By Riley Dalton, Special to the Journal
Trigger warning: mentions Body Dysmorphic Disorder, self-harm, and depression. This article is for general informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional counseling or crisis support. If you are experiencing a personal crisis, emotional distress, or feel you may need counseling, please reach out to the Pellissippi State Counseling Services at counseling@pstcc.edu or call 865.694.6480 for support. If you are in immediate crisis, please call the Suicide & Crisis Lifeline at 988 to connect with help right away. Additionally, if you are in an unsafe situation, please call the Pellissippi State Campus Police at 865.694.6649, available 24/7. As a reminder, campus police encourage students to add this number to phone contacts in the case of an emergency. You can also text “PSCCTIPS” to 67283 for an Anonymous Safety Tip.
Recently, social media has been fielding the question: Should women choose the man or the bear? While these discussions are often made in jest, they highlight a very real problem among young men in the United States related to male violence, male beauty standards, and the female gaze.
What makes a man a man? What makes a man attractive to a potential mate? All of these questions are under consideration, but we cannot talk about them without talking about the underlying struggles of young men, most notably body dysmorphia.
Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) is a difficult-to-treat illness that a lot of people deal with, usually in secret. According to the National Health Service (NHS), “Body dysmorphia is a mental health condition where a person spends a lot of time focusing on their flaws in their appearance.”
According to Alexa Lee, a lifestyle expert, 0.7-2.4 percent of the general population in America has body dysmorphia, and within that statistic, men account for 40 percent of sufferers. Lee writes that “Research shows that the U.S. is experiencing an unprecedented rise in body dysmorphic disorder among young people across all genders, a trend fueled in part by increasingly stringent beauty standards proliferating across social media.”
I developed BDD around the age of 13 or 14, and I still suffer from BDD. I am currently getting help for BDD, but sadly, BDD is not my only diagnosis. I also suffer from depression, which is common among people who suffer from BDD. I continue to suffer from depression and BDD, but I am working on it and continue to push through the pain.
According to an article in the American Journal of Psychiatry, approximately 80 percent of individuals with Body Dysmorphic Disorder (BDD) have experienced lifetime suicidal ideation and 24-25 percent have attempted suicide.
Looksmaxxing, a trend destroying young men’s mental health and self-image, arises out of BDD, and it is causing irreparable damage while men, who call themselves “alpha males,” push looksmaxxing to the masses on the Internet.
Defined by the Merriam-Webster Dictionary as “efforts sometimes extreme for young men to look more attractive,” looksmaxxing comes from the online “manosphere,” where men share ideas and ways to look better to attract women.
The manosphere is linked with involuntary celibate men, more commonly known as incels. The shared idea in all forms and subcultures of incel is the idea that women are only attracted to how a man looks, not his personality, job status, money, or any of the traditional markers of success.
As someone who has suffered from body dysmorphia since I was a child, I find it sickening how many influential people are promoting anabolic steroids, abusing drugs such as Adderall and Concerta, face smashing, and promoting other self-harm to “look better.”
Face smashing is when a person, usually a man, breaks certain bones in their face (e.g., cheekbones, the facial cartilage, and the nose). The term “look better” to looksmaxxing men means to have a chiseled jaw and huge muscles while ignoring the feelings and personality that make someone human.
According to Shaween Amin, a sports and exercise psychologist, “Research has found that the association between social media use and body dysmorphic symptoms is specific to image-based platforms such as Instagram and TikTok, rather than text-based ones.”
A lot of young men use Instagram and TikTok to text friends or simply for entertainment. But the algorithm will sometimes spit out videos of the “ideal” body shape, causing men to desire that body shape, sometimes leading to self-harm or plastic surgery.
Incels believe in a male-dominated society and that men are the ones being oppressed by women. Incels look up to fictional characters such as Patrick Bateman, the main character from American Psycho, a successful man who is dominant in social situations. But they also idolize real people like Andrew Tate, a podcaster whose views and beliefs have received a lot of attention for being extremely misogynistic. Incels look up to men like that because they are attractive, sexually successful, confident, and dominant in social situations. A common incel trope is that they are not sexually successful and do not have “game” compared to the typical “alpha male.” The so-called “game” in this instance means someone who can woo women with words and charisma.
How Can This Be Harmful?
Why is this cultural movement harmful to young men and women? Should we be concerned about looksmaxxing and incel culture?
Incel culture can cause young men who do not have their brains fully developed to start being aggressive towards women, such as the case of Tres Genco, a Cincinnati native who attempted to conduct a mass shooting of women and who describes himself as an incel. He only received 80 months in jail, just over six years.
As someone who can be deemed “chronically online”, I have seen countless memes of Patrick Bateman and “Chad” on local social media accounts. A lot of the current incel activity has been inspired by Internet trends and memes such as Ernest Khalimov or the GigaChad.
The GigaChad meme is a black-and-white picture of Ernest looking off to the side and smiling. According to Dude Wipes blog, “The hyper-masculine guy from the GigaChad meme isn’t a real person. He’s a digitally altered version of a Russian fitness model created by an artist named Krista Sudmalis.”
Recently, looksmaxxing influencer Clavicular, whose real name is Braden Eric Peters, was interviewed by Adam Hegarty from 60 Minutes. The interview served as a reminder that young men are experiencing body dysmorphia en masse.
As of September 22, Clavicular was arrested for rape, giving alcohol to a minor, and drugging for sexual intercourse. According to NBC, an influencer named Alorah Ziva alleged in May of 2025 that Clavicular called her an Uber to the Cape Cod house. He then got her extremely drunk, streamed on Twitch, then raped her. His mom and grandmother were allegedly in the house at the time.
More importantly, young men who enter incel culture are at risk for self-harm and perpetrating violence against others. Swansea University researchers and the University of Texas surveyed 561 self-proclaimed incels across the United Kingdom and the United States. 38 percent of incels have had suicidal thoughts, and 48 percent suffer from loneliness.
According to the Tennessee Suicide Prevention Annual Report, men are more than 3.8 times more likely to commit suicide than women. Sullivan County has the highest rate of suicide in Tennessee at 27.1. Knoxville has a suicide rate of 15.2. From 2019-2023, there was a 47 percent increase in youth suicides (ages ranging from 10-17).
These statistics show the difficulty of how men are impacted by BDD, looksmaxxing, incel culture, and the idea behind the “alpha-male.” Through these, men are made to believe the only attribute they should focus on is their appearance, disregarding actual traits which could make them more likely to find a partner.
These statistics show the difficulty of how men are impacted by BDD, looksmaxxing, incel culture, and the idea behind the “alpha-male.” Through these, men are made to believe the only attribute they should focus on is their appearance, disregarding actual traits which could make them more likely to find a partner.
At Pellissippi State Community College and in the Knoxville area, young men interested in looksmaxxing often find like-minded individuals at high-end barber shops or skincare salons, gyms, and online communities.
If someone you know is suffering, or if you are suffering in silence, please reach out to someone, anyone. At Pellissippi State, we have counselors you can reach out and talk to about your BDD or self-harm urges. Having these feelings does not mean you are “weak” or “selfish.” You can also talk to the suicide hotline at 988.
