What is Bonesmashing?

@cstross When a subculture runs out of symbolic rebellion, it often turns to the body. Looksmaxxing is less about attractiveness than about optimization under perceived scarcity. Bonesmashing is what happens when algorithmic aesthetics meet masculine insecurity and low trust in institutions. This isn’t vanity, I think. Feels more like young men attempting to brute-force status in an economy that feels rigged.

@cstross When a subculture runs out of symbolic rebellion, it often turns to the body. Looksmaxxing is less about attractiveness than about optimization under perceived scarcity. Bonesmashing is what happens when algorithmic aesthetics meet masculine insecurity and low trust in institutions. This isn’t vanity, I think. Feels more like young men attempting to brute-force status in an economy that feels rigged.

@Doomscroll It *is* rigged, but hitting yourself in the face with a hammer isn't going to induce the billionaire oligopoly to share any of its stolen valor with you.

@Doomscroll It *is* rigged, but hitting yourself in the face with a hammer isn't going to induce the billionaire oligopoly to share any of its stolen valor with you.

What is Bonesmashing? Inside the Extreme Looksmaxxer Technique

As looksmaxxing enters our lexicon, the practice of bonesmashing—tapping your face with a hammer to shape your bone structure—is trailing close behind.

“Bonesmashing is big enough that doctors have sent at least two letters to the Journal of Stomatology, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery warning about the practice’s spread on social media.”

https://www.gq.com/story/what-is-bonesmashing-looksmaxxing-technique

@cstross @Doomscroll oh yeah?? We'll see about that Mr. Knowitall! *smashes face with hammer*

@Doomscroll @cstross
Self-harming behaviour isn't best analysed through the lenses of vanity or politics, probably.

@cstross Elite capture isn’t new. In 19th-century German universities, young men carved sabre scars into their faces as proof of status(stolen valor). Now the stolen valor is proximity: influencers orbiting power, sometimes crossing into it. Clavicular at the party, then at the policy table. Spectacle is now access. 21st century is weird, and we’re only a quarter of a way into it.

@petealexharris

mental health and political circumstances are deeply intertwined, particularly when political-economic conditions induce specific inhumane circumstances.

(mark fisher analyzes this pretty deeply in various books of his, and is worth reading for his insights here.)

@Doomscroll @cstross

What is Bonesmashing? Inside the Extreme Looksmaxxer Technique

As looksmaxxing enters our lexicon, the practice of bonesmashing—tapping your face with a hammer to shape your bone structure—is trailing close behind.

“Bonesmashing is big enough that doctors have sent at least two letters to the Journal of Stomatology, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery warning about the practice’s spread on social media.”

https://www.gq.com/story/what-is-bonesmashing-looksmaxxing-technique

@enkiv2 @Doomscroll @cstross
No doubt. But if people were calling anorexia "ribsmaxxing" I'd be side-eying that too.

@petealexharris

I think anorexia nervosa is a pretty good comparison to be honest. From what I understand, the consensus has softened a bit since I was paying close attention, but it used to be that anorexia nervosa (in its classic Karen Carpenter manifestation) was widely understood as a response to political-economic pressures.

Some mental illness is fully organic in origin -- stemming from genetics or injury -- but a lot of it is the direct result of interacting with an inhumane environment. The three causes are not mutually exclusive, and mental illness caused by one can cause or exacerbate that caused by another. This appears to quite certainly be the third case -- interacting with an inhuman environment (the modern world) has produced inhumane pressures (these guys think they are worthless if they don't have sufficiently sharp cheekbones), and the inhumaneness of the world is a political problem (arguably, it is the only political problem, and all other political problems stem from flawed attempts to solve it).

@Doomscroll @cstross

What is Bonesmashing? Inside the Extreme Looksmaxxer Technique

As looksmaxxing enters our lexicon, the practice of bonesmashing—tapping your face with a hammer to shape your bone structure—is trailing close behind.

“Bonesmashing is big enough that doctors have sent at least two letters to the Journal of Stomatology, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery warning about the practice’s spread on social media.”

https://www.gq.com/story/what-is-bonesmashing-looksmaxxing-technique

@petealexharris

(before anybody gets up my ass: yes, I know Karen Carpenter was bulemic. iirc she was also anorexic? but the whole world kind of understood eating disorders through the lens of what happened to her, for a long time, and her case neatly fits a model that I've seen people take seriously as far back as the mid-70s and as late as 2010.)

@Doomscroll @cstross

What is Bonesmashing? Inside the Extreme Looksmaxxer Technique

As looksmaxxing enters our lexicon, the practice of bonesmashing—tapping your face with a hammer to shape your bone structure—is trailing close behind.

“Bonesmashing is big enough that doctors have sent at least two letters to the Journal of Stomatology, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery warning about the practice’s spread on social media.”

https://www.gq.com/story/what-is-bonesmashing-looksmaxxing-technique

What is Bonesmashing? Inside the Extreme Looksmaxxer Technique

As looksmaxxing enters our lexicon, the practice of bonesmashing—tapping your face with a hammer to shape your bone structure—is trailing close behind.

“Bonesmashing is big enough that doctors have sent at least two letters to the Journal of Stomatology, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery warning about the practice’s spread on social media.”

https://www.gq.com/story/what-is-bonesmashing-looksmaxxing-technique

@Doomscroll It *is* rigged, but hitting yourself in the face with a hammer isn't going to induce the billionaire oligopoly to share any of its stolen valor with you.