Op-Ed: From Jawlines to Eugenics, how streamer Clavicular is creating a new hierarchy of ‘alpha’ manhood

"Looksmaxxing" creators claim attraction is objective and biologically determined that echoes historical eugenics and racial hierarchy. In the process, they have revived a familiar logic about inherited worth.

On a random TikTok that's come up on your feed or a Kick stream you happen to click on, you may come across a man explaining to you how you can “ascend”. He will describe how to change your bone density and “maximal projection”— obvious things everyone thinks about when creating their New Year's glow-up plan... But when he urges you to start bone smashing, a method he uses to stimulate growth and remodel bones by repeatedly smashing your face in with blunt objects, you may think he sounds crazy, but some teenagers grab a pen and paper and start taking notes. And then when he mentions microdosing methamphetamine as a meal suppressant, these teen boys lean in closer. These methods may sound extreme — bone-smashing, microdosing, and numerical ranking — but what’s more alarming is what these practices normalize: the idea that beauty and human value are biologically determined.

This is what everyday looks like in the not-so-niche category of looksmaxxing internet creators, who spend hours preaching to their young online audience about how they will help decode attraction by using numbers, anatomy, and a language that sounds like a mix of a medical textbook and Roman coliseum witchcraft. At the center of this new ecosystem is streamer Clavicular, who’s built a following of over 500,000 people across all platforms where he shows off how to reach peak masculinity in an “attainable” way as long as you're willing to suffer. Clavicular doesn't believe beauty is subjective; he sees it as genetic tiers that dictate your worth. 

This is how it works. Creators like Clavicular use numerical rating scales, often 1 through 10, or a Fibonacci sequence, which are broken down into subcategories like jaw width, eye tilt, symmetry, and “harmony.” These are presented as if they are scientific measurements; they use pseudo-Latin terms to sound technical enough to show that— just maybe— they really do know what they're talking about. Clavicular describes this method of rating as if it's the most obvious and mathematical form: "[t]his has been around for thousands of years. This is something that was made in ancient Greece. These are not numbers that just autistic people on forums came up with five years ago,” said Clavicular on the Jack Kneel Extended podcast.

The irony is that much of the framework did, in fact, emerge from anonymous online forums. The photo, as seen below, is what is used for their rating framework and was created by a Reddit user. Not drafted by Einstein-level scientists or a genius anthropologist, but incels (and don't take that word lightly) who spend time debating what Hollywood star's jawline is “chad” level. 

Rating system used by looksmaxxing communities to rank facial features, created by a Reddit user (Photograph: acensionmax/Reddit)

And of course this content gets millions of views, because its targeted audience is insecure teenage boys whose minds can be easily persuaded by a man whispering in their ears, promising they will get jacked and “mog” their friends. Looksmaxxing offers a clear explanation: if you’re struggling, it’s not social anxiety or puberty. It’s your skull. But when the methods and practices get so intense, you buy a hammer to practice bonesmashing, which is widely dismissed by medical professionals as ineffective and dangerous, and it is discussed as if it were an extreme but rational choice. Drug use is reframed as “optimization.” Pain is good; it shows proof of your commitment. They prey on teenagers who are already hyper aware of their identity and flood their feed of videos of boys who look just like them, adapting the methods Clavicular uses and becoming a whole new person. This community promises comfort in the fact that you can change what's not working for you, in the form of surgeries and steroids. But at what cost does it take— besides the $35,000 you will pay for jaw surgery— to reach this ascension they describe? You have to be willing to put aside social skills, emotional intelligence, humor, kindness— traits that make you a rounded human— to prioritize changing your skull shape.   

But if the audience is listening to everything Clavicular preaches, they will be hearing about racial hierarchy and the inferiority of femininity. He describes a hierarchy that goes beyond bone structure. In several clips and livestream discussions, Clavicular and others in the space move from ranking faces to ranking races. They believe different racial groups have lower “aesthetic ceilings” or worse genetic baselines. He encourages his audience to dive deeper into which populations are biologically advantaged and which are not. For example, on a stream of Clavicular’s, a viewer commented, telling him that Marlon, another Twitch streamer, “moggs him,” meaning that he appears significantly more attractive than Clavicular in their opinion, and Clavicular responded by saying, “Yeah, but he’s Black,” insinuating that because of his racial build, he was less than. This controversial rhetoric doesn't stop at race; femininity is something these streamers heavily warn against. Traits tied to androgyny and emotional vulnerability are seen as weaknesses. Masculinity is part of their ranking system, and the higher your testosterone is, the more worthy you are.

But this isn’t just about jawlines and symmetry. The logic behind looksmaxxing, the obsession with measurable attractiveness, has uncanny echoes in the eugenics movements of racial and gender hierarchy of the past — where human worth was measured, ranked, and deemed inheritable.

If you're not worried by this statement, you should re-examine history because the people who have large followings and believe in a “master race” aren't usually the heroes. Eugenics has caused great danger in our society and will continue to be preached as if it's real science. Segregation, forced sterilization, and hierarchy based on appearance are all things that have come from the falsehoods of eugenics. 

According to the National Genomics Human Research Institute, eugenics is the scientifically erroneous and immoral theory of “racial improvement” and “planned breeding,” which gained popularity during the early 20th century. Eugenicists worldwide believed that they could perfect human beings and eliminate so-called social ills through genetics and heredity. While Clavicular does not use the term eugenics, his ideals seem to be heavily associated with this dangerous pseudoscience, both believing that human worth can, in fact, be measured biologically, and some inherited traits make certain groups naturally superior, while others are inherently disadvantaged. The premise remains the same as history goes on, but now it’s branded as TikTok self-improvement and discipline aesthetics. It’s easy to overlook because people truly believe they are bettering themselves.These ideologies so easily shared online stop being about jawlines and instead become about who is born to win and who is not.