University of Arizona, USA,Both sides of the "Hunk Ranking Match"Brace yourselves.
One side strikes first, seen bulging with充血 (congestion), organs operating beyond capacity, momentarily turning his entire skin into steaming red-hot iron. The opponent is equally unyielding, activating shoulder deltoids along with pectoral muscles, ribs appearing one by one beneath the vest, as if a dragon is spreading its wings.
"Dragon Roar Melts Iron"—the ranking match outcome is decided.
The loser even had his hat ripped off, revealing his bald head, with his confidence shattered all over the ground.
The above is comparable toDragon Ball Z Namek Sagadeathmatch is the ongoing"Mog War."
It's not a wuxia novel, nor is it the hero ranking from "One Punch Man," but rather a competition to see who is handsomer and more like a hunk.
It's no joke; the Hunk Ranking really exists. The battle described above is the third-ranked versus the second-ranked"The Semi-Hunk King Decider Battle". Its point rules are similar to boxing rankings; both sides arrange a fight and then broadcast it live. The loser becomes the winner's stepping stone, relinquishing their rank.
The principle determining victory or defeat is similar to how silly and cute male creatures like to compare height, size, or who can pee farther. Even though the rules are not as rigorous as traditional sports, viewers can easily sense which side psychologically admits defeat and softens first based on posture, expressions, and tone of voice.
Therefore,The "Hunk Ranking Match" introduces a physiological concept called "cortisol." Excessive cortisol secretion, represents a person feeling embarrassed, constrained, and completely broken. Thus, videos and clips of the "Hunk Ranking Match" are edited into fighting compilations by overseas UP owners. The cortisol gauges of both sides act like character health bars; the loser's cortisol index maxes out, causing weak legs, while the winner maintains a low cortisol concentration, appearing effortless.
For example,The match before the "Semi-Hunk King Decider Battle": The third-ranked guy had his hat and wig ripped off by fans during a live stream, which can be said to have caused his cortisol levels to skyrocket,revealing his ugliness, and thendropping ranks rapidly on the "Hunk Ranking."
For example, before "Bald Bro had his wig ripped off": The brother originally ranked second at the University of Arizona was ambushed by the brother who is now ranked second. Caught off guard during the live stream, the original number two revealed his inferiority complex. Unable to compete in toughness or looks, he could only show an awkward expression as if constipated.
Like thisThe act of "breaking the opponent's defense with handsomeness" is called "Mog." And revolving around the "Hunk Ranking," men engage in you"Mog" me, I "Mog" you series of challenges are called the "Grand Mog Season."
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First, a big question:How do you compare "who is more of a hunk"?
Because there is no unified standard when we discuss male attractiveness. Some people find Leon handsome, others like Kratos's style. Takeshi Kaneshiro and Daniel Wu are undoubtedly benchmarks for good looks, but some also believe that Huang Bo and Ma Dong-seok have their own unique male charm.
But playingOpposite to this group playing "Mog," they presented a strict scoring system. The full name of the PSL scoring system isPickUPArtist Hate, SlutHate, Lookism—Translatecome overis"Anti-libertine anti-libertine lookism."
In this standard, skin color, eye spacing, teeth, mid-face proportion, eyebrow thickness,all have"correct answer." A strong and tall body is indispensable; being thin and short is considered a third-degree disability. Facial contours must be chiseled, with perfect jawline arcs and Araki lines on both sides being absolute top-tier....Surprisingly, drooping eye corners like those of Tom Cruise and Leonardo DiCaprio are considered flaws, whereas upward-slanting eye corners like those of Power Man and Yujiro Hanma are considered the eyes of top-tier handsome men.
It's not hard to notice that in Western internet memes, the"GigaChad" image,best fitsIn PSLdefinition of "handsome." If female readers cannot understand this aesthetic, they can refer to one of the highest-scoring actresses under the same rating system, "Harley Quinn" Margot Robbie.
InIn a recent podcast interview, "Clavicle Bro," who originally ranked second and now ranks fourth on the "Hunk Ranking," introduced their philosophy: "Beauty is an objective standard, almost like the Fibonacci sequence. It has nothing to do with personal charm; it is mathematics."
Clavicle Bro is very honest; they indeed treat"beauty" as a performance metric.
