looksmaxxing or looksminimizing

We all know that social media has fueled a trend known as looksmaxxing. This online movement encourages men and boys to live up to body-image and fashion standards through working out obsessively, spending on clothing, and even going so far as getting cosmetic surgery. It’s one more evidence of our culture’s obsession with finding our identity in outward appearance. In a strange effort to push back on looksmaxxing, a nineteen-year-old boy has gone onto tiktok and is posting videos under the name Trap Man and the hashtag looksminimizing. His videos show the results of working out only one trapezius muscle on his body, and nothing else, resulting in a massive left side and a more normal-sized right side. The pushback on looksmaxxing is needed. Perhaps the best way for us to do this is to remind our kids that while the culture tells us to place value on their outside, God looks on and desires the developments of our inside spiritual lives.