By David Futrelle
Over on Incels.is — the successor site to Incels.me, which recently found itself tossed off the internet — the regulars are discussing what they evidently feel is one of the central issues of our time: Can dudes make themselves more appealing to women by punching themselves in the face?
Take it away, dude-who-calls-himself-rahultmnt:
![[Serious] will punching your own jaws and chin make it more defined ? Thread starterrahultmnt Start dateSunday at 11:25 AM rahultmnt rahultmnt Recruit - Sunday at 11:25 AM#1 I know there are martial artists who has hardened their hand bones by punching walls and crazy shit like that. So i was thinking WHAT IF I PUNCH MY OWN FACE[ :feelsrope:].... there will be some microfractures to my jaws and chin, and then when it heals. it will be harder ? more defined ?](https://i0.wp.com/www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/rf75t80u-90.png?ssl=1)
Naturally, Incels.is being the malignant shitsite that it is, some of the regulars piped right up to tell him to GO FOR IT.
A few of the regulars objected to rahulmnt’s plan, but he was unconvinced.
![rahultmnt Recruit - Sunday at 11:29 AM#6 Adoring Fan said: :giga::feelsmega: wtf man , something tells me this will go very wrong. Don't try anything stupid. what ? the worst that could happen is i would knock myself out.. im just going for the chin and jaw [ they are naturally designed to take punches ].. not the nose or temple or anything like that](https://i0.wp.com/www.wehuntedthemammoth.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/10/7rt8fy9gu0hi-e1540501818219.png?ssl=1)
Nor was he swayed by the testimony of a fellow incel who claimed to have tried this unique “looksmaxing” strategy himself.
Yeah, I don’t think that’s how it works. You can’t punch yourself handsome. (And, seriously, if you’re honestly contemplating physical self-harm, for any reason, please reach out to a person or an organization that can help.)
A few other commenters, also less than enthusiastic about the punching-yourself-in-the-face strategy, suggested assorted alternatives, ranging from “tough chewy mastic gum” (to strengthen the jaw muscles) to Human Growth Hormone.
Sure, working your jaw muscles will indeed strengthen them. And you’re not likely to hurt yourself chewing gum. But Human Growth Hormone could be as bad for you as punching yourself in the face.
Even more to the point: continuing to obsess over the precise structure of your face isn’t going to help you find your way to a better life. It’ll make you more depressed, more bitter, and in the end less attractive — not only to the women you’re interested in, but to pretty much everyone else on planet earth.
It’s not a few millimeters of bone, as the incel trope has it, that separates self-described “involuntary celibates” from the guys women are genuinely attracted to — it’s the kind of person you are. And the weird mixture of self-pity and narcissistic entitlement that the incel movement encourages makes even conventionally good-looking incels deeply unattractive to women.
Seriously, guys, just fucking stop this shit.
We Hunted the Mammoth relies entirely on readers like you for its survival. If you appreciate our work, please send a few bucks our way! Thanks!
I think rahultmnt and the few people who seem to agree with him are shitposting. Probably not the first time incels have done that while using the [serious] tag.
They may be joking about ludicrous idea that you could somehow improve yourself and not be a social pariah despite having been born with shitty bone structure. Plus some flippant self-harm references.
@citerior motive
I’m a martial artist, and I can confirm
It’s about building up calluses, and also about learning how to take the pain of hitting/being hit.
Punching someone and then hopping about holding your hand shouting “ow ow” would obviously be of no benefit in an actual fight. You need to be able to immediately focus back into the fight
Alan:
Being an athlete is notoriously unhealthy. But, did they have stronger bones?
I’ve understood from mainstream health advise that impact exercise can improve your bone density. Of course, that might be a different mechanism from “microfractures”, and I presume it won’t make your bones grow thicker.
This reminds me of academic fencing — or Mensur — that was seen in Germany and parts of Europe in the 18th to 19th century. Duelists would fence in goggles and padded gear leaving their cheeks exposed, and any cuts upon their face would be treated as a badge of honour and a symbol of proficiency.