Because this rating system is actually quite cruel; it totalsAn 8-point total score comes with tier ratings; receiving 6to 8 points are the rare human Chads;receive3to 5 points are lower, middle, and upper-tier ordinary people respectively;The most excessive is getting2 pointsHumans scoring these points are classified into sub-human races similar to Fishmen, Orcs, and Ogryns; while those scoring 1 point are advised by others to restart life on the spot: "Living in this world is polluting human genes."
AdamDriver andMrBeast scored 3 points, PSL considers a score of 3 to represent 30% of the population, and a score of 4 to represent 50%.
Reading this far, everyone surely has many questions.
WhyGigaChad can become the ratingstandard? Because, establishingThis group indeed has a strong white-centric tendency. When we input a batch of collected Asian photos intoPSL's scoring AI, the answer is predictable: Asians generally receive low PSL appearance scores, and even the most handsome male celebrities rarely exceed 5 points.
Jungkook from the Korean boy band BTS is considered a standard4-point man
Why is this rating system8 points,rather than10 points? Because,The total score is indeed10 points is correct, but the other 2 points represent, is a man's profession, wealth, and social status. But in other words, profession, wealth, and society are not highly important to men—because according to this group's thinking, earning money can rely on personal effort, but handsomeness is determined by genes.
mutuallyOne of the purposes of "Mogging" to see who is handsomer is to prove that one possesses better genes than the opponent.
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"Vice" once interviewed a 17-year-old student who was 1.93 meters tall and from a wealthy family, with blond hair, blue eyes, and handsome features. As a result,but inThe "Mog" subculture forum received overwhelming sharp responses: "Your genes are terrible." Replies suggested he use steroids to build muscle, get a nose job, and undergo jaw implant surgery, but he didn't get angry. He said, he figured out why the girls he was obsessed with rejected him. He thanked netizens for their advice in a reply and prepared to save money for plastic surgery.
Another post expressed similar frustration. The OP said,His pain is insufficient height1.83 meters tall, weighing less than 75 kg, and with parents who are superstitious about religion and pseudoscience, refusing to support his injection of growth hormones and peptide drugs. This native family background made him feel deeply powerless.
Where there is demand, there is a market. Various indulgences for anxiety are always the most abundant commodities on the internet.
"Tired of being rejected? Tired of being invisible in women's eyes? Tired of having what belongs to you taken away by men with superior genes?" A blogger introduced his private community, which offers comprehensive flesh modification and biological ascension plans, but only for individuals willing to pay any price for success,Therefore, there is an entry fee, requiring spending$49.
This blogger is precisely Clavicle Bro, mentioned repeatedly above. He isA representative KOL of "Male Beauty Enhancement," he may harm others, but he doesn't sell to the audience things he himselfdoesn't believe in. Because he has personally practiced various evil cultivation methods; he uses a hammer to smash his face to shape his jawline and ties weights to his crotch to exercise the corpus cavernosum. In other words,He is equivalent toThe Shennong of the "Mog" crowd, who once suppressed appetite by consuming drugs and takingtestosterone to increase androgenslevel—in the video,He talks"pharmacology" carelessly, fluently listing various compounds and peptides supposedly capable of slimming the waist or tanning the skin, speaking more fluently than a chemistry professor.
Clavicle Bro livestreams chin hammering
As Flaubert said:"Great achievements require fanaticism.""Clavicle Bro can compete in the"Hunk Ranking," one of the main reasons is that he truly transformed himself from an ugly guy into a handsome dude through his own set of tech and harsh methods.
And this kind of behavior inclimbing ranks in the LSP systemofbehavior, while playingAmong this group of "Mog" enthusiasts, there is a specific term called "looksmaxxing"(Looksmaxxing). It includes both mild methods like haircuts, muscle building, and eyebrow shaping, as well as radical measures like plastic surgery, steroids, and bone breaking. They believe that through these means, Ni Dahong can become Daniel Wu, and Zhao Benshan can train to become Edison Chen.
Even if, in the case of Clavicle Bro, the price of becoming handsome was infertility. ClavicleBroattitude is to treat infertility asamedal, boasting to fans. Because becoming better looking,justisthe only thing that matters in their eyes.
