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Over the past year, it’s likely that many of you have been tormented with repeated references to the fabled name “Clavicular.” The 20 year old American streamer has certainly been making his rounds recently through his growing presence on Kick and Twitch, two live streaming platforms. Clavicular, or Braden Peters, became popular due to his role in popularizing the ‘looksmaxxing’ trend, in which people, typically white males, fixate on becoming as attractive as possible. In my opinion, however, this publicity and rise to fame is not only a tragedy, but also a risk to the already gullible and vulnerable youth.

What is Looksmaxxing?

On the surface, looksmaxxing is a tame process and subculture of making changes to one’s lifestyle like frequent exercise or proper dieting in order to look as physically attractive as possible. However, this is not the entirety of the community. Indeed, influencer proponents of looksmaxxing occasionally worship dangerous methods like ‘bone smashing,’ in which people LITERALLY hit their mandible bone with a hammer, starving themselves to lose as much fat as possible to appear more vascular, or even taking hard drugs to enhance their looks. These methods might be extreme, but they are certainly way too popular and well known online, which may have dangerous implications for a newer generation of social media users.

Here in this video we can see Clavicular performing the ‘bone smashing’ technique, followed by an expert explaining the long-term risks of doing so. While this is an extreme of the looksmaxxing subculture, often labeled as ‘hardmaxxing,’ it has become popular and widespread online as shown. The innocent nature of trying to better oneself and become their best possible version is perfectly fine, but the popular, more attention grabbing aspects of looksmaxxing, like these extreme methods, have seemed to become the face of the subculture.

Clavicular’s Role

Clavicular’s entire personality is shaped around ‘mogging’ other men, which essentially means outclassing another’s attractiveness. This can be seen through videos of him comparing himself to his fans, picking on people who are clearly less conventionally attractive. It’s clear that through watching him buckle when confronted with more attractive men and recognizing his harsh, demotivating words when it comes to rating his fans, Clavicular is an insecure narcissist who exploits his radical values regarding physical appearance for publicity.

I truly believe that Clavicular is a tragic character who, from the ripe age of 14, has never felt comfortable with how he looked and decided to take drastic measures in order to morph himself into his own twisted form of pure masculinity. Unfortunately, Clavicular has turned his radical ideas, which stem from his insecurity, into fame, endangering Gen Z and Gen Alpha.

Over the past year or so, I have seen and even interacted with (liking, sharing) countless ‘looksmaxxing’ videos, in which entertaining videos compare ordinary people who may not be conventionally attractive to ‘looksmaxxers’ who clearly dedicate a portion of their lives to advancing their physical appearance. Paired with edited videos with flashy transitions and pop music, one’s attractiveness is essentially gamified, with those who don’t fit influencers like Clavicular’s standards being shamed. Below are two ‘edits’ which demonstrate this seemingly harmless comparison being used as entertainment online.

As videos like these are spread online, the picture perfect male physique and appearance start to seem like the norm, which can make adolescents feel like they are falling behind. This is the true tragedy behind the extremes of looksmaxxing, as what began at the surface as a beneficial mindset to improving oneself turned into an unrealistic standard, which may lead some to feel inferior than others. In a way, Clavicular is almost declining social progress, as people are not being encouraged to accept themselves and be happy, but instead the opposite, to pursue these unrealistic standards which are likely the result of countless hours of dedication and maybe even cosmetic operations. By making the extremes of looksmaxxing mainstream and normalized, the vulnerable youth suffers greatly in the self esteem department, leading them to worry about things that they shouldn’t have to at their age. At the end of the day, teens already have enough to worry about in their lives, like school, relationships, and even nutrition, so adding anxiety from feeling like their appearance is inferior to others would complicate their lives beyond belief. Additionally, teens often don’t gain the ability to respect themselves until later in their lives when they are developed enough to think for themselves, so seeing these extreme methods online may cause them to try it out for themselves, thinking it might be the only option to change their social lives, which could cause irreversible physical damage.

In conclusion, I feel Clavicular suffers from a lack of self acceptance. It is evident that he masks his true personality in order to comply with the extreme societal and physical standards he has helped to publicize. If influencers like Clavicular can begin to focus on the positive aspects of looksmaxxing, like the small things people can do daily to enhance their lives, inducing their physical appearance, I think that the culture could become less problematic and instead convert into a positive movement, rather than what it has become today.