How to become a real man? Thanks to the masculinization of the jawline, men will become more masculine, but no one will recognize them. Liam Payne and Zac Efron are proof
You may have caught the media whirlwind surrounding one of One Direction's former members, Liam Payne, in recent days. Liam was a pretty nice guy. But he probably concluded that his features were too delicate and bland. And so, out of nowhere, he appeared in public in a way that virtually no one recognized. "He wasn't bad-looking before, but his face, instead of being soft and a little chubby, now looks downright rugged, the way models tend to look," celebrity plastic surgeon Pamela Weinberger described Payne's new look. According to her, the singer has probably undergone an increasingly popular procedure, the removal of the so-called buccal fat from his cheeks. In addition, Payne is said to have probably opted for jaw filler, lip filler, chin filler and also Botox application. Beautiful! And how about Zac Efron?
Zac Efron is probably remembered by today's thirty/thirty-five year olds from the teen musical comedy series High School Musical. However, it's been a number of years since Efron shined in them. While most of his fans have only gained a few wrinkles, the actor and singer, like Liam Payne, has changed beyond recognition (and, according to some, resembles a wax clone of David Hasselhoff).
The actor himself claims that he shattered his jaw at home when he slipped on a sock and had to undergo plastic surgery. His lower jaw was reportedly literally sticking out. He subsequently explained to Men's Health magazine his dramatic appearance transformation by saying that he had to work on his chewing muscles and inner cheeks and that he also trained his jaw, which is why his face has changed so dramatically. "My chewing muscles just grew and got really big," he summarized. Whatever the truth, in Zac's case, it's also true: new jaw = new man. However, the obsession for a manly jaw is definitely not just a celebrity pastime.
A sharply (re)cut jaw as a symbol of masculinity?
First of all: the masculinisation of the jaw is definitely not a fantasy of ours, it is a regular procedure offered by many medical institutions. Thus, the American Cleveland Clinic states that "facial masculinization surgery creates a more angular face that can be considered more masculine. It reshapes the bones and soft tissues so that the facial features are more sharply defined." There's nothing wrong with that, ultimately. The problem is that the masculinization of their jaws has been seen by so-called cis men (read, just completely "ordinary" men who were born as men and live as men). Why? To conform to ideals of male beauty, to increase their self-esteem, etc.
"Generally speaking, the ideally attractive male face is one that is masculine at first glance," so says London plastic surgeon Dr. Max Malik. According to him, this means a face with low and relatively unarched eyebrows, strong and visible cheekbones, a prominent jawline and a prominent chin. This is what has always been said to be attractive, with the convention that the male face should also widen downwards. But as Malik also adds, "social media and its rise has amplified these proportions. Men's faces are becoming more and more angular. It has to be said that everything has its limits!"
A bit of mad masculinity
But where there's demand, there's supply. Whereas in the past, achieving a "masculine face" was really expensive (and also painful), today many clinics offer, for example, "masculinization filler" packages including injections in the jaw, cheeks and chin. Although this practice can already be viewed with a certain amount of caution, the real heavy caliber is elsewhere - in the community of men who come together in the online world in forums that are united by a single term: Looksmaxing.
Looksmaxing is part of a whole specific internet sphere from which toxic masculinity literally drips. It is here that one can find countless discussion threads describing the ideal male facial structure. And in the eyes of these men (who often also fit the role of those who are constantly harmed by women and thus fall into the category of so-called incels, i.e. men living in involuntary celibacy), changing their face can literally change their lives. But it's not just about injections or fillers. These men have no problem having their entire lower jaw broken by experts for the sake of their dream look. Just to fulfill that ideal of masculine beauty (you can read some of their stories in our extensive analysis of the masculinization of faces here).
Onward to manhood!
Whether a man is an actor or singer who wants to look good, or claims to have slipped on a sock, a transman or a completely ordinary "man of the people", anyone can fall for the image of the ideally attractive man, basically indiscriminately. While there is no aggregate data to show which demographic group undergoes facial/facial masculinisation most often, it is possible to see, for example, claims that gay men in particular suffer from the existing criteria of the ideal male beauty - and probably struggle more than heterosexuals to fulfil it.
In the end, however, it probably doesn't matter who is most interested in masculinizing their appearance. Because if it weren't for the constantly enforced universal form of attractiveness, surely no one would think of voluntarily getting God knows what injected into their face (in the better case) or having their jaw broken open (in the worse case)... to look manly and not even their own mother would recognize them in the end.