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Overseas version of ZhihuThere's a question on Quora: "What behaviors of Asians are most incomprehensible?" One highly upvoted answer is that Asians use anime, games, and online images as their chat avatars. This cultural difference isn't surprising, because China's earliest and largest social platform was QQ, while overseas, the earliest and largest platform was Facebook.(hereinafter referred to as Facebook).
Early versionQQ did not support using your own photo as an avatar, but the reason Facebook is called Facebook is that its earliest version in 2003 was a website specifically for rating the looks of friends, classmates, and strangers. Therefore, it can be imagined that one of the underlying logics of the overseas internet is look-based socializing. Hence, for a long time, using photos as avatars was a basic internet etiquette. But on the other hand, this etiquette also highlights the cruelty of social interaction.
It is precisely under thisUnder the trend of "judging by looks," the subculture within the previous generation of Western male movements, "PickUP Artist", gradually replaced by new theories. Among them,PickUP The initial P in Pick-Up Artist,is alsoThe P in Pick-Up Artist Hate within the PSL rating system. It's okay if you don't understand,because everyone is surely familiar with the more common name—PickUP Artist is PUA technology. Its original meaning was actually teaching men how to pick up women and make them happy.
But now, the most radical male movement,DenyPUA. They believe that accepting the mainstream narrative and believing in political correctness,the attitude that everyone deserves to be loved is swallowing thepretending to sleep with the "Blue Pill." Those who play PUA are essentially still playing tricks and exploiting loopholes in the female-dominated dating game, equivalent to having taken the "Red Pill" but not waking up.
They proposed"Black Pill", demanding that men face reality. However, the conclusion removes all human sociality, becoming confusingly paranoid—they believe that appearance is the sole determining factor, and human biological instincts dictate that the opposite sex will first screen for excellent genes based on looks.
Later,The "Black Pill worldview" eventually developed into two subcultures in the corners of the internet.
The first type is"incels," who feel they have seen through the world. Due to looks and other factors, they believe individuals can never obtain "sexual experiences." A representative figure is "Elliot Rodger,"Hechoice was to killkilled 6 people before committing suicide, and is revered as a saint in the "incel" community, which shows just how extreme these people are.
The other type is today's group of"Looksmaxxing" enthusiasts, who accept the theory that appearance determines fate. The difference is that they do not resign themselves like "incels," but instead invest all their time and money into "improving looks"—This itself doesn't sound like a bad thing, but due to the underlying logic of the guiding theory, it has gone astray in a suspicious way.
Take for exampleRepresentative figure"Clavicle Bro," who admitted that he doesn't enjoy conquering women. On the contrary, he said he enjoys the feeling of being able to "easily conquer" women. Even being admired by other men, evaluating other men's appearances, and using their own looks to "Mog" and crush other men's appearances, bringing them closer to climax.
In other words, these people somewhat validate the early internet rumor that "foreign men dress better than Chinese men." But fundamentally, they merely view the opposite sex as trophies.In thisIn the ranked game shaped by "gene anxiety," silicone implants and hyaluronic acid are pay-to-win items, the LSL rating system is the rank tier, and women are merely seasonal skin decorations. Other men's breakdowns are the victory settlement animations, proof of their "genetic superiority."
Thus, Clavicle Bro and his friends consumed"Behelit."
In the men's world, you"Mog" me, I "Mog" you.
"Real Man" influencer Clavicle Bro
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It can be seen that the consciousness of these ranked players seems to come from prehistoric times.
Because only in the animal world doesexistthe absolute rule that "looks determine fate," such as male lions showing off their manes and male peacocks spreading their tails, and male birds-of-paradise dancing, can all be considered a form of "Mog." More attractive males have superior genes, and displaying looks is to compete for reproductive rights.
But their actions seem to come from a cyberpunk world.
Because they are obsessed with physical modification, using drugs, prosthetics, and organ implants to replace their natural bodies, they worship the "aesthetic virus" output by the digital world as their sole source of self-identity, a cyber-religion where they prostrate themselves before others' evaluation systems, reduced to abstract spectacles.
The left-right brain struggle between consciousness and action, giving them a touch of absurd and abstract comedic color. The more they indulge in illusory"Real Man" rankings, the more they will be viewed by outsiders as "fake men"—Watching them make fools of themselves is far more interesting than watching them narcissistically freak out.
