Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0009-0009-9221-2951

Semester

Spring

Date of Graduation

2026

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Type

PhD

College

Eberly College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Sociology and Anthropology

Committee Chair

Brandie Pugh

Committee Member

James Nolan

Committee Member

Kelly Watson

Committee Member

Ava Carcirieri

Abstract

Research literature on looksmaxxing is subsumed under the incelosphere, which is acknowledged as a white and male supremacist space. Yet, researchers fail to attend critically to the structure of patriarchy, choosing instead to base their analyses within the mainstream hegemonic masculinity paradigm. Using a Bourdieusian framework, this project fills a gap in the literature by transcending the mainstream paradigm to explain how the looksmaxxing community uses the body as a site of crisis management in response to patriarchal backlash, with the ultimate goal of restabilizing the patriarchy. This project uses a community-led survey from a popular online looksmaxxing community. This project engages in a qualitative thematic analysis of the data using Bourdieusian thinking tools and concepts, while also allowing for unexpected themes to arise. This project reveals that the looksmaxxing community symbolically repositions and distinguishes itself from incels in order to access patriarchal power and capital under the guise of being legitimate and natural. I discuss what these findings mean for literature and theorizing on the manosphere, incelosphere, and looksmaxxing ideology, suggesting that the field requires a paradigm shift that centers power and attends to the patriarchal restabilization strategies of these groups.

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