Even the least interested passer-by would acknowledge that Braden Peters is a strikingly handsome chap.
With his chiselled jaw and sculpted, gym-honed body, the 20-year-old influencer from Florida, who calls himself Clavicular, is obsessed with his appearance and spends much of his time on social media advising his growing army of followers that they, too, can dramatically improve their looks.
In fact, it is essential to do so to make a success of life, he insists. Good looks bestow a 'halo effect' on you, because attractive people do better in all manner of social settings, from romance to career opportunities and much more, he claims.
But it has always had a dark side. There is an ever-present element of poisonous misogyny among many looksmaxxers. Dangerous and extreme cosmetic 'treatments' have been taking place without medical supervision as young men go to extreme lengths to improve their looks.
They are encouraged by the fact that numerical scores are awarded among looksmaxxing communities for specific physical criteria, including sharp jawlines, striking bone structure, 'hunter' eyes which tilt upward towards the temple, as well as impressive muscularity and skin tone.
Clavicular previously altered his own appearance by hitting himself with a hammer to fracture bones in his face with the intention of 'improving' them.
What is truly terrifying is that looksmaxxing is now going supersonic, after being popularised and redefined on TikTok and other social media outlets.
This means the phenomenon is reaching new legions of discontented and highly impressionable young teenage boys, all of them predisposed to the 'manosphere' subculture represented by the likes of self-proclaimed 'misogynist' Andrew Tate, who is facing criminal and civil legal proceedings in several countries over alleged sexual and human trafficking offences (which he denies).
And there is another, desperately concerning aspect.
A trawl of some of these forums reveals not just rampant misogyny but also a horrifying number of vile pro-Nazi comments, including celebratory comparisons between the looksmaxxers' quest for physical perfection and Hitler's dream of creating an Aryan master race through eugenics.
There is no evidence that Clavicular himself espouses Nazi rhetoric, but he is certainly at the heart of the modern looksmaxxing phenomenon in the US where these views are regularly circulated.
With more than a million subscribers across TikTok, Instagram, YouTube and other platforms, Clavicular's popularity has skyrocketed.
He is now offering $49-per-month (£36.50) 'advanced courses' for men who are – as he puts it – 'tired of being invisible to women, tired of getting rejected and tired of watching other guys who won the genetic lottery' notch up endless sexual conquests.
In a promotional video, Clavicular – who admits to wearing make-up and eyeliner to help achieve perfection – tells potential customers: 'I'm not going to sugarcoat this – you have been lied to. They told you [to] just be confident, just be yourself, looks don't matter – but you and I both know that's complete bulls***.
'You see it every day – attractive men get treated differently, they get the girls, they get the respect and they get the opportunities handed to them – while you get nothing.'
Clavicular is speaking from personal experience. By his own account, he started taking testosterone injections at the age of 14 after developing an interest in bodybuilding.
He eventually moved on to 'bone-smashing', which involves repeatedly hitting yourself in the face – 'whether it be with a hammer or your fists' – to inflict a series of 'microfractures'.
Although he now relies on his fists, Clavicular recently told an interviewer: 'I used to use a hammer, but my parents would go into my bathroom and take it away.'
Clavicular claims the broken bones 'grow back stronger' and the result is a 'more masculine, chiselled' profile.
He has admitted taking methamphetamine – the most commonly trafficked drug in the US – to suppress his appetite and keep his weight under control.
And while he already stands at 6 ft 2 in, he also considered a $100,000 (£74,000) leg-lengthening operation that would make him four inches taller – to enhance his 'presence' factor.
Various strategies – and a new language – came into being: 'starvemaxxing' (extreme fasting), 'whitemaxxing' (using moisturising products to make one's complexion appear paler) and 'roidmaxxing' (abusing anabolic steroids) were among the most popular.
Others included 'mewing' (placing your tongue against the roof of your mouth in a bid to improve jawline structure), as well as 'edging' and 'gooning' (which both involve avoiding climax during sexual activity to improve looks through elevated testosterone levels).
Clavicular recently admitted that his intake of synthetic testosterone has affected his reproductive system. 'Right now, I am infertile . . . I'm not able to have a kid right now,' he said.
Even though he insists there is a way of 'immediately' reversing the situation, it sounds like a supreme irony. Clavicular's quest for physical perfection has rendered him incapable – at least temporarily –of contributing to a 21st-century master race.
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Poor lad. He's too young and naive to realise that you can look like a Greek God, but if you've got a shit personality and no joy in you, women avoid you like the plague.
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