Even by modern terms this is (mostly) very odd to me. That said, at 57 I'm no doubt considered a dinosaur by the guys in this article. Which is fair enough.
As a taster:
Clavicular (his 'name') attributes his looks to, among other things, taking testosterone from the age of 14 and smashing his jawbone with a hammer to supposedly reshape his lower face - neither of which is recommended by health professionals.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cx28z4zypkno
Wtaf?
OHhh look it’s all being pushed by a load of Social Media influencers and the power of TikTok.
You’d be surprised how young some of the age group they prey on actually are, there’s boys of 8 actively after skincare products for birthdays and Christmas.
On the bus home Friday evening, I was looking over the shoulder of some scrawny kid who was just endlessly scrolling through pictures of people like this, many obviously digitally altered. These poor kids don't have the toolkit to resist this stuff.
"smashing his jawbone with a hammer to supposedly reshape his lower face - neither of which is recommended by health professionals."
Plus rubber mallet to shape the nose. That's a bit odd - why would a health profession not recommend this new treatment?
On the phone the other day to my Yorkshire mate - his disgust was palpable when talking about some of the stuff his son looks at. He blames it on moving down south. I did point out that they had the internet in the north.
Even by modern terms this is (mostly) very odd to me. That said, at 57 I'm no doubt considered a dinosaur by the guys in this article. Which is fair enough.
TBH as young DoD I used to push metal to get into shape and TBH it did work and I did go from shy to a more confident grown up.
I don’t think fundamentally it’s a new thing but it’s the targeting and the predatory approach of the influencers that I don’t like that you get now and whole algorithm of pushing more of the same content to you as well.
Back then you might grab a weightlifting magazine or as I did go round your m8s and use his weights and read his mags, they weren’t being beamed into your hand 24/7.
BBC sounds / top comment did a pod cast on it along with decline porn
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0n20jy1?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile
^^ Now, id not heard of decline porn but I've definitely seen it online, mostly in regards to certain people's views of London.
I've seen lots of decline porn in the US just now, but it's not AI generated
Ah, the world of the extremely online, Incels and the history of pick-up-artists. There are some very weird/dangerous to the rest of us sub-cultures that owe their existence; like the groypers and QAnon who can trace their ultimate existence to 4 and 8chan.
There is a not small minority of (mostly) young American men, now in the early 30's who are genuinely (in the medical sense) ****ed up by their access to this un-regulated shit.
I think the problem is that the weird minority stuff starts creeping into main line, there’s a lot of legal companies flogging cosmetic products happy to line their pockets off the back of the latest fad,let alone the the illegal sellers of peptides.
I suppose it’s the issue with allowing content creators to just pump stuff out with no real regulation and the the platforms behind it saying it’s nothing to do with them.
The older I get the more I have hate for the platforms and the toxic rise of the flu’encers.
And tbf it's not just a male thing - going through the airport, the number of women who are, I don't know 19-30ish with bright orange skin, awful fake lips, eyebrows done whatever too and so on. Flying to Turkey for new teeth/ lips/ hair/ etc is regarded as acceptable or even smart, so you can see why people claiming to be able to do it on the cheap, or at home, have an appeal
Theres quite a few at school pick up in range rovers, parked on pavements / double yellow lines, mums with fake tan, fake nails, fake hair, huge lip fillers or dads with hair implants, immacutely groomed beards and muscle fit t shirts. Maybe this is what life will be like when AI does everything. I meant what else will there be to do with our time? It's like that film Surrogates where everyone controls a fake robot version of themselves
bright orange skin, awful fake lips, eyebrows done whatever too and so on
Was back in the UK recently. Essex to be precise. Bugger me it was shocking looking at some of the tarts walking down the high street.....
In some cases it was all three generations glowing orange, massive eyelashes and pumped up lips.
Who finds that attractive?!?
Perhaps we’re too old to get it and it’s us 🙂
Maybe this is what life will be like when AI does everything. I meant what else will there be to do with our time? It's like that film Surrogates where everyone controls a fake robot version of themselves
TBH it’ll be a bunch of rich influencers basically grifting of the back of all the unemployed taking their dole in exchange for life style tips and how successful they are and how you can be too if follow their plan 🙂
It’ll be the decision of whether you can eat/heat or afford your social media plans.
Looking at the rise of Big tech and how things currently are I can’t see the next wave making life better.
the number of women who are, I don't know 19-30ish with bright orange skin, awful fake lips, eyebrows done whatever too and so on
Did you bump into the Trump cabinet, maybe ?
I wish! I noticed it when I was going through Leeds Bradford Airport a lot; Manchester has it but not quite so badly - not sure that means anything in particular. Dublin and surrounds are pretty bad too. I don't get any of it, but starting with the fake tan, when did "you've been Tango'd" change from a punchline to an aspiration?!
