What 'looksmaxxing' actually means

How the context of language helps us perceive the world. (Issue #420)  
  
## What ‘looksmaxxing’ actually means

#### How the context of language helps us perceive the world. (Issue #420)

By The Medium Blog ∙ March 20, 2026 ∙ 5 min read ∙ View on MediumIf you’ve been slangmogged by new, confusing words on the internet lately, you can thank streamer Braden Peters (also known as Clavicular) and the greater “looksmaxxing” community. Looksmaxxers are internet personalities that use pseudo-scientific body modification techniques to achieve body perfection over their rivals, like hammering their jawlines. Their videos comparing their looks are extremely popular on TikTok and Instagram, and their unique slang, identifiable with suffixes like “-maxxing” and “-mogging” have seemingly taken over other sites like X.The suffixes have specific meanings for an insular livestream-first community — “Maxxing” means to go hard; “mogging” is to outperform someone else. But the spread of this seemingly silly slang speaks volumes.In this issue, let’s discuss how language affects how we interact with the world.

### A lesson in languagemaxxing

In _A Media Literacy Guide to Looksmaxxing_, digital culture expert Jamie Cohen critiques a recent _New York Time_ s article featuring Peters and the slang for placing the subculture outside of its original context. To outsiders, Peters came from nowhere; as Cohen says, the neologisms come from incel communities. The language — which is fun to say and funny to read! — is coated in the values and ideals of a community that resents women.The words we use are the frame for how we think. The 2016 film _Arrival_ follows linguists trying to establish communication with an alien species. When one set of linguists uses mahjong as their primary communication tool, the zero-sum framing of the game nearly sets off an interstellar war. Winston in _1984_ translates English-language documents into simplified newspeak to remove even the idea of rebellion from the populace. In classic literature, Homer refers to the “wine-dark sea” in the _Odyssey_ because there was likely no word for the color ‘blue’ in ancient Greek.Cohen draws a direct line to today’s internet lingo. “The 2010s internet language was shaped by Tumblr feminism and AAVE slang,” he writes. “The emergence of the manosphere is reactionary to that moment and has become so influential, we too share in the linguistic treats it dishes out.”But while incels may dominate in 2026, much of its foundation is built on _queer_ culture. As TikTok user @werewolffbarmitzvah points out, much of what looksmaxxers do is “toxic muscle circuit party gay culture leaking out of containment, being transmitted to straight people.” Cohen playfully refers to Clavicular as Peters’ performative “drag persona.” Even the word “incel” — short for “involuntarily celibate” — was invented by an LGBTQ+ woman in the late 1990s as a way to organize people who struggled to form long-term relationships.Language may be a framework for thinking, but no word comes from nowhere. Understanding that is key to understanding our world.···“I have kept this secret long enough. My silence ends here.”— Dolores Huerta, A Statement from Dolores Huerta···

### A dialect, not a mistake

Our native dialects reflect where we came from, but what grammarians think it needs to be corrected? In _Deaf English: The Dialect That Doesn’t Exist_, Deaf writer Tobin Zolkowski argues that the way that he and ASL-native people write—Deaf English—is not incorrect but a valid dialect, like Scottish English or AAVE.Zolkowski explains ASL (American Sign Language) is not a direct translation of English; it’s a language in its own right with its own rules, construction, and norms. For example, in ASL grammar the topic comes first:

  * English: “ _I went to the store yesterday.”_
  * ASL: “ _The store, I went yesterday.”_

Even beyond that, Zolkowksi points out, other common ASLisms appear in Deaf English, like short, economic language and favoring concrete phrasing over abstract. A 2014 study found six distinctive markers of ASL-inflected English in Deaf adolescents’ English, including how they handle plurals, adjective placement, and general grammar construction.This is common in spoken dialects (such as “She is not for knowing” in Indian English). But for thousands of students, the quirks of Deaf English are corrected away; linguists don’t consider it a separate dialect at all. Now, this bias is being automated with A.I. tools like Grammarly. Deaf English is being ironed out for ‘correct’ English, Zolkowski argues, with no chance of appeal.The same story can be told around the world. While there are hundreds of sign languages with millions of speakers, only three have been actually studied as unique dialects.“Deaf English isn’t broken English,” Zolkowksi writes. “Deaf English is English working on a different engine — a visual-spatial engine. Where hearing authors have an auditory one.”···“The internet makes it easier for people with sparsely distributed traits to locate one another, which is why the internet era is characterized by the coherence of people with formerly fringe characteristics into organized blocs, for better (gender minorities, #MeToo) and worse (Nazis).”— Cory Doctorow, Three more AI psychoses···

### Beauty is in the eye of the speaker

Beauty in language is just as subjective. In Language Lab, William Sidnam, a New Zealander living in Paris, expressed shock at hearing his native accent was considered one of the sexiest in the world. In _What Makes a Language Sound Beautiful?__,_ he investigates the leading theories for why certain languages and accents seem more beautiful than others, including prestige, familiarity, and discrimination.The answer, of course, is context. Among English speakers, romance languages like French or Italian are considered some of the most beautiful in the world, but among native French speakers, it is considered banal. The more he immerses himself with native Parisians, the more ordinary the language becomes.“So maybe the question shouldn’t be ‘What makes a language sound beautiful?’,” he writes, “but rather ‘What do our preferences for the sounds of certain languages say about us?’”···“Would you wonder about me if I suddenly stopped writing? Or am I overimagining that my words matter in some small way?”—Yana Bostongirl , _Disappear For a Few Days and See Who Calls_ ··· _Deepen your understanding every week with the Medium Newsletter.__Sign up here_ _.__Edited and produced by_ _Scott Lamb_ _ & __Carly Rose Gillis_ _Like what you see in this newsletter but not already a Medium member? Read without limits or ads, fund great writers, and_ _join a community that believes in human storytelling_ _._

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