I believe that is right, though it depends a bit what age you are.
I have to take a medication which has the side effect of making it harder for my bones to hold on to calcium, leading potentially to thinning and risk of fractures.
The best thing to counter this, I’ve been told by my GP and by the bone doc, is weight bearing exercise.
And thank goodness that doesn’t have to mean jogging or weights (though, it could) but mainly just walking and standing, where the weight being borne is, er… me, plus whatever I happen to have in my inevitable backpack, which is usually books, notebooks, sketching pencils, and often shopping. I do that anyway, but since the diagnosis I walk a couple of miles every day and a longer walk roughly every week.
It really helps I live in a very walkable city.
Yeah, impact and weight bearing exercise do help improve bone density.
https://www.verywellfit.com/bone-density-and-exercise-3120770
But impact exercise and traumatic impact are two different things. Impact exercise is putting stress on your bones from an angle at which the bones have been developed to handle. Randomly smacking yourself probably isn’t going to increase bone density. And even if it somehow did, increasing your bone density isn’t going to change the shape of your bones.
off-topic friday…
The suffering of the mega-wealthy knows no bounds… tragic, ain’t it?
https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/oct/26/worlds-billionaires-became-20-richer-in-2017-report-reveals
“… but, but, those people EARNED their wealth… they didn’t have it GIVE to ’em like the [insert derogatory term here] did!!”
au contraire’
Having taken a kick to the jaw once in karate class I can report that this strategy would injure the ligaments of the jaw long before the bones adapted. And slackjaw is probably not the handsome look you’re going for.
On Happy Days The Fonz was the peak of coolness. And yes, he had some cool stuff, but what made him cool was he was confident in his strengths, honest about his weaknesses, and sincerely appreciative of other people. I’m guessing no one talks about that kind of stuff on those forums.
Regarding Fonzie’s coolness, let’s not overlook jumping that shark…
@Anne, Vic:
My understanding is that a good chunk of that was Henry Winkler himself. Apparently when he was auditioning for the part of The Fonz, one of the bits he was supposed to do was walk by the mirror, check himself out, and pull out a comb to comb his hair. Winkler figured that being too obsessed with one’s appearance showed insecurity and wasn’t actually ‘cool’; so during his audition he ad-libbed the now-famous bit of walking by the mirror, whipping out his comb, and then pausing and smiling at the mirror because his hair was already perfect. That moment pretty much defined the character.
And yes, people are attracted to confidence, for good or for ill. In a gross oversimplification, a lot of the ‘women go for bad boys’ thing probably comes from the fact that some ‘bad boys’ can be incredibly confident, at least up until they run into something they can’t handle. But that only works if the ‘bad boy’ doesn’t act like a trash fire of a person right off the bat. It’s not the ‘bad boy’ part in itself that causes the attraction, it’s just that the confidence part which causes the attraction makes it easier to get away with being a ‘bad boy’. And your average incel is obviously way too into finding something else to blame to either understand that or to be confident.
Gross oversimplification, does not apply to everybody, order void where prohibited, etc.
I was actually just re-listening to Dave’s wonderful interview with Matt Binder on his DOOMED podcast and how Dave was relating all these guys’ bizarre bodily hangups. Then I recalled ContraPoints’s video on incels and how in many ways her transition can boil down to just a few millimetres of bone around the cheeks and chin and how we’re more likely to accept criticism as “the truth” as opposed to praise, which is disregarded as patronizing, even if meant honestly (there was a term Natalie used, but I can’t recall it). When my anxiety was in high gear in my 20s, I definitely experienced that. But in those semi-early years of high-speed internet, what I didn’t do is go and find a community to continuously reinforce the worst aspects of my anxiety. It’s an IV of poison flowing right into their brains and it needs to be unhooked.