In some cases it was all three generations glowing orange, massive eyelashes and pumped up lips.
Who finds that attractive?!?
A la moda 🙂
Probably their target audience.
I could probably use some blue pill hardmaxxing at my age i suspect, or have i misunderstood the term?
The Louis Theroux manosphere doc on Netflix is worth a watch. Friend's son is getting into some odd trading due to tiktok (started w gymbro vids apparently) and some bloke in Dubai selling tips.
We do some work in cosmetic dermatology, and dermatologists have huge worries about the IG/TikTOk trends pushing unproven stuff (peptides, exosomes, etc) that people are willing to try to stay young/rejuvenate.
the number of women who are, I don't know 19-30ish with bright orange skin, awful fake lips, eyebrows done whatever too and so on.
women's fashion choices are not equivalent to the generational damage being caused by and to this online group of men
Who finds that attractive?!?
Society?
Culture has always driven appearance, and by driven I mean "pressured," especially in young women. We airbrush photoshop unnatural looks in magazines and then tell real women that they aren't good enough if they don't measure up to this impossible fiction we've manufactured, whereas history favoured 'chubby' / curvy women. It's not that long ago you were fat if weren't a superwaif (result: anorexia), now we've 'brought booty back' and they're getting arse implants. In grumble from my teenage years women had full-on hairy growlers, today it's considered weird if you don't have a front bottom like a prepubescent. Meanwhile, boys are "manscaping" because of course they are. It's little more than fashion.
For the life of me though, I'll never understand why women will go through the trauma of tearing out their eyebrows just to draw them straight back on again.
"Who finds that attractive?!?"
Based on my own limited research, it's themselves and to varying extents other Women. They look in the mirror, it doesn't make them feel good (likely influenced by the fake, online, digital world we live in) so it's the fake tan, fillers, plucked, botox, makeup etc. Poll after poll says that Men don't find that sort of thing attractive, but that's not the goal or the point.
Men are really no different these days, young men anyway. They're tanning, plucking, toning with makeup (but it's called something else) in the Gym every day, skin boosters and using Test, Tren and whatever else for massive Gym Muscles. Poll after poll will tell you Women don't find this attractive, but that's not the goal, or the point.
It only when you get to Love Island levels of Internet Psychosis that it becomes attractive to the opposite sex. They're not looking for personal attraction, they're looking for the right Social Media Accessory.
"Who finds that attractive?!?"
Based on my own limited research, it's themselves and to varying extents other Women. They look in the mirror, it doesn't make them feel good (likely influenced by the fake, online, digital world we live in) so it's the fake tan, fillers, plucked, botox, makeup etc. Poll after poll says that Men don't find that sort of thing attractive, but that's not the goal or the point.
Men are really no different these days, young men anyway. They're tanning, plucking, toning with makeup (but it's called something else) in the Gym every day, skin boosters and using Test, Tren and whatever else for massive Gym Muscles. Poll after poll will tell you Women don't find this attractive, but that's not the goal, or the point.
It only when you get to Love Island levels of Internet Psychosis that it becomes attractive to the opposite sex. They're not looking for personal attraction, they're looking for the right Social Media Accessory.
Culture has always driven appearance, and by driven I mean "pressured," especially in young women.
I think it's more the trying and failing to acheive the look-du-jour.
Back when pale skin meant you were rich enough to not have to work outside, it was the desired appearance. But got taken too far with ridiculous white makeup made from damaging chemicals.
For the past few decades looking like you had the time and money to travel abroad and/or lie motionless in the sun. But again taken far too far with spray or foundation leaving people cheeto orange.
I think its second hand information. They don't actually know anyone that has wintered in the Maldives. But all their friends want to look like they do. But they don't know how to do it so they come out as an oompa-loompa. And everyone copies them because its closer to the "goal" than their natural pale white complexion.
Looksmaxxing goes well beyond tanning or shaving though. It's an online Incel language that has rationalized the lack of empathy, the fragility and isolation of a group of people failing to make human interactions with faux scientific measurements of things like how far apart your eyes are, the ratio between the width of your mouth and the distance it is below your nose as an ultimate measurement to determine how "successful" you will be in attracting some-one. Hitting your jaw with a hammer is the least weird thing about it. The history of online incel spaces was partly a reaction to the fact that pick up artistry didn't work - the biggest space for these people wasn't called PUAHate by accident. Clavicular is just the natural circle jerk of the forums re-creating what it claims to hate (regardless of the fact they share many many traits). A way of selling to the incel community the thing that they claim isn't buyable.
draw them straight back on again.
If only they could draw them where they previously were and not halfway up their forehead.
and to varying extents other Women.
Oh my gaawwwd, babe. You look amazzin'