From the mid-20th century to the present day, the pressures surrounding the satisfaction of the infamous “beauty standards” only increase.
These cruel social impositions literally promote segregation between people considered “beautiful” and those considered “ugly”.
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Far from being something difficult to overcome, this toxic tendency seems to be part of today's culture, causing men and women, especially younger ones, to suffer because of their appearance.
In this sense, a controversial movement known as looksmaxxing has emerged, which encourages boys and men in transition to maturity to seek a “perfect” appearance.
Recently, an anonymous man decided to enter the universe of looksmaxxing and softmaxxing, its “softer” version, only to discover the dark side of this trend.
(Image: Racool_studio/Freepik/reproduction)
As mentioned above, looksmaxxing is a subculture that encourages the practice of various techniques that promote improvements in a man's appearance.
Some of the main points of this concept are:
Cut hair and beard according to the shape of the face;
Promote facial and dental harmonization;
Worrying exhaustively about daily “looks”;
Practice skin care daily;
Become a fan of bodybuilding and other physical activities;
Be careful with the smells your body gives off;
Polish speech and posture, remaining appropriate to each situation.
At first glance, the basic content of the looksmaxxing theory is beneficial. However, great dangers lurk in the practice of these theories, which tend to obsess.
Softmaxxing: a middle ground
In the same vein as looksmaxxing there is softmaxxing, which as its name suggests is a “soft” or “mild” version of the first concept.
Supporters of this second option are men equally focused on their physical appearance, but who “take it easier” with their bodies.
In search of answers about looksmaxxing, an unidentified 24-year-old man went to the Reddit forum to search for comments from practitioners of this concept.
At first glance, the boy found a series of men, boys and even teenagers who appeared proud and totally focused on becoming a “man of high value”. So far, so good.
However, the researcher decided to go deeper into softmaxxing, leaving “looks” aside, and continued to describe his experience.
As the man reported to the Business Insider website, a few months in this world of looksmaxxing were enough for him to realize how disturbing this concept can be.
He claims to have collected comments from boys who chewed for 16 hours straight to stimulate their jaw muscles to grow, in order to have a “square” jaw.
Other boys were inclined to spend everything they had on aesthetic procedures, while others abandoned their normal lives just to take care of their appearance and ask for “notes” from their followers, who were induced to evaluate their faces.
Finally, the investigator reports that he witnessed several cases of men feeling discouraged and sad because they were unable to maintain the appearance they wanted, showing various signs of emotional problems.
The experiment that this anonymous person did on Reddit is indisputable proof that no extreme is safe.
With regard to the subculture of looksmaxxing, or softmaxxing, it is worth highlighting the importance of self-care and valuing self-image. On the other hand, it is important to emphasize that physical appearance does not define anyone.
Therefore, seeking social validation to the detriment of one's own mental health and even physical health may not be a worthy fate for anyone.
In any case, the ideal is to always maintain a balance between taking care of yourself and accepting yourself with due respect, while maintaining, at the same time, respect for others.
Graduated in History and Human Resources Technology. Passionate about writing, today he lives the dream of working professionally as a Web Content Writer, writing articles in several different niches and formats.
