In 2026, at Bard High School Early College — a top-rated public school in New York City — global studies teacher Dr. Melissa Turoff was startled to recognize the increasing popularity of “bonesmashing” in her classroom. Bonesmashing is an act of hammering your jaw and cheekbones (with a literal hammer, in most cases) until they break, in hopes of the bones growing back stronger and sharper. Dr. Turoff told the FBomb that she was worried “to see [bonesmashing] being embraced by young men at a competitive high school.”

But Bard High School is hardly the only school that has this problem. Many young boys are obsessed with bonesmashing as part of a larger ideology called “looksmaxxing,” a highly intensive rating system for evaluating physical attractiveness. Looksmaxxing is based on a formula for attractiveness that was developed on incel forums, but now has its own website, looksmaxxing.com. Your body fat percentage, inter-pupillary distance, and canthal tilt (measure of slant of your eyes) are, among other body parts, measured and compiled to form a zero to 10 overall rating. Looksmaxxers go through all sorts of physical pain to achieve as high a rating as possible.