For example, recently Clavicle Bro started crying again during his live stream, simply because he had requested no cheese in his burger beforehand, but cheese was added anyway. This picky-eater baby performance caused everyone to burst into laughter, with "mommy" types andEven "mommy" types left comments teasing him,"Tough Guy Bro",saying he awakened their maternal instincts, while others sarcastically remarked,"Clavicle Bro's theory of looks supremacy is so right. He just pouted acting cute, yet received a welcome like a puppy."
"Watching people make fools of themselves" is the underlying logic of internet traffic. As mentioned earlier, the premise of the "Mog War" is that their circle has a universally accepted aesthetic standard. Thus, when comparing oneself to others,who is more beautiful", there is no uncertainty like "my wife finds me beautiful" or "my concubine fears me"—the judgment of "who is more handsome", is actually no different from a butcher using weights and rulers to measure which piece of pork is better.
But more importantly, these people are too fragile,too easy to get triggered. Perhaps too many people enhance their looks through technological means. Even if they spend money to reachMOD, they still internally consider themselves ugly guys, and when encountering someone naturally less handsome, the "ugly person script" automatically runs.
After all, that which originated fromThe 'Black Pill' theory's doctrine of looksmaxxing has never resolved its inherent logical contradictions from start to finish.They believe,believes that Everythinggj about a man is determined by appearance, and that appearance is determined by genes.then taking medication, cosmetic surgery, fitnessetc.,none of which change genes, so ultimately the so-called masculinity,can only be feigned and cannot hold stable.
But is there a possibility:Are "Black Pill Theory" and "PSL Rating" more like pseudo-sociology, at best niche viewpoints? As far as I know, the French, known for their charm and once holding the discourse power on aesthetics, proposed a term called Jolie-laide. It is used to praise some women for possessing unique beauty, more colloquially meaning "both ugly and beautiful."
Coincidentally, I'm not very familiar with male beauty, so I'll have to cite a few female examples. A typical one is the protagonist of "The Queen's Gambit,"Anya·Taylor-Joy. She hasher wide-set eyes like a "flounder," yet due to the uniqueness brought by this temperament, she is regarded by Hollywood as an elf-like beauty.
If you think that's still mainstream, then the lead singer of the Japanese punk band Uplift Spice is an even more extreme example. As a woman,She always dresses like a wild Dog.exe, but also masters tearing, explosive music, and is considered by fans to"Punk girls" should have this vibe.
Anya·Taylor-Joyand the lead singer of Uplift Spice
Similarly, I have previously discussed freckles, dark skin, muscular women, small bellies, and otherXP, actually have corresponding audiences. Although many people do perceive these as certain "flaws," it doesn't matter—Because no one's charm can or needs to appeal to every group on Earth.
However,the "Mog community" believed they had found the perfect formula, only to trap themselves.And when live-streaming platforms keenly seized this group asthe potential of a "human diversity spectacle," after creating the "Chad Leaderboard," "male humiliation" became the show's biggest selling point—The fierce competition among beautiful clowns"performing beauty duties" will continue to bring stable viewership ratings.
Of course, there are also guys on the list who are just playing along for show. But someone like Clavicular Bro, who uses medical aesthetic products while also making money from them, has undoubtedly deeply tied himself to the community, so-calledthe intense argument that "beauty determines fate," he has no choice but to believe it.
"Polarization theory" suggests that due to internal discussions isolated from external voices, group discussions always make more extreme choices than individual judgments, and aesthetics are no exception.As a man,I cannot confirm their believedChad image,whether they can truly be popular with women. But what is certain is that, like"When the King of Chu favored slender waists, many in the palace starved themselves" "taking arseniccan whiten" "foot binding" This kind of self-sacrificial "genetic atonement" for beauty is not exclusive to traditional culture.
References:
1.The New Yorker: The Fascinating Grotesquerie of the Looksmaxxing Movement.
2."GQ": PSL Rating System Explained: The looksmaxxing rating system everyone is talking about.
3.The New America: From Red Pill to Black Pill
4."Know Your Meme": Mog World War
5."Vice: An inside look at the disturbing forums where incels brutally attack each other's appearances
6.Cosmopolitan:Who is Clavicular? Unveiling the dark world of "looksmaxxing," and why you should pay attention to the viral spread of those trending memes.