Comics

That hasn't been in my bubble. Comic aside, I see it as another chapter in the huge issue that is how young men are growing up without identity or direction. Malicious cons and grifters that make up "the manospehere" are filling in the gap, and we're seeing the consequences.

Conversely, I've also grown up understanding the great lengths and pressure women have to perform their own "looksmaxxing" since forever. That's also kind of an identity crisis that applies to the whole world.

I don't think it's either one or the other, though. Generally, people want to be attractive and attractive people usually get better treatment from others.

Just another thing that sucks, IMO. Another human problem that needs solving.

From what I've heard, among parents this is being seen more as a crisis, while when it was happening to girls it was a problem to talk to your daughters about, but ultimately more of a boring one.

And tbh as an annoying feminist, I do think that this is a serious problem that it's spread to boys. It's done a lot of damage to girls, and it's doing a lot of damage to boys. It's also going to be harder to resolve as it becomes more entrenched.

It's easy to make fun of looksmaxxing because it manifests similar to stupid young male hijinks. When I was a teenager if boys were hitting themselves in the face with hammers it would've been as displays of toughness rather than backyard cosmetic surgery. It's a lot less funny when you see a boy you know struggling with body dysmorphia.

There's also the ideological component to contend with. Like, I go to the gym and take care of my skin but nobody's gonna call it "Looksmaxxing" because I don't buy into incel tradmasc stuff or believe in some hyper specific measurements or something.