The online realm has transformed our daily realities and expectations. Although we all use it to various extents, one thing is certain. The human brain hasn’t developed to be observed and criticized by a community that numbers millions.

Yes, we have always been under the surveillance of our primary groups, but for the majority of history, people, even popes and kings, could keep a level of anonymity. Contemporary social media and the connectedness of the modern world expose us all to merciless surveillance but also spread beauty ideals with more speed than ever.

To add salt to the wound, the predominance of certain cultures in the global sphere imposes specific beauty ideals, constantly narrowing traits that should be possessed for someone to be perceived as beautiful.

Our team of social observers at CasinoOnlineCA has consulted sociologists and social media analysts to investigate the complexities of today’s male beauty enhancement trends. Together, we have concluded that contemporary people feel the need to be more beautiful than ever, the rules of beauty standards have reached a tyrannical level of strictness, and new technologies make it impossible to escape these projections. We have published our findings in a comprehensive overview of current male beauty memes and trends. Read on for the key takeaways.

The effect on women has been discussed heavily since the mid-20th century, but male beauty enhancement trends are on the rise as well. There is nothing wrong with wanting to take care of one’s appearance. However, closer observation of the trends and ideologies they promote shows much deeper issues concerning self-esteem, projection and mental health problems. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves and take this delicate topic slowly and easily.

The Evolution of Male Beauty Standards

It is hard to establish what people of the past would have considered beautiful on a personal level since most of what we have are artistic expressions by or commissioned by the elites. That can hardly prove the majority of people would have seen beauty in such a way, but there is nothing else we could use for orientation.

If we analyze ancient art, we will see several manifestations of the male beauty ideal. The spiritual, feminine man and the muscled warrior archetype. Both are characteristic of various cultures and periods and appear in the contemporary world with the likes of Timothée Chalamet and Henry Cavill.

“It is safe to say that beauty ideals really have nothing to do with it, at least in a historical or artistic sense,” claims James Segrest, the CasinoOnlineCA writer and editor. “It’s all about social media and media in general. We spend too much time comparing ourselves to an idealized and often fake image of someone else.”

The existence of the digital sphere, the modification possibilities, as well as mean anonymous comments create vulnerability and mental health issues for all people, even if men are less likely to admit it or seek help.

Chad Facing: Unmasking the Phenomenon

Remember the infamous duck face? It was used to mock women posing in front of cameras. Well, there is a male equivalent of the duck face. The Chad face. It is a facial position that supposedly makes your jaw look more masculine.

But, perhaps you are wondering what is a Chad. It is a generic term that supposedly represents an alpha male figure with adherence to masculine beauty ideals, muscles and a chiselled jaw.

The online society of incels (involuntary celibates) idealizes Chads, simultaneously believing that those who do not look like that have, somehow, been genetically damned, feeding a pessimistic outlook for the vulnerable men who don’t fit these ideals.

Incels are encouraged to heal their mental health issues not by addressing them but by projecting the blame for their misfortune on the opposite sex while also dehumanizing them. Unfortunately, this attitude doesn’t help men improve their mental state or establish a healthy manner of dealing with insecurities. Some online personas abuse male vulnerability by purposefully feeding them harmful things to gain money and fame.

Chad Facing started as an online meme but has found its way to the real world, as life today often imitates media. Since Gen Z uses it unironically, unfortunately, we see an online trend of mockery, which often follows trends beloved by younger people and derived from insecurities. Hopefully, we will learn to address these issues more constructively and compassionately, starting with this article.

Mewing: The Power of Tongue Posture

Mewing is another new word that is conquering online spheres. What is it? Simple. Another position that can redefine your jaw with a little help from your tongue and mouth placements. The concept was developed by the British orthodontist John Mew, who called his practices orthotropic. The practice was originally intended for children whose jaws were still developing but was adopted by the online community as a form of look enhancement.

Looksmaxxing: The Comprehensive Pursuit of Male Beauty

Looksmaxxing seems a decent strategy, at least on the surface. It involves enhancing one’s appearance through fashion, fitness, nutrition, skincare, etc. Strategies involved in the process include diet, fashion, cosmetics, posture, hygiene, and sometimes even more radical things, like steroid use or surgery.

These trends are easier to spread these days. The global presence of digital technologies exposes many people to harmful ideals, feeds their insecurities and offers solutions in the form of a guru. A charismatic individual who will give away the magic cure.

Although many online influencers are harmless and can be helpful in terms of reassuring people that they are not alone in their issues, some are opportunistic and exploitative.

Beyond the Online Realm: Real-Life Consequences

As life is said to imitate art, we can concur ideals enter manifestation through us. Characters turn to real people, invoked by their conjurers. Their honest experiences are often sobering. Many leave the communities with the realization it is sometimes a bit too much, encouraging extreme insecurities and obsession over body details most people don’t even notice.

Finding a way to feel better about yourself and look better can be empowering, but it is hard to ensure a healthy line between positive and negative self-improvement trends.

Do you want to learn about another thing equally characteristic of contemporary times? Click here to read about simulation games that feature beauty modifications, among many other things.

The Rise of ‘Softmaxxing’ as an Alternative

The starting point is softmaxxing, which includes basic hygiene and the above-mentioned mewing, but it ends with hardmaxxing, which may involve aggressive or even dangerous elements like steroid use, bone smashing to make the face look more “masculine” or plastic surgery. Other extreme practices include whitemaxxing, or trying to present as more White and starvemaxxing, which encourages eating disorders.

There is nothing wrong with the human desire to improve on various levels. However, many online personas use male vulnerability to make money, not to mention they often don’t help them but even worsen their mental issues. The tendency of the establishment to exploit human insecurities is nothing new under the sun, but to prevent it, society must respond by finding better methods of helping men’s health.

The Continuity of Beauty Trends

We are fully aware that different cultures and times have unique preferences. Art shows us that in most epochs, a beauty ideal was not neutral or individual but linked to the practices of the elites.

So, yes, beauty was harmful in the past as well. However, most people were not bombarded by the ideal every day. They were possibly unaffected by the ideals, and they were not supposed to fulfil them. Aphrodite and Heracles were admired, but nobody expected normal people to look like them.

Today, social media, globalism, and Hollywood impose limiting beauty standards, underlined by racism, sexism, ableism, and more, and no one can escape the drill. Constant surveillance by others and unkind online comments create an environment that convinces people, especially the young, that being beautiful is obligatory and that if you do not fit in, you are unworthy of love or success.

This is unprecedented since our ancestors didn’t have to deal with it. Contemporary society needs to establish new strategies for dealing with these novel mental health issues to address the problems properly and eliminate harmful alternatives.

Conclusion

Beauty ideals have always existed, but not in the same manner as they do today. The digital environment, globalization and more beautification resources, particularly among the rich and famous, have constructed exclusive norms that are practically unachievable. Still, the ideals are hardly seen as what they are — something only few can achieve or a prerogative of gods and goddesses, but as a norm for being worthy of a human experience of friendship, love and success.

Wanting to improve yourself is nothing to be ashamed of. It is a typical human need. However, the inner feeling that we are never enough is a constructed insecurity characteristic of our times. What does the future bring? We can’t know, but people will have to come together to develop new methods of dealing with these new versions of old issues.