{"id":393222,"date":"2026-04-15T10:36:15","date_gmt":"2026-04-15T10:36:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/393222\/"},"modified":"2026-04-15T10:36:15","modified_gmt":"2026-04-15T10:36:15","slug":"from-clavicular-to-andrew-tate-how-looksmaxxing-and-mogging-have-infiltrated-the-social-media-of-teenage-boys","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/393222\/","title":{"rendered":"From Clavicular to Andrew Tate: How \u2018looksmaxxing\u2019 and \u2018mogging\u2019 have infiltrated the social media of teenage boys"},"content":{"rendered":"

In 1997, the sci-fi noir film, Gattaca, starring Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman and Jude Law, was released. Though not a box office hit at the time, the film has gained something of a cult following over the last 30 years, not least because of its prescience about the future we now find ourselves increasingly living in. The film depicted a dystopian<\/a> future where children <\/a>conceived \u201cin love\u201d and not via genetic modification have become the true underclass. <\/p>\n

Vincent, played by Ethan Hawke, manages to beat the system and infiltrate an elite space programme by purchasing the identity of genetically \u201cperfect\u201d Jerome Morrow, who has become a disabled recluse after a failed suicide attempt. In order to pull off \u201cbecoming\u201d Jerome, the most extreme and painful modification Vincent must undergo is to have his legs broken and the bones reknitted to hit the perfect height of Jerome\u2019s 6\u20191. <\/p>\n

This year, what was once the stuff of dystopian sci-fi<\/a> entered the Gen A <\/a>chat. Ryan (15), a Year 11 student, informed me that if he doesn\u2019t hit the magic six-foot (183cm) he\u2019d \u201cabsolutely\u201d consider getting his bones smashed and reset \u2013 and most of his friends agreed. Leg elongating is a procedure that gets an increasing amount of coverage and discussion on TikTok and Instagram, and alarming numbers of teenage boys seem very familiar and interested in it.<\/p>\n

\"EthanEthan Hawke in Gattaca, the 1997 sci-fi noir film, which has a cult following (Columbia Pictures)<\/p>\n

Ryan explains: \u201cShort guys just don\u2019t mog. They can call themselves \u2018short kings\u2019 all they want. I\u2019d do anything to not be short. It\u2019s one of the worst things that can happen to a man. At least if you\u2019re ugly, you can have plastic surgery and fat people can shred. Thank god, there\u2019s technology coming in that means there\u2019s a cure for being short. You can only mog if you\u2019re tall. Facts.\u201d <\/p>\n

Welcome to the world of \u201cmogging\u201d, a term that originates from AMOG (Alpha Male of the Group), a new manosphere-adjacent<\/a> set of laws that decrees boys<\/a> are only worthy and one of the golden 20 per cent if they are mega attractive. By the laws of mogging, this means Adonis-level facial proportions, a ripped and fat-free body, tall (only over 6-feet is really acceptable, hence the interest in bone smashing), and beautifully dressed and styled. <\/p>\n

There are no limitations placed on what you should do \u2018to mog\u2019, and so Gen A boys are being encouraged to take things to absolute extremes in order to mog. The facemasks and mewing of the #looksmaxxing trend suddenly seems quite tame compared to the demands of mogging, and anyone tempted to write this off as another daft online trend only needs to take a look at the state of teenage boys<\/a>\u2019 mental health. Globally, Gen A boys are starting to display similar levels to Gen A girls in terms of eating disorders diagnoses and mental health disorders connected to anxiety about how they look. <\/p>\n

\"ClavicularClavicular described Vice-President JD Vance (right) as \u2018subhuman\u2019 but not because of his politics or treatment of citizens, but because of his looks, while he spoke much more glowingly of Gavin Newsom (left) (Getty)<\/p>\n

A name that has started to come up in the discussions with boys about looks and vanity with the same kind of frequency and intensity Andrew Tate<\/a>\u2019s started to around 2021, is \u2018Clavicular\u2019 \u2013 real name, Braden Peters, a \u201clooksmaxxing influencer\u201d with a huge and growing Gen A boy following. Peters or \u2018Clavicular\u2019 is evangelical in his belief that a young man\u2019s highest priority is to be hot, hot, hot \u2013 or mog.<\/p>\n

In order to achieve maximum mog, Clavicular has whacked himself in the face with a hammer, and reportedly even tried crystal meth to control his appetite and remain ripped, and views the world with a flat sort of beauty-nihilism, where the beautiful matter and those who aren\u2019t can just go and die in mog-less misery. <\/p>\n

In December 2025, Clavicular summarised his worldview and even managed to shock the often bleak The Daily Wire when he was asked to comment on the current state of American politics. Clavicular described Vice-President JD Vance as \u201csubhuman\u201d but not because of his politics or treatment of citizens, but because of his looks. He criticised Vance for having \u201ca recessed side profile\u201d and \u201cbeing obese\u201d, going on to question \u201cHow are you fat and expected to lead a country?\u201d <\/p>\n

\"TheThe global obsession with looks and beauty, now as rife in young men as young women, is symptomatic of something dark and lost in younger generations (Getty\/iStock)<\/p>\n

