Description of Activity
Presentation Title: ‘Newgen Misogynistic Incels and Critical Looks Theory – Unravelling the PSL Scale, PSL Gods and Looksmaxxing on TikTok’.TikTok has emerged as a major platform in the social media landscape and has witnessed a surge in hateful anti-feminist content. Previously confined to niche men's forums, blackpilled incel communities are now gaining visibility on mainstream platforms. This paper investigates five blackpilled TikTok accounts and their 320 videos through a two-year netnographic study. Unlike the overt and extreme misogyny found on incel forums, 4chan boards, and defunct subreddits, blackpill content on TikTok takes a more subtle approach, presenting itself as "scientific" while promoting dangerous and unrealistic advice to men, positioning them as victims supposedly oppressed by women.
This paper introduces Critical Looks Theory (CLT), a complex framework that presents a distorted view of male and female aesthetics, rooted in biological determinism and evolutionary theory. Originating from the PSL scale and concepts from three defunct incel forums (PUAhate, Sluthate, and Lookism), CLT asserts that certain facial features are essential for male attractiveness. On TikTok, CLT content promotes risky "looksmaxing" techniques, encouraging dangerous surgeries and hazardous at-home "medical" procedures aimed at enhancing appearance. CLT also reinforces white supremacist ideologies, drawing on racial essentialism, eugenics, and phrenology to argue that non-white men are genetically inferior. Furthermore, it advances male supremacist views, portraying women as morally inferior and intentionally conspiring against unattractive and non-white men, thereby justifying their subjugation, control, and punishment.
This paper seeks to shed light on the new generation of misogynistic incels who have become content creators on TikTok. It examines the strategies through which the blackpill incel ideology has been “normie-fied” and brought into the mainstream, reaching a broader audience on this highly visible and popular video-sharing platform.
| Period | 24 Apr 2025 |
|---|---|
| Event type | Conference |
| Degree of Recognition | International |