How ‘looksmaxxing’ self-improvement apps are marketing misogyny to young men

Looksmaxxing and Misogynistic Ideology: The looksmaxxing trend on TikTok, originating from incel forums, is promoting toxic masculinity and misogynistic views by rating physical attractiveness and suggesting ways to “optimize” appearance.
Mainstream Toxic Masculinity: The popularity of looksmaxxing tools on TikTok has helped spread a harmful worldview rooted in incel ideology, reducing people’s self-worth to numerical scores.
App Economy and Monetization of Insecurities: More than a dozen smartphone apps utilize AI to rate faces based on arcane metrics, offering personalized assessments and promoting fitness and dietary advice, often behind a paywall, as part of a monetization scheme.
Quantification, Gamification, and Reframing: These apps employ quantification by rating faces numerically, gamification through rank hierarchies mirroring incel terminology, and reframing to offer a seemingly positive framework for self-improvement while promoting incel beliefs.
Potential for Radicalization: Despite providing a seemingly positive approach, these apps propagate underlying violent incel ideologies, potentially funneling individuals into extremist worldviews, sometimes even involving incel mass murderer references.
Vulnerability Exploitation: By targeting individuals struggling with self-confidence, looksmaxxing apps risk radicalizing them into adopting harmful and violent ideologies, functioning as a means for disseminating extreme incel viewpoints.