He spoke much more glowingly of Gavin Newsom<\/a>, the person lots of people view as the current Democrat frontrunner for the 2028 Presidential election. Clavicular described Newsom as a \u201c6\u20193 handsome Chad\u201d and assured the gobsmacked Michael Knowles he would \u201ctotally\u201d vote for Newsom because \u201che totally mogs Vance\u201d. This is despite Clavicular also believing Newsom is a \u201cdegenerate\u201d and \u201cliar\u201d. In this world, being tall and handsome wipes out any other transgressions or shortcomings (provided you\u2019re not actually short, of course.)<\/p>\n

At this point, women around the world might be feeling a slight inkling of justice. After all, girls and women have been subjected to similar beauty standards and cruel assessments of their looks for centuries. But this is no win for equality nor a balancing of the scales. The global obsession with looks and beauty, now as rife in young men<\/a> as young women, is symptomatic of something dark and lost in younger generations. <\/p>\n

Beauty \u2013 including male beauty \u2013 is seen less as a win and more as a kind of modern absolution. There is a widely held and not unsubstantiated belief in Generation A and Z that beauty is not only a ticket to wealth, fame and popularity, but also something that can save you from the grind of modern life that only \u2018normies\u2019 should have to submit to. For the average looking, there are jobs, bills, boring relationships and family cars. For the beautiful or those that mog, there are followers, lucrative brand deals, CyberTrucks (because of course Clavicular drives one) and sex on tap if and when you deign to bother with the opposite sex. <\/p>\n

\"WeWe failed to spot how bad things were for boys and this enabled the worst messages and messengers of the manosphere to take hold (Getty\/iStock)<\/p>\n

The problem is it is distorting for a generation what happiness and success is. I have spoken to thousands of Gen As who view what would have once been considered elite, totally aspirational jobs like surgeon, architect, writer or spy as \u2018failures\u2019 \u2013 something you do if you\u2019ve failed to become a content creator or CEO of something vague, usually funded by crypto. If a little bone crunching is required so you can commandeer a CyberTruck and tell your millions of followers to vote for the guys who mogs \u2013 so be it. <\/p>\n

We failed to spot how bad things were for boys, and this enabled the worst messages and messengers of the manosphere to take hold, and their influence remains more powerful than ever. Not to spot that this growing obsession with obsessive beauty signals something rotten is a mistake. Teenagers have always worried about their looks; those years are a perfect storm of hormonal anxiety and a brand-new biological impetus to attract a mate by standing out from the pack. But technological shifts and a new guard of influencers are pushing Gen A through the looking glass of normality and reality, and we\u2019ve arrived in a place Gattaca once imagined as a kind of warning. Human beauty is no longer enough; young people are hammered with AI depictions of beauty that simply aren\u2019t achievable, so they are encouraged to seek them by any means necessary. <\/p>\n

Influencers are no longer telling kids to work out, eat clean and apply makeup but treat their looks as a new kind of religion, where everything else \u2013 intelligence, kindness, bravery, values \u2013 simply can take a number in the pursuit of mogging or maxxing hotness.<\/p>\n

\"TheThe driving forces behind the mogging craze also brings to mind another famous Greek myth. Narcissus (Getty\/iStock)<\/p>\n

Lawrence, 17, who attends a mixed boarding school, has noticed lots of his peers being pulled into this obsession: \u201cMy brother, who\u2019s only 23, is training to be a teacher at my school and is an assistant housemaster to the equivalent of Year 9 boys. He cannot believe how obsessed they are with their looks and the amount of time they spend on making themselves looking good, working out, talking about their looks and all the products they have. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s even worse in the Sixth Form. I didn\u2019t use to care that much about how I looked, other than being fit, but you get pulled into it. I spend a lot more time thinking about and worrying about how good-looking I am, more than I ever have in my life. And yes, I follow Clavicular. He\u2019s sort of awful but also so good-looking.\u201d <\/p>\n

In the book, The Adonis Complex: The Secret Crisis of Male Body Obsession, by researchers Harrison Pope, Katharine Phillips, and Roberto Olivardia, the complex is described as \u201ccausing sufferers to believe they are never enough no matter how others see them.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"InfluencerInfluencer Andrew Tate in Las Vegas, 2025. (Photo by Ian Maule\/Getty Images) (Getty)<\/p>\n

Talking to young men, this is evident everywhere, but the driving forces behind the mogging craze also brings to mind another famous Greek myth. Narcissus, the handsome hunter was so enamoured by his reflection he drowned in a pool of water. <\/p>\n

Likewise, young people have been staring so long into their phones at AI-images of beauty and videos of people with insane views on looks and beauty, they are also starting to drown. It\u2019s time to pull them back into the real world, where how you look still does matter, but we care about other things, people, places, ideas and the relationships you make along the way more than how much you mog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In 1997, the sci-fi noir film, Gattaca, starring Ethan Hawke, Uma Thurman and Jude Law, was released. Though…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":393223,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[163,85,46,522,523],"class_list":["post-393222","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mental-health","tag-health","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-mental-health","tag-mentalhealth"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393222","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393222"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393222\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393223"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393222"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393222"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393222"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}