I mean, I went to a costume party for the first time since high school last night and met plenty of great people. And I’m not the most extroverted of folks. The opportunities to get out and about are out there… just gotta leave the poison behind.
I’m appalled by this fresh absurdity, but delighted that it’s given everyone an excuse to talk about interesting topics like mensur scars and Rondo Hatton.
As I understand it, the Prussian students were doing it for the scars and not big on technique – basically one guy would stand still while the other took a whack at his cheekbones, and then it would be his turn to do the same to his opponent. As soon as first blood was drawn, the duel was over and the wounded fencer and his friends could focus on rubbing stuff into the cut to make sure it formed a nice dramatic scar.
Incel (rattus incellus) in it’s natural habitat
http://www.makingmodels.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/6.jpg
artist’s conception
Taken literally, this whole “punch myself in the face” thing is just dumb.
As a metaphor for inceldom, however, it’s spot-on; their entire movement is an endless series of punches to their own face.
… THAT MUCH IS CERTAIN….
I have been idly wondering whether one could convince alt-righters to deliberately injure themselves if they thought it would “own the libs,” but I didn’t want to bring it up because I didn’t want to be responsible for someone else’s self-harm, even indirectly.
It’s… nice? to know that this donglord has no such reservations.
@Katamount:
Being unable to accept praise can be one of the effects of ‘imposter syndrome’, where one believes that one’s fans are actually fans of a mental image they have of you, and if they got to know the real you, the fans would all hate the real you and leave. I’ve edged into that at times, and know a number of more creative types that are pretty obviously affected by it. (I also know creative people who obviously had trouble understanding how this could possibly be a thing.) It can be a nasty state of mind.
To a certain extent, I’ve always tried to live by the Mother Night quote by Kurt Vonnegut, even before I knew the line:
Even the people I pretend to be tend to be decent people, because I want to be able to live with myself.
@Jenora Feuer
Being unable to accept praise can be one of the effects of ‘imposter syndrome’, where one believes that one’s fans are actually fans of a mental image they have of you, and if they got to know the real you, the fans would all hate the real you and leave.
I’m no stranger to that… certainly has kept me from trying new things in my artistic endeavours… always envisioning what the audience would think of it.
Oh hey, they arrested a guy in the bombings: https://www.wonkette.com/looks-like-bomb-thing-suspect-is-trump-maga-idiot-of-our-dreams
I don’t think it would work ( apart from knocking your teeth out!) , but watching these guys physically assaulting themselves could be fun to watch!.
This guy wants to beat himself up? Why doesn’t he just hire someone to do it for him?
Or just hire a dominatrix…you know, “Wanton Wanda and her Wicked Whips.”
These guys define lunacy on a grand scale.
I don’t have high cheekbones either.
I’m short and round-faced. I can’t change this, so just accept I’ll never look like Annie Lennox.
@LeeshaJoy:
It seems to me that a lot of them are doing so metaphorically and mentally already: eating or feeding each other shit by the truckload, smacking their heads up against the wall, beating themselves and each other up over trivialities. I guess it stands to reason that they’d try to do it literally at some point. Between them and the Proud Boys (or peebees, as I prefer to call them), that Venn diagram of incels and political repugnants is rapidly becoming a single perfect circle.
Dear Mister Thing,
Is it true that sitting on a lit barbecue grill will give me a bubble butt?
Any information would be appreciated
“Even the people I pretend to be tend to be decent people, because I want to be able to live with myself.”
That can be as much of a trap. I’ve known people* whose sense of their identity was so bound up in being a “good person”, that they blocked out any constructive criticism- any evidence that they might be unkind in any way
*people, meaning me
It kind of depends on whether one believes that being a good person is something that you ARE, or something that you DO. For the latter, you look at your actions and go “am I doing good things? Are these actions harmful? Can I do better?”. For the former, you go “I’m a Good Person (TM), and therefore everything I do is Good, and there is no need for any self-reflection. Anyone who questions my actions is opposed to a Good Person like myself, and therefore they are Bad People.”