Ep. 1818 - DEEP DIVE: The Complicated and Sordid History of Looksmaxxing (It’s Not What You Think)

**Matt Walsh** (0:00)
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It wasn't too long ago that doctors made an alarming finding, colon cancer among young adults is surging. In fact, since 1994, colon cancer has become 50% more common. And you've almost certainly heard this data by now. It's been covered by every major media organization. It's all over social media. Everyone has a theory as to why it's happening from diet to environmental factors to the COVID shot or all the above. We all recognize that it's important to figure out what's going on here because it's having a catastrophic effect on many young lives, obviously. By the same token, there's been a lot of discussion about the massive increase in the number of young adults who have been diagnosed with depression, and ADHD, and autism, and a host of other alleged mental disorders. There's been a debate, which we're now winning, about whether it's a great idea to administer psychoactive drugs to treat any child who supposedly presents with one of these disorders. Answer, it's not a great idea. It's a horrifically awful idea as it turns out. But there's one trend in the medical field that's just as stark, and yet it's not discussed very often by anyone. I'm talking about a trend that's clearly relevant to the future of civilization and our ability to propagate the species, which is that men are seeking out cosmetic procedures, plastic surgery to a degree that would have been unheard of and inconceivable just a decade ago. Women are also going under the knife for plastic surgery at unprecedented levels. And this is a surge that cuts across both sexes, no pun intended. But the massive uptick in plastic surgery for young men is especially interesting and especially troubling. According to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, from 2019 to 2022, the total number of cosmetic procedures performed on men increased by more than 200 percent. Procedures that are characterized as minimally invasive increased by more than 250 percent. In total, more than 1.3 million cosmetic procedures of some kind are now performed on men, every single year. This includes AB implants, liposuction, nose jobs, facelifts, and so on. If you combine the populations of San Francisco and Miami, you wouldn't have the number of men who are getting cosmetic surgery every year. Just to put things in perspective. Now, the biggest increase in this period was for cheek implants, where demand among men increased by 80 percent in this period. Then there's dermal fillers, which are gel-like medical substances injected beneath the skin to restore lost volume and smooth wrinkles. Demand for these fillers increased by 70 percent among men from 2019 to 2022 Meanwhile, Botox injections went up by 65 percent. They're up 400 percent overall since 2000 Demand for sclerotherapy, which is used to treat varicose veins and spider veins, increased by 54 percent among men. Chin augmentations went up by 32 percent. Lower body lifts by 61 percent. What's more, in addition to liposuction, which remains the single most popular male cosmetic surgery, men are now increasingly seeking out male breast reduction surgery. In fact, some medical practices report that demand for male breast reduction has increased by more than 35 percent in recent years. Now in fairness, some of these procedures are treating actual medical conditions. Most men who get breast reduction are suffering from gynecomastia, which is an enlargement in breast tissue in men. Now frankly, if I had that condition, I'd probably get the surgery too. So the fact that there's an increase in those surgeries tells us probably there's an increase in that condition, which tells us something about hormones and other things that are going on with men, which is also important. Then there are other procedures which might be called cosmetic that are meant to address medical conditions. I wouldn't put those in the same category as something like cheek implants or a nose job. Now, the most concerning part of the story is that this is a generational shift. Young people are driving a Gen Z, people who are 29 years old and younger, account for 37% of rhinoplasties, which are nose jobs. They account for 25% of all cheek implants. This is a demographic that overall only accounts for around 6% of all cosmetic surgeries. So young people are more preoccupied with their appearance, particularly the appearance of their face, to the point that they're undergoing surgery to correct the problem. And many, many more young people are considering surgery as well. A survey by the American Academy of Facial, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery found that millennials account for 58% of men who are interested in getting a cosmetic procedure while Gen Z accounts for 35%.