If you’ve been online in the past few weeks, I’m sorry. That’s a general comment, but it especially goes for if you’ve seen posts and articles about someone named Clavicular.
Clavicular, given name Braden Peters, is a 20-year-old “looksmax” influencer. His claim to fame is going to extreme measures to “ascend,” or enhance his appearance, and immersing himself in the world of right-wing influencers. As of this publication, he has around 770,000 followers on TikTok and 190,000 followers on Kick, where he often streams live.
The most basic definition of “looksmaxxing” is just that: maximizing your looks. But it stems from incel (involuntarily celibate) communities of the 2010s. Now, in 2026, it appears that what was fostered in those dark corners of the internet is now becoming increasingly mainstream.
The looksmaxxing ideal
“Looksmaxxing” has been floating around incel communities since before COVID. As such, it’s not quite about prioritizing your innate features or focusing on what makes your appearance unique. Rather, it’s about shaping yourself into a certain mold that incels and conservatives deem superior.
Clavicular, for instance, sees the actor Matt Bomer as the “most harmonious man’s face in existence,” according to his New York Times profile. Bomer is white, with symmetrical features and a square jaw. These are all physical elements that “lookmaxxers” aspire to, in addition to the societal-accepted appearance for men: luscious locks, toned muscles, and clear skin. The looksmax community is also deeply racist, propping up white skin as the ideal. “Just be white” is a well-known incel term.
Actor Matt Bomer and his handsome, harmonious face.
Credit: Amy Sussman/Getty Images
The ideal looksmaxxing man looks like a cross between Hitler’s Übermensch and handsome Squidward.
And looksmaxxers hyperfocus on specific attributes. The name “Clavicular” itself references the clavicle, a bone important in the looksmax community. One’s side profile and face shape are other examples. These are features that previous generations of men surely didn’t notice or care about, and their sudden importance is the result of unlimited access to mirrors, a camera, and a mainline to endless posts about looksmaxxing.
Some methods men discuss online to looksmax include going to the gym and “mewing,” or sticking one’s tongue on the roof of his mouth to give the appearance of a sharper jawline. But men have gone to drastic lengths to looksmax. This includes surgery (jaw surgery, leg-lengthening surgery), bonesmashing (using objects like hammers to literally try to “chisel” their face), and taking drugs such as steroids, hormones, or even illegal substances.
In a November 2025 interview, Clavicular said he uses crystal meth to suppress his appetite and “leanmax” (maintain thinness) and has “hollow cheeks.” He’s separately stated that he bonesmashes with a hammer.
But why are these men doing this?
Mashable Trend Report
Why is looksmaxxing so popular?
The outward goal of looksmaxxing is to become as attractive as possible, but the underbelly signals a certain sexist, gender-essentialist world view.
Men looksmax to appreciate in “sexual market value,” and while even Kinsey Institute researchers reference the “sexual marketplace,” it’s undoubtedly a capitalist way of looking at dating and romance. It implies a cisheteronormative idea about partnership and only prizes physical appearance. It assumes that all women are shallow and prefer “chads,” or “alphas,” and any men that don’t fit the looksmax ideal are out of luck.
Like capitalism, looksmaxxing is all about optimization. The goal is to “ascend” — but why and to where, however, is unclear. Perhaps the goal is just to be on top, be the best, become rich, and have an attractive wife who “mogs” all your friends’ wives. (As Mashable’s Crystal Bell explained in December, mogging means outshining or overshadowing someone in appearance.)
Men, to incels and looksmaxxers, must always be at the height of masculinity, represented by sharp jawlines and low bodyfat percentages. Femininity is unwanted, so much so that Clavicular doesn’t even seem that interested in sex itself, but the idea that he could have it at any time, and that itself is a W.
If even that. It seems like the true W may be praise and admiration from other men. As feminist philosopher Marilyn Frye said, “To say that straight men are heterosexual is only to say that they engage in sex (fucking exclusively with the other sex, i.e., women). All or almost all of that which pertains to love, most straight men reserve exclusively for other men.”
And while Clavicular has been hobnobbing with the highest-followed right-wing influencers, he has made it known that looks indeed matter to him more than anything. In an interview with conservative commentator Michael Knowles, Clavicular called Vice President JD Vance “subhuman.” When asked to explain, Clavicular said Vance has a “short face width to height ratio,” has a “recessed side profile,” and is overweight. Gavin Newsom, the Democratic governor of California, is a chad, according to Clavicular.
In other words, Newsom, according to Clavicular, will mog Vance in a political showdown.
Why is Clavicular so popular?
GQ just called Clavicular the most famous looksmaxxer in the world. Mere months ago, most people didn’t know who this man was, and now he’s become a media darling, with multiple features and photoshoots in prominent outlets, all while his profile continues to rise. How did this happen?
As writer and internet culture researcher Aidan Walker wrote, Clavicular “contentmaxxes” — he’s doing it for the views, the virality.
Clavicular and other right-wing influencers engage in clip farming, Walker wrote. Clip farming is when a steamer does something deliberately outrageous to go viral and get “clipped” and shared out of context beyond the stream.
In the last few months alone, Clavicular has gone viral for appearing to run someone over in a Tesla Cybertruck and not care if they died; partying with white supremacists and manosphere influencers while Kanye West’s “Heil Hitler” played at the club; and getting “frame-mogged” by an Arizona State University frat leader.
“Everything you could say about Clavicular…feels optimized for algorithmic traction,” Walker wrote. “He has lived his life in order to be a hook for a social media post.”
As Clavicular and his antics become embedded in our culture, so does his ideology. It’s not a coincidence that his rise is occurring at the same time as Trump is once again in power, and as the ideal for women’s appearance becomes smaller and thinner.
Whether Clavicular actually believes in what he’s doing, it might not matter — he’s reaching millions of people regardless.
