Looksmaxxing, Blackpill, Mogging: The Secret Language of the Manosphere Explained

Data reveals that 63% of young men consume content from masculinity influencers, one in three of Gen Z men think wives should obey their husbands and one in six boys aged 6-15 have a positive opinion of the infamous Andrew Tate – an alarming trend amongst young men.

Following the renewed attention on the manosphere sparked by Louis Theroux’s latest documentary, a new wave of online slang is emerging in gaming chats and in forums online, as experts warn some commonly used phrases may be linked to self-harm, extremist ideology, and harmful subcultures.

The experts at Esports.gg have created a new red-flag glossary that maps the language of online radicalisation as it appears not on political forums, but in gaming chat rooms and social media comment sections, where many users encounter it first.

The manosphere codewords hiding in online chat – 14 phrases you need to know

Term
What it means and why it matters
Incel
“Involuntary celibate.” What began as a support concept has become, in its forum incarnation, a community built on entitlement to sex, resentment of women, and – in documented cases – inspiration for mass violence on multiple continents, including the UK, US, Canada and Germany.
Looksmaxxing
A term referring to the practise of maximising your physical attractiveness by any means necessary. This is far more extreme than the lighter-hearted ‘glow up’ trends circulating the internet. Looksmaxxing encourages cosmetic surgeries, fillers, hair transplants, and highly restrictive dieting or body manipluation including steroids and self-harm to meet a set of prescribed criteria with particular emphasis on jawlines, eyes, and physique. This trend is particularly harmful amongst young audiences who are in search of the almost unattainable physical ideals displayed by looksmaxxers and even celebrities
Bone smash theory
A looksmaxxing practice in which people deliberately self-harm in the belief that trauma will reshape their facial bone structure. A documented form of self-harm promoted in online incel spaces. Direct evidence of dangerous community engagement.
Chad
Incel slang for a man who is deemed physically attractive and sexually successful – an alpha male, chads represent the top 1% of men that women admire in the dating pool. The female version is a Stacy, who is hyperfeminine, attractive, and unattainable, who naturally only dates Chads.
Incel rebellion / Beta uprising
The framing of violence against women and “Chads” as a legitimate response to male oppression. The phrase “the Incel Rebellion has already begun” was used by the Toronto van attacker before killing ten people in 2018. Appearance in any context warrants immediate escalation.
Mogging
Popular on TikTok, meaning to look significantly better than someone else, outshining others in physical appearance, fashion, or “aura”. This term is derived from “AMOG” (Alpha Male of Group) and is particularly used within the looksmaxxing communities.
Blackpill
The nihilistic belief that a man’s romantic and sexual fate is genetically predetermined and unchangeable. At the extreme end, it is associated with encouragement of violence as the only meaningful response to an unjust world, and with severe depression and social withdrawal.
LDAR
“Lay down and rot.” A blackpill instruction to give up on life entirely – withdraw from all social contact, abandon self-care, and exist only within incel forums. Strongly associated with severe depression, self-neglect, and deteriorating mental health.
Sexual Market Value
This is a way to score an individual on sexual attractiveness on a scale of 1 to 10. This ranking is different from women to men, where women are ranked entirely on physical attractiveness, whereas men are ranked on physique, income, career, “clout”, and personality.
Briffault’s Law
A theory well known in the animal world that has been popularised online for human relationships in a harmful way, that women only use men for their personal gain, suggests women are selfish and deceptive, and this theory is used often to justify anti-feminist attitudes and actions.
JB (Jailbait)
Used in incel-adjacent forums to describe minors in a sexual context. Its appearance in anyone’s vocabulary is an immediate safeguarding concern and may indicate exposure to illegal material.
PSL scale
A system for rating facial attractiveness originating from incel forums (Puahate, Sluthate, Lookism). Someone discussing their own or others’ “PSL rating” is likely actively immersed in incel community spaces, even if they do not identify as incels.
Cracked/Cracking
Used commonly to avoid censorship online, this term refers to having sex. In the manosphere, it sometimes refers to nonconsensual sex.
Lookism
The pseudo-academic claim that attractiveness determines all life outcomes and that discrimination against unattractive people is the defining social injustice. Used to construct a scientific-sounding framework around incel beliefs, making the ideology harder to challenge.

Research published in 2025 by the University of Portsmouth identifies gaming platforms, influencer channels and recommendation algorithms as primary vectors through which manosphere language reaches people – often years before they would encounter it through explