-How AI is shaping modern aesthetics
Gen Z grew up with the internet dictating beauty standards. From Kylie Jenner lip kits to the Sephora kids epidemic, viral hacks to attain beauty ideals are an integral part of how this generation decides what is attractive. Mostly led by brands and celebrities, these trends rely on the commodification of the female body to launch product after product, aiming to convince women that their cosmetics are essential to their being.
Whilst this is overtly pumped onto Instagram feeds and billboards, inescapable on commutes to work and has been for years, a new phenomenon found its ground on online forums. The looksmaxxing discourse - fuelled by the existence of AI has been deemed inevitable by some, highlighting the fact that AI is becoming too fit a frontrunner in the race to dictate the next generation’s perception of beauty.
For anyone not involved in the scary realms of the manosphere, looksmaxxing is defined by scales of attractiveness that measure bone structure, body composition and fat percentage, grooming and style. Side stepping the typical language used around beauty that circulates the toxic beauty industry we have known for years, the looksmaxxing communities revel in hyper-masculine words that appeal to young men and incels. Attractive men are ‘Chads’ and those who do not follow the looksmaxxing regimes are ‘Normies’. And how exactly do they work to measure their attractiveness? AI.
Websites for AI face rating and looksmaxxing analysis require photo uploads from every angle of your face and body. It then measures against the looksmaxxing PSL scale to determine a ranking out of 10. Of course, there are nefarious forces at force here, namely men profiting from training courses filled with tips on how to reach Chad levels of attractiveness. These largely encourage surgeries and taking hormones, a large and uncomfortable shift for many who are used to the covert methods the beauty industry uses. Whilst legacy cosmetic brands favour influencers in their bedrooms applying face serum to remove their skin texture whilst pretending their flawless skin is not a result of many courses of dermal filler and Botox, instead, looksmaxxing influencers lay bare these surgical steps whilst charging aspiring Chads fees for their courses; in their eyes, all they have to do is morph their face into the exact desired patterns and they will mog all the normies.
Since AI first launched there has been pushback from all communities with concerns centering on biases and warped data sets that create prejudiced responses to prompts. AI companies have made efforts to dispel these major issues, but the looksmaxxing trends have been criticised for ‘eugenic beauty standards’, fuelling the platforms of influencers such as Clavicular who have openly repeated racist language across social media.
Since the release of Louis Theroux’s ‘Inside the Manosphere’, the internet has been up in flames about the dangers of incel subcultures, but less has been said about how AI platforms form the foundation of their community values. Theoretically the appeal of AI determining levels of attractiveness is that it doesn’t perceive beauty in the same way as humans, rather it uses patterns and facial mapping to measure exact proportions against its scale. However when you search how the algorithms defining the looksmaxxing scale were created, the results suggest that they are reliant on preexisting rankings.
We know that any AI generated content is damaging the environment, but recent research has shown the formation of ‘heat islands’ in the areas near data centres. Whilst generating a single image using AI is not hugely significant to an individual's carbon footprint, the danger lies in AI’s potential to become a major player in the multi-billion dollar beauty industry. The banning of Grok AI in many countries is reassuring, and governments might be capable of reducing the damage through legislation. But, when facing off against these behemoth beauty and AI corporations, there seems to be little that can truly be done. For after all, don’t we all want to be beautiful?