Exploring Aura Reading and Looksmaxxing Trends on TikTok

Fell over getting off the bus? Minus one hundred aura points. Discovered a band before your mates? Plus one thousand aura points. The new AP ranking system has taken TikTok by storm as teens rush to reveal the coolest and most harrowing moments in their lives to get engagement, sympathy and much coveted aura. Meanwhile incel rhetoric has once again broken free from the underbelly of the internet's forums to give men body dysmorphia via looksmaxxing. Through analysing both trends, hosts Ione and Gina reckon with the fact that it seems that the male gaze has finally started to corrupt how men see themselves and ask the question if self-commodification has reached a head.

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