Looksmaxxing.

Lacole Yang

Looksmaxxing. The sharp-jawed, positive-canthal-tilt pathway that leads out of the hellish pits of inceldom and heads at least a few miles in the direction of being sigmapilled before taking a sharp turn back to its origin. Essentially, looksmaxxing is the practice of improving one’s physical appearance to its maximum potential. The trend started from appearance-focused forums and spread to 4chan and Reddit, and it is now spilling over to TikTok. From skincare to bodybuilding, there are many facets to achieving such optimal levels of attractiveness, but the most prolific method by far is defining one’s jawline.

This is called mewing, and Samuel You (CW ‘24), the mog master extraordinaire, explained that this is beneficial because “a more pronounced jawline makes you look more intimidating or more attractive.” Epic mewer Kyle Siu (CW ‘25) explained that the ideal mewing posture is putting your “tongue to the roof [of your mouth] and sucking in your dimples.” The tongue’s alignment to the top of the mouth is crucial to sideprofilemaxxing. It is difficult to speak while mewing correctly, but since the results are so undeniable and definitely scientifically sound, the wisdom of prioritizing mewing over clear communication is apparent.

To get further into the lookmax grindset, one can look into a mewing device, which is a ring or other object that a lookcel can “put in [their] mouth and it forces [them] to bite down and be constantly mewing. It actually really hurts,” explained You, advising against these devices. “They’re not really what they’re cracked up to be.”

“You mew so that you can mog,” said Jadon Han (CW ‘25). Mogging is defined as dominating someone by appearing fitter, more attractive and generally better than them. The weeks of positioning one’s tongue will finally pay off with the cathartic ability to showcase one’s superiority complex.

The most dedicated jawsigmas can try bonesmashing, which involves hitting one’s face with blunt objects or beating it against a wall, causing fractures that will allegedly grow back into a pleasing shape. “Apparently, you have to do it for months to see benefits. But I wouldn’t do it,” said You.

Above all, the key to successful looksmaxxing is being consistent and eventually freeing oneself from the ironic derision of society, which still holds itself captive by rules like “phrenology is outdated,” “no one is analyzing your jaw shape,” and “speaking solely in made-up compound words does not improve ease of communication.” To that end, enlightened looksmaxxers should engrave You’s words into their upgraded skull: “It’s a mindset thing. It starts out like a joke, and then you start doing it not as a joke, and then you wake up and look in the mirror every single day and you start checking out how your jawline has improved. So it’s really once you stop treating it as a trend,” that you can seize victory in your journey to looksmax.