Summary
Beauty is not in the eye of the beholder, but rather in the eyes of 500 sl*ts who hold all society’s power and privileges. At least, according to incels. In this episode, Hannah and Maia revisit the loneliest, angriest corners of the internet to explore “looksmaxxing” - a hot wheels-style rebrand of the “glow up”, replete with internet jargon and pseudo-science and a brand new name to make it palatable for men. Birthed deep in the forums of PUAhate, Sluthate, and 4chan, looksmaxxing began as a way for incels to optimize their looks and ascend their social status. But now, it’s everywhere. The looksmax subreddit is rife with people of all genders commenting stuff like “you’re beautiful love <3” and naturally occurring TikTok Chads making a living as “looksmaxxing influencers”. What the hell happened here, and why? Tangents include: Maia seeing Addison Rae on the street, and Hannah and Maia being really annoying during DND.
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SOURCES:
Joseph Bernstein, “Young Men Seek Answers to an Age-Old Question: How to Be Hot,” The New York Times (2023).
Megan Day, “How Manosphere Content Placates Disenfranchised Men,” Jacobin (2025).
Riley Farrell, Inside looksmaxxing, the extreme cosmetic social media trend,” BBC (2024).
Sarah Held, “incels://cheeks/jaws: On fragile masculinity, fatal body ideals, homophobic homoeroticism and National Socialist aesthetics revisited,” Fashion, Style & Popular Culture, vol. 10 (2022).
Alice Hines, “How Many Bones Would You Break to Get Laid? “Incels” are going under the knife to reshape their faces, and their dating prospects,” The Cut (2019).
John Mercer and Clarissa Smith, “Aspirational Bodies: Health, Fitness and the Body Project,” in Sexualised Masculinity: Men’s Bodies in 21st Century Media Culture, Taylor & Francis (2025).
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Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Breaking news. |
| 0:01.9 | Hannah, this is for you too. |
| 0:04.0 | Oh, yes. |
| 0:05.0 | I'm on the tip of my toes. |
| 0:08.2 | No. |
| 0:09.2 | Edge of my seat. |
| 0:10.8 | Recently, my friends were visiting from Toronto, and we were walking around to the |
| 0:16.6 | Lower East Side and walked, stumbled around into Dime Square. I was like showing them this restaurant. I wanted to show them. And we walked past this girl. She's dressed in like really bright colors, whatever, whatever. And I was like, wow, she looks really cool. Like, the girl's so beautiful. Like in my head. I was like, wow, this girl looks so good. We walked by and then we get to the bottom of the block and my friend Shanat is like, wait, was that Addison Ray? |
| 0:37.9 | And I was like, wow, this girl looks so good. We walked by, and then we get to the bottom of the block, and my friend, |
| 0:40.6 | Shanat, is like, wait, was that Addison Ray? |
| 0:42.9 | And I was like, girl, no, calm down. |
| 0:55.6 | It's not Addison Ray. Don't be weird. Just like, girls look like that. They dress like that. She was like, no, I really think it is. So then she and my friend Claire circled back around, and I kind of like trailed behind them because I get really stress in these situations. But they circle back around and went up the block again. And I like peeked over and |
| 1:01.9 | lo and behold, Shanat is like talking to this girl and her friend. And she basically went up to her |
| 1:07.9 | and was like, hey, do you ever get that you look like |
| 1:10.8 | Addison Ray? |
| 1:11.8 | Shanon is the bravest person on earth. All I want to say is this, because that is crazy. She's like, do you ever get that you look like Addison Ray? And then this girl kind of blushed. And then Shanat was like, wait, are you Addison Ray? And the girl was nodding, basically, and was like, yes, I am. I'm telling this story so badly. |
| 1:26.8 | She basically was Addison Ray. |
| 1:28.8 | She was just simply sitting on the curb with her... basically and was like, yes, I am. I'm telling this story so badly. She basically was Addison Ray. |
| 1:28.7 | She was just simply sitting on the curb with her friend and just like going about her day. |
| 1:34.4 | I think she was drinking like a match or something. And she looked so cool. She had like weird kind |
| 1:39.5 | like stripy like leg warmers on, I want to say. And it's kind of like off the shoulder top. |
| 1:44.0 | And like this like really the shoulder top and like this |
... |
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