Expert weighs in on ‘looksmaxxing’

A social media trend is getting mainstream attention in recent weeks, causing some parents’ and experts’ concern.

An expert on body image is warning of a new social media trend that is sending a negative message to boys and men.

“Looksmaxxing” is a social media trend that encourages boys and men to improve their physical appearance through extreme measures, such as smashing their own facial bones to improve their bone structure, undergoing plastic surgery or using steroids.

Kyle T. Ganson, a professor at the University of Toronto who specializes in eating disorders among boys and men, told CTV News Ottawa on Wednesday that the trend is worrisome.

“There’s a lot of social comparison that happens online,” he said. Impressionable social media users see “ideal” features, he said, likening the phenomenon to “tunnel vision.”

This begins the cycle of “internalizing that ideal, comparing yourself to that ideal, feeling really sad about yourself, and that can include low self-esteem,” he said.

According to Ganson, some looksmaxxing behaviours could be “benign,” such as skincare routines, hair-loss prevention and anti-aging prevention measures. But some are more extreme, like making microfractures in your facial bones with the goal that they grow and redefine themselves, or that a person will require plastic surgery, and can tailor the results to meet an ideal.

“Engaging in some of these behaviours in really extreme ways could have health effects, but also mental-health effects, like depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, thoughts of harming oneself, eating disorders and body dysmorphia,” Ganson said.

According to Ganson, some social media influencers have been promoting these behaviours to boys and men, claiming that enhancing their physical appearance is necessary to attract partners and achieve financial success or fame.

But Ganson says this message should be challenged.

“The online ecosystem is really just highlighting what is most controversial or getting the most attention, so it’s not real life,” he said.

“We should move past this idea of appearance and looks and bodies as a way to measure one’s worth and self and self-efficacy in life.”

He offered the following advice to those who are feeling the impacts of lookmaxxing trends: “Put the phone down, engage in human connection and move past that kind of mentality.”