Beautiful Cruelty: Looksmaxing Masculinity as a Response to Neoliberal Capitalism
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Abstract
This article argues that the phenomenon of looksmaxing masculinity is part of a wider neoliberal trend of self-optimisation that is embedded within the marketplace technology of online exchange. Rather than approach this presentation of masculinity from the perspective of an abstract identity, this article unearths the technical milieu that is intrinsically connected to its expression. The looksmaxing phenomenon is approached through the lens of Gilles Deleuze’s control society and two of its crises: the danger of becoming stuck within the indefinite flows of data and the danger of ressentiment. This article demonstrates that looksmaxing is a response to the technical conditions of online exchange that function to trap users within unending content consumption that cancels out progress. Looksmaxing provides a pathway towards masculine ideals and bodily augmentation in an effort to restore this lost sense of progress. However, looksmaxing is a poisoned chalice that offers an illusory greener pasture of superiority, but in reality traps users within the sad passions, leaving them feeling inferior, jealous and hostile to one another. The article draws upon research conducted on looksmax.org in 2023 to show that the community is fragmented along the lines of individual projects of self-optimisation, but unified by a ressentiment that causes perpetual conflict between users.
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