, the practice of self-maintenance has not.

From the use of eyeliner in ancient Egypt, to the pale complexions of Renaissance Europe, or the athletic builds of ancient Greece; humans have taken pride in their appearance for millennia.

The idea of looksmaxxing is rooted in the same concepts, but goes far deeper. It means to maximise your looks at any cost necessary.

Scores of mostly young men believe good looks are key to success and increasing their chances of gaining the interest of a woman.

But it’s a specific look: chiselled jaw, symmetrical face, tilted eyes, a muscular build, and white.

At its simplest, it is merely the practice of looking after one’s appearance; however, the extreme methods employed to do so make it far more sinister.

There are the “softmaxxing” methods like maintaining a skincare routine, hitting the gym, and dressing well.

Then, there’s “hardmaxxing”, where people use more invasive methods to “ascend” (improve looks) like taking a hammer to their jaw to reshape their lower face, unnecessary prescription medication or skin treatments, or have cosmetic surgery or implants and fillers.

The more permanent methods like these have been condemned by health professionals.

You might need a dictionary

There is a whole dictionary of terms used by those within the looksmaxxing community; the majority of which appears to be a foreign language to those who aren’t chronically online.

A standardised rating system, the PSL scale, is used to rank the attractiveness of others.

Rankings come from a combination of how well facial features work together, how distinct you look from the opposite sex, the sharpness of your features, and the features themselves, as reported by GQ.

For men, the scale ranges from subhuman, to low-,mid-, and high-tier normies, to Chadlite, and Chad.

Each tier comes from a numerical score out of 8, determined by what percentile of the human population is in the category.

For example, Chads represent the top 1 per cent of men that women are looking to date.

The other two points, to bring it up to a score out of 10, come from an individual’s SMV (sexual market value).

The SMV is usually based off things like wealth, popularity, and status.

Outside of the rating scale, there’s a whole lot of lingo:

• Acension - Every step taken towards becoming a Chad is called ascending.
• Bone smashing - Using repeated blunt trauma on cheekbones or the jaw to cause bone growth, which has been condemned by health professionals.
• FACE theory - The belief that Face and Age Conquer Everything when it comes to dating.
• Framemogged - Appearing physically stronger than someone else.
• Mewwing - A change to tongue posture which allegedly reshapes jaw structure over time, although this has been refuted by scientists.
• Mogging - Looking physically better than someone else.
• Slaymaxxing - Having lots of sex.
• True Adam - an inhumanly good looking person, of which it is said there is only one in every 12 billion people.

For many of those deeply embedded in the online forums dedicated to looksmaxxing, such language is a core part of their vocabulary.

‘The king of looksmaxxing’

As is the case with most corners of the internet, especially those flooded with controversy, looksmaxxer influencers and content creators dominate the chatter.

The most well-known would be Braden Peters, whose online pseudonym is Clavicular.

While he did not coin the term looksmaxxing, he certainly popularised it.

Although only 20 years old, Mr Peters says he has spent years practising techniques to improve his physical appearance.

He was about 14 when he began the pursuit to achieving a “lethal face card”, taking testosterone, steroids, and fat dissolvers.

Mr Peters admitted to taking meth to suppress his appetite and trying to strengthen and enlarge his penis by using weights.

A polarising figure, Mr Peters has been charged for shooting an alligator, suffered a suspected drug overdose while livestreaming, and faced other assault and battery charges.

Yet he maintains an audience of almost 2 million across streaming platform Kick, Instagram, and TikTok.

On a recent episode of the Impaulsive podcast hosted by controversial internet figures Logan Paul and Mike Majlak, the 20-year-old was introduced as “the king of looksmaxxing and the most talked about man on the internet” who is “turning internet culture into a full-blown movement”.

In the hour and a half episode, “Clav” spoke about being a-political, his sobriety, and dating life.

The ultimate goal of looksmaxxing, he said, was “improving the quality of your life to the highest degree”, whether that be women, career, or otherwise.

Is it normalising misogyny?

Born in forums for incel communities, it should come as no surprise that the idea of looksmaxxing is deeply rooted in misogyny.

The community was born out of men desperate for women’s attention and, in its wake, has left men doing everything for female attention except respecting them.

Director of Young Men Research Project Charlie Sabgir has slammed the advice Mr Peters offers on his online academy, Clavicular’s Clan.

Mr Sabgir told Rolling Stone that the online community was almost exclusively men that was a “step-by-step guide that normalised sexual coercion and self-punishment alike”.

“Many (young men) think they’d have to change too much about themselves to make a serious relationship work,” he wrote.

“When Clavicular proudly endorses the idea that appearance is deterministic, he’s tapping into a deeper sense of confusion and alienation with dangerous implications for the women targeted by this ideology, and the men heeding the brutal advice.”

As the idea of female beauty has progressed in leaps and bounds, the opposite has happened for men.

The toxic ideals and ranking systems of looksmaxxing do nothing but demonise groups of men who do not fit into that very, very small box.

White men pursue the unattainable image of True Adam, and everyone else is excluded.

If you or someone you know needs help, contact 1800 RESPECT (1800 737 732), or Sexual Assault Counselling Australia on 1800 211 028 or Lifeline on 13 11 14.