"Looksmaxxing" is teaching men that pretty hurts.
By Brittany Luse, Corey Antonio Rose, Neena Pathak,
NPR
| 02. 27. 2026
Who gets to be "hot" in America? And, at what cost?
Some young men are pushing beauty boundaries with guidance from an online trend that's been making headlines: looksmaxxing. Looksmaxxing celebrates intense fitness & skincare routines, extreme body modification, and notably Eurocentric features as the holy grail of modern beauty, but who gets locked out of looksmaxxing when "Chad" is the gold standard? And how painful is it to pursue perfection that's skin deep?
Brittany is joined by Jason Parham, senior writer at WIRED covering internet culture, online dating, and the future of sex.
JASON PARHAM: I think there's still something really ugly on the inside that people are really working with or trying to confront. Oh, maybe I'll just put on a good face, and I won't have to deal with it. Maybe, you know, it'll get me all these other things.
BRITTANY LUSE, HOST:
Like anyone else, I like to look good. I paid a makeup artist to teach me how to blend my concealer. I apply my skin care in a specific order, and only one...
Related Articles
By Jennifer Denbow, Guest Contributor
| 10.29.2026
Almost every day I am reminded that we are in the midst of a fertility panic. Whether it’s the Vice President exhorting Americans to have more babies or The New York Times running yet another story about the fertility cliff, fear about falling fertility rates is everywhere. While centrally concerned with declining rates of childbearing, Anna Louie Sussman’s new book, Inconceivable: The Impossibility of Family in an Age of Uncertainty, is a welcome antidote to the panic.
Sussman has written...
By Anna Louie Sussman, The New Republic | 10.26.2026
There’s a certain kind of novel that’s not quite apocalyptic enough to be science fiction, but just far-fetched enough to be speculative. No one is from outer space; society has not yet been carved up into a hierarchy of groups...
By Ariana Aspuru and Noel King, Vox | 10.14.2026
For some couples, surrogacy is a miracle: an opportunity to have a child even if they’re unable to conceive one naturally. But it’s also big business. Not only is surrogacy expensive — think six figures — but it’s also largely...
By Sonia Suter and Naomi Cahn, The Conversation | 10.09.2026