Something Strange Is Happening To Gen Z - Isabel Brown - #1106

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
Have you seen female looks maxing?

**Isabel Brown** (0:02)
Oh my gosh, we're just jumping right into it, aren't we? I have been under the impression that looks maxing was largely a male endeavor over the past several months, but I've seen male looks maxers saying women should or should not get into this. So maybe a little bit.

**Chris Williamson** (0:17)
I didn't realize that there are some deep, deep depths that you can go to when it comes to looks maxing. Because we understand in one form or another that women have always been looks maxing, right? But this takes it to a bit of a different level.

**Isabel Brown** (0:32)
All right, let's see it.

**SPEAKER_3** (0:33)
What is female looks maxing? If you thought this trend was just a part of the Manasthear, think again. On Reddit, Discord and other forum platforms, there are threads where women trade advice on how to hard max your way to becoming a Stacey, which is the highest tier of attractiveness. It all starts with the upload of a selfie and an invite forum strangers to firstly rate your appearance, and then comment on how you could optimize your looks. Tips that follow range from corset maxing, shrinking your rib cage through binding, to injecting unlicensed weight loss drugs, to peanut maxing, literally chewing peanuts to sculpt a sharper, wider jaw. It also covers breast size. There's a $2,499 Eve bra, for example, worn overnight for weeks to gain half a cup size. The target audience?
Teenagers. A 17-year-old told her skull has serious flaws, or a 14-year-old encouraged to get a rhinoplasty. Girls as young as 13 upload pictures only to be torn apart. Allora Ziva is one of the most prominent public female looks maxers. This year, Ziva launched a $79 a month program promising drastic change in 90 days, from exercise to hard maxing measures, including cosmetic procedures. To you or I, this all might feel like unrealistic goals to get an enhanced Instagram face. But to some youngsters, it's seen as something achievable, with the right surgeries, starvation, and effort.

**Chris Williamson** (1:59)
What do you think about that?

**Isabel Brown** (2:00)
I find it really sad, to be honest with you. It's the same way I feel about looks maxing for men. Look, I think there's an important discussion we should be having as a society when it comes to beauty standards that we've really lost over the past decade or so. You've seen complete erasure of any concept between the difference of ugly versus beautiful, not just in people's physical appearance, you've seen this with architecture, you've seen this with fashion, you've seen this with art, where ugly is now celebrated as normal or even highlighted as beautiful. But obviously, this can go to a really sinister place very quickly. There was a news article that went super viral the last couple of days of Demi Moore on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival, and she's throwing her arms up and she truly looks skeletal. I mean, very unhealthy on death's doorstep level skinny. The New York Post shared these photos with the headline on X, Demi Moore shows off her toned arms on the red carpet at the Cannes Film Festival. That is just as damaging as this normalization of morbid obesity that I think we've seen targeting young women for so long, and I think this is just part of that same agenda.

**Chris Williamson** (3:00)
Does it feel different seeing female looks maxing versus male looks maxing? Because again, we know for a long time that women beautify, self-beautification more, cosmetic surgery more, makeup more, etc.
This gives me different vibes.

**Isabel Brown** (3:14)
It doesn't feel like-

**Chris Williamson** (3:16)
When I see it, maybe it's just the classic male desire to protect, especially teenage girls.
Obviously, teenage boys need protection too, but there's an additional level of gut punching here. You're going, you shouldn't be being abused by other older girls online into you changing your appearance. I think every guy knows at 15, he wanted bigger arms.

**Isabel Brown** (3:44)
Yeah.

**Chris Williamson** (3:45)
But a girl who's complaining about the size of her boobs.

**Isabel Brown** (3:50)
Something you virtually have no control over in a realistic sense.

**Chris Williamson** (3:54)
Guys are talking about height would be the equivalent for that. I don't know. It's just-

**Isabel Brown** (3:58)
Which still feels more like a more fringe conversation, I think, for guys. Clivicular has gained a lot of international attention lately on social media and on the Internet. But guys, I think, generally look at the concept of male looks maxing as this weird fringe corner of the Internet or something entertaining to watch, not as a blueprint for their own life.