The Centre for Young Lives just produced a report warning about the fast-growing online trend of “looksmaxxing”. Looksmaxxing is an online phenomenon around physical appearance ‘optimisation’ driven by a belief that appearance is the primary factor of a man’s social or romantic worth. This trend is driving some boys and young men towards dangerous body image pressures, extreme behaviours, and misogynistic worldviews.The Centre for Young Lives highlights the damaging ideology on male-dominated fora which dictate that appearance determines one’s place in a rigidly hierarchical ‘looks based’ world.
One of the experts interviewed for this timely report is Bournemouth University’s Dr. Orlanda Harvey. Dr. Harvey is a Senior Lecturer in Social Work in the Faculty of Health, Environment & Medical Sciences. Orlanda’s Ph.D. research focused on men using image and performance enhancing drugs and her work has resulted in many academic papers [1-7].
Well done!
Prof. Edwin van Teijlingen
References:
- Harvey, O., van Teijlingen, E., Parrish, M. (2025). Using A Range Of Recruitment Strategies To Recruit Those Who Use Anabolic Androgenic Steroids. Journal of Mixed Methods Studies, 11: 43–60. https://doi.org/10.59455/jomes.42
- Harvey, O., van Teijlingen, E., Parrish, M. (2024) Using a range of communication tools to interview a hard-to-reach population, Sociological Research Online 29(1): 221–232 https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/13607804221142212
- Harvey, O., Keen, S., Parrish, M., van Teijlingen, E. (2019) Support for people who use Anabolic Androgenic Steroids: A Systematic Literature Review into what they want and what they access. BMC Public Health 19: 1024
- Harvey, O., Parrish, M., van Teijlingen, E., Trenoweth, S. (2020) Support for non-prescribed Anabolic Androgenic Steroids users: A qualitative exploration of their needs Drugs: Education, Prevention & Policy 27:5, 377-386. doi 10.1080/09687637.2019.1705763
- Harvey, O., Parrish, M., van Teijlingen, E, Trenoweth, S. (2022) Libido as a reason to use non-prescribed Anabolic Androgenic Steroids, Drugs: Education, Prevention & Policy 29(3):276-288.
- Harvey, O., van Teijlingen, E., Parrish, M. (2022) Mixed-methods research on androgen abuse – a review, Current Opinion in Endocrinology & Diabetes 29(6):586-593.
- Harvey, O., van Teijlingen, E. (2022) The case for ‘anabolics’ coaches: selflessness versus self-interest? Performance Enhancement & Health 10(3) August, 100230
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