looksmaxx

• looksmax

From looks +‎ -maxx.

• IPA^(key): /ˈlʊksmæks/

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looksmaxx (third-person singular simple present looksmaxxes, present participle looksmaxxing, simple past and past participle looksmaxxed)

1. (transitive, intransitive, slang, originally incel slang) To seek to enhance one's physical appearance to increase one's sexual market value.
   • 2018 May 15, Jia Tolentino, “The Rage of the Incels”, in The New Yorker‎^[1], archived from the original on 29 August 2018:

     Incel culture advises men to “looksmaxx” or “statusmaxx”—to improve their appearance, to make more money—in a way that presumes that women are not potential partners or worthy objects of possible affection but inconveniently sentient bodies that must be claimed through cold strategy.

   • 2020, Annie Jones, “Incels and the Manosphere: Tracking Men's Movements Online”, in University of Central Florida‎^[2], archived from the original on 9 December 2022, page 48:

     Some attempt to “looksmaxx” with money by finding methods of increasing their sexual market value like getting plastic surgery.

   • 2020, Angus Charles Lindsay, "Swallowing the Black Pill: A Qualitative Exploration of Incel Antifeminism within Digital Society", thesis submitted to Victoria University of Wellington, page 79:

     This can be achieved through one of two ways: by ‘looksmaxxing’ or improving one’s physical characteristics in order to become more attractive (Chapter Four) or through the ‘just be white’ (JBW) theory.

   • 2024 February 15, Simon Usborne, “From bone smashing to chin extensions: how ‘looksmaxxing’ is reshaping young men’s faces”, in The Guardian‎^[3], archived from the original on 23 August 2024:

     It’s not clear how far mainstream looksmaxxing has moved away from its roots in online “incel” (involuntarily celibate) communities.

   • 2025 October 11, Nitsuh Abebe, “The Suffix That Tells Us to Ruthlessly Optimize Everything”, in The New York Times Magazine‎^[4], New York, N.Y.: The New York Times Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 12 October 2025:

     Years ago, a former incel posted on Reddit to argue that despite their origins, these strategies made sense; he personally had “looksmaxxed by optimizing my wardrobe, personalitymaxxed by cultivating determination, honesty, empathy and willpower” and “lowinhibmaxxed by acting more on impulse.”

   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:looksmaxx.