Ex-NRL star Luke Bateman has spoken out against the online ‘looksmaxxing’ subculture that preys on young men, comparing it to what he brands as other toxic male cultures in Australia – like rugby league.
The online movement sees young men, typically in their teens, go to drastic and dangerous lengths to ‘maximise’ their appearance.
The methods range from basic hygiene to ‘hardmaxxing’, which can include steroid use, leg-lengthening operations, ‘smashing’ the jaw and plastic surgery.
Sexually successful men are classified as ‘Chads’, weak ones as ‘betas’ and involuntarily celibate men as ‘incels’.
Luke Bateman, who pivoted from the NRL to become an influencer and podcaster, told the Daily Mail it’s not dissimilar to other toxic male spaces in Australia.
‘Growing up, I received a lot of validation from sport. But then when I got into early adulthood, it was very much like when you get into partying culture,’ he said.
NRL star Luke Bateman has criticised the ‘looksmaxxing’ subculture that preys on young men
The online movement sees young men, typically in their teens, go to drastic and dangerous lengths to ‘maximise’ their appearance (pictured, influencers Braden ‘Clavicular’ Peters, left, and Brisbane-based Ronan, known as ‘Androgenic’)
‘It was competition between each other, who could drink the most or who could do the most drugs, who could get the most women?
‘I think patriarchy conditions males to be competitive and dominant. And if you’re not dominating someone else, you’re failing. When you see the looksmaxxing thing, you see that same culture there, the need to compete with everybody else.’
This competition is seen between looksmaxxer friends Braden ‘Clavicular’ Peters in America and Brisbane-based Ronan, known as ‘Androgenic’.
The two frequently engage in ‘mogging’ on social media, striking bodybuilder poses side by side to compare physiques.
Bateman described how the connection between masculinity and competition impacted him.
‘All my worth, validation and meaning was outsourced,’ he said.
‘It was always (about) athletic accomplishment, financial accomplishment, even strength because I was playing rugby league. It was like: Can I be more physical than everybody else?
‘It’s that exact same thing that I think the looksmaxxing (world) is doing. It’s placing your status, worth, and value on an external factor, but there is no end to that.’
Bateman, who pivoted from rugby to become an influencer and podcaster, told the Daily Mail looksmaxxing has a lot in common with other toxic male spaces in Australia
Brisbane-based influencer Ronan, who uses the moniker Androgenic (pictured), said he used to resent women but he doesn’t anymore
For Bateman, this desire grew beyond just life in rugby league.
‘I just kept constantly needing more and more and more and more, because there was no fulfillment,’ he said.
‘Once I’d achieved all my goals, that’s when I formed an incredibly bad, a debilitating gambling addiction, because I just needed worth from something else.
‘I needed a connection to something that would give me or make me feel anything, and unfortunately, that was gambling and it ruined my life.’
What was the path out of it for the NRL star?
‘Vulnerability,’ he said. ‘It’s removing the armour and masks we have been conditioned to wear and returning to our self.’
‘People think self-development is adding more things and (literally) growing. For me, it’s very much stripping things back and returning to authenticity, vulnerability, and intimacy.’
But the subculture also comes with concerns about how the desire to be ‘more masculine’ is connected with tearing down – and sometimes threatening – women.
Women are classified either as a ‘Stacy’ (attractive and often unattainable) or a foid, femoid or ‘Female humanoid organism’ – an insult suggesting women are not only less than men, but less than human.
Pictured, looksmaxxing influencer Clavicular (right) with misogynist influencers Andrew Tate, Nick Fuentes, Myron Gaines, Tristan Tate, Sneako and Justin Waller
Some of the most popular looksmaxxing forums have posts such as: ‘Why do women want to be raped?’, ‘Do foids like rape?’ and ‘Why do incels worry about looking good so much? Women are disgusting.’
Some influencers are also tied to anti-women movements, including Clavicular, who partied with misogynists Andrew and Tristan Tate, and far-right live streamer Nick Fuentes, who popularised the phrase: ‘your body, my choice’.
When the Daily Mail sat down with the influencer Ronan in April, he said he doesn’t hate women, though he admitted previously disliking them.
‘There’s been past times where I had maybe more of a resentful mindset toward women,’ he said.
‘I didn’t really see things from a woman’s perspective and I wanted to be treated really well by them growing up.
‘The first woman who ever showed interest in me was when I was 19, so I grew up in a world where it felt like no woman ever respected or liked me. Nowadays, women treat me better than men do.’
To Bateman, the ties between amplifying masculinity and mistreating women are inherently linked.
‘Rugby league culture has misogyny absolutely baked into it, and that’s because of patriarchy,’ he said.
Bateman (pictured) said that improving as a person is not an issue but it needs to come with ‘self-education’, rather than performing for others
‘When you live in hyper-masculine cultures, it says that everything that isn’t masculine or masculinity is less than or second to it, which immediately becomes women.
‘It’s not a direct path to saying “we hate women” but, when you live in a hyper-masculine culture, anything that’s feminine needs to be suppressed, dominated, repressed.
‘(It) just leads indirectly to misogyny and an extremely poor mindset towards women.’
What is the answer? Bateman said that improving as a person is not an issue but it needs to come with ‘self-education’, rather than performing for others.
‘It’s not through external sources, external validation, or external measures,’ he said.
‘Self-betterment (is) educating yourself to understand the systems and cultures we live in, and the subconscious messaging and beliefs they place upon us as men.
‘(That) is actually the path out, understanding yourself, understanding how you became who you are.’
