Injections, Bone Hammering and the Pursuit of Peak Male Beauty

注射、骨锤术与巅峰男性美的追求

The Daily

2026-03-22

37 分钟
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If you’ve spent any time on social media recently, you’ve probably come across a video of a young, square-jawed influencer calling himself Clavicular. He has become the face of an internet subculture called looksmaxxing, in which men do almost anything — like taking steroids and hormones or bashing their jaws with a hammer — to try to become more handsome. In this episode, Natalie Kitroeff talks with reporter Joseph Bernstein about the world of looksmaxxing and how what might seem like a fringe phenomenon is actually the culmination of a digital culture that rewards physical perfection with status and algorithmic power. On Today’s Episode Joseph Bernstein covers digital subcultures for the Styles desk at The New York Times. Background Reading Handsome at Any Cost Young Men Seek Answers to an Age-Old Question: How to Be Hot The Suffix That Tells Us to Ruthlessly Optimize Everything Photo Credit: Cassidy Araiza for The New York Times Subscribe today at nytimes.com/podcasts or on Apple Podcasts and Spotify. You can also subscribe via your favorite podcast app here https://www.nytimes.com/activate-access/audio?source=podcatcher. For more podcasts and narrated articles, download The New York Times app at nytimes.com/app. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.
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  • From The New York Times, I'm Natalie Kittrowev.

  • This is The Sunday Daily.

  • There's a corner of the internet where young men spend hours raiding each other's bodies.

  • They evaluate the length of their midfaces and the distance between their pupils.

  • They take testosterone and inject fat-dissolving compounds into their jaws.

  • They hit themselves in the cheekbones with hammers.

  • They call what they do looks-maxing, and their community, which started as a subculture, is now bursting into the mainstream.

  • Their particular way of speaking popped up at last week's Oscars and has been used by the Pentagon.

  • They even made it to Saturday Night Live.

  • No offense, but you're sitting there gesture-gooning like a subhuman beta-cuck.

  • Meanwhile, I'm out here aura-maxing like an S-tier giga-chat.

  • The rise of this movement has a lot to do with the ascendance of its biggest star,