How to Avoid Getting Mogged: Looksmaxxing

Questioning the practicality and ethics of the recent self-improvement technique.

Photo by Max Linton

Looksmaxxing, an internet sensation that blew up in the summer of 2023, has dominated the Internet ever since. From catalyzing the return of past supermodel Chico Lachowski to the runway to promoting various sexual subcultures, looksmaxxing has garnered a zealous following. 

But what exactly is looksmaxxing? Well, the term is what it sounds like: maxing out one’s looks and genetic potential through skin care, dieting, and “mewing.” The term mewing, a facial improvement technique in which one uses suction to place the tongue onto the roof of the mouth, has also blown up on social media platforms, notably TikTok. Mewing, combined with sucking in one’s cheeks, gives an effect of hollowed cheekbones and a chiseled jawline, reminiscent of the “sigma” and “Chad” Internet trend from a year ago. However, many scientists suggest that mewing, along with other looksmaxxing techniques such as using a gua sha, is actually pseudoscientific. 

While this process may seem harmless and fun, albeit silly, looksmaxxing originates from eugenics. Stemming from websites such as Lookism.com in 2015, this term has become popular with incel groups on the websites 4Chan and Reddit throughout the decade. By the pandemic, subreddits such as r/TrueRateMe, which harshly bashed submitters based on arbitrary facial features such as the distance between the nose and upper lip, only perpetuated this obsessive zeal for self-improvement. Combined with the racial element of deeming “A10 blue eyes” superior to “T50 dark brown eyes,” looksmaxxing can become quite harmful to an individual’s self-image. Similar racist comments include deriding black and South Asian models such as Arjun Rampal and Michael B. Jordan, claiming these models to be inferior to their white counterparts and to “racemax.” 

In addition to its racist connotations, looksmaxxing also, as one might expect, perpetuates body shaming and body dysmorphia. The notable feature of looksmaxxing, mewing, is thought to reduce facial fat, thus reinforcing the social expectation of hollow cheeks for both men and women. Of course, many “looksmaxxers” overlook that reducing fat is from being in a caloric deficit and dieting; therefore, mewing’s lack of results will likely result in greater body dysmorphia and frustration. Looksmaxing’s extreme and seemingly precise classifications of arbitrary beauty also seed insecurity in those who didn’t even know such flaws existed. Now, on top of one’s everyday worries about their job or education, they have to also worry about whether their ramus length is optimal. While looksmaxxing is ultimately about self-improvement, it is often a gateway into racist, misogynistic, and eugenic matters. 

As impressionable teenagers, the Middlesex student body has also been quite infatuated with looksmaxxing. Students actively mew throughout the day––even in class. Despite it being pseudoscience, much of the student population agrees that it does indeed improve one’s jawline. Middlesex’s bustling gym and hard-working athletes are a testament to the school’s emphasis on self-betterment, and looksmaxxing has seemed to become a new means for self-improvement and self-care. Like “rizz,” a word originally used for overtly sexual catcalling, looksmaxxing is also a word with more serious implications that currently serves as a fun and harmless trend. 

Ethan Yuan