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The hashtag #looksmaxxing, which proliferates on TikTok and Instagram, multiplies physical injunctions against young men spreading particularly misogynistic ideals.
Women aren’t the only recipients of trends on social media. Yet another hashtag has been growing in recent weeks: #looksmaxxing. Understand “maximizing your appearance.” 177,000 publications on TikTok, 40,000 on Instagram. Physical injunctions aimed at young men, encouraging them, for example, to make their jaw squarer, a symbol of virility.
Among these tips, that of keeping the tongue stuck against the roof of the mouth, to “change the structure of your face”, assures one of these influencers, supporting sketches. Or chew gum, but not just any gum: “Buy Chios Mastic instead, harder chewing gum.” Last advice, “go below 12% body fat”. “If you do these three things for long enough, concluded the influencer, You’ll be much more attractive.”
“Jawline” and “mewing”
Another asset to achieve the ultimate appearance: “hunter’s eyes.” Still under the hashtag #looksmaxxing, another influencer claims to be able to help you obtain a more defined look by practicing “the mewing”. This is also about keeping your tongue stuck against the roof of your mouth, “while breathing through the nose”, adds the young man. Objective: to exert constant pressure on the jaw bone “which promotes forward and upward growth.” Objective: accentuate your “jawline”, according to the now ultra-popular expression on social networks.
A few videos in French, the vast majority in English, in which young men test a whole bunch of accessories to promote chewing, straighten your posture, improve your skin quality, take care of your haircut… And that can be fine. even cosmetic surgery: some have surgery to obtain the ideal jawline.
Behind this trend, the multiplication of virilist and masculinist symbols. This is what Vannina Micheli-Rechtman, a psychiatrist specializing in contemporary representations of the body, observes: “It is very eloquent on the question of hunter’s eyes: an aesthetic ideal which would consider that to seduce women, one must have hunter’s eyes when facing women who would be prey. We’re coming back to things that are so old in our representations of the relationship between men and women, it’s terrible.”
“Archaic representations”
This development reflects a real social fact. In its latest report, the High Council for Equality noted the notable increase in sexism among young people: “It’s very surprising, it’s very dissonant in relation to the evolution of our society. How is it possible that sexism is increasing among young people in archaic representations? We have the impression of being in 1950. ”
Representations insidiously conveyed on social networks, adds the psychiatrist. “There, we see that there are diktats now that weigh on men’s bodies, while overall the diktats were more important on women’s bodies. We absolutely must be vigilant and educate on these issues. The place of images on social networks considerably influences this type of phenomenon”, underlines the author of the book The New Fatal Beauties – Eating disorders as image pathologies.
Beyond the regression of society, these trends can also have consequences on the physical and mental health of users of social networks. Sometimes very young users who are in the middle of construction. “The representation of oneself, the representation of one’s body, has been rooted since childhood. The way in which those around them can talk about their child’s body is very important. Discourses around the child’s body a subject are absolutely fundamental. Being in injunctions where things never go well, or to please, you absolutely have to conform to diktats. It’s certain that it causes self-esteem which becomes faltering and that’s dangerous.”
“The Tyranny of the Instagram Face”
The psychiatrist sees more and more patients with mental health disorders: “I notice the increase in eating disorders, anorexia and bulimia, among young men because there is this problem of dysmorphophobia, that is to say of no longer really supporting one’s body as it is. . There is a kind of tyranny of the Instagram face that is striking.”
The risks to physical health are just as worrying:“Thinness is very dangerous. In addition, in very young people, it stops growth, they no longer grow. Dietary restrictions are dangerous, that’s obvious. It’s absolutely astonishing to what extent they are capable of inflicting suffering and pain on themselves to supposedly resemble an ideal that would be that of social networks.”
The paroxysm of these aberrations is obviously jaw operations, the merits of which some men extol on video: “How can you come up with the idea of doing these such heavy cosmetic surgery operations? It is an operation that is both very expensive and very heavy. It involves months of immobilization. It is absolutely essential to warn young men and try to hold another discourse, namely that we have the body that we have. It is important to live in your body, to feel good in your body as it is.” Despite these warnings, the psychiatrist claims to observe a clear increase in cosmetic surgery operations among men between 18 and 35 years old.