Welcome to Mogwarts: The Language of Looksmaxxing

Welcome to Mogwarts: The Language of Looksmaxxing

Kayleigh Reimueller

Over the past few years, as social media dominates our world, the manosphere and incel communities have had a strong presence within the linguistic and anthropological fields of research due to the unique language and communicative practices used among members. Within the manosphere, the looksmaxxing subcommunity has recently reached peak popularity on social media sites. Looksmaxxing is a broad term that describes the process of bettering oneself, typically physical appearance, to maximize one’s potential and appear more desirable to others. How does the looksmaxxers’ community-specific language contribute to forming a distinct subculture and how do looksmaxxing community members use this language to negotiate their identities? Why is it important for outside audiences to understand this language and its function? Drawing on past scholarly data on the manosphere and the looksmaxxing community as well as primary data from social media sites like TikTok and YouTube and looksmaxxing-specific open forum sites, this paper seeks to answer these questions. The language created within the looksmaxxing community allows for exclusivity to be felt among the members where individuals can bond and commiserate with others who feel ostracized by the majority of society. By analyzing and recognizing this language and its function as an outsider, one can better understand groups in the manosphere and how previously undefined or misunderstood words can mean something much different to insiders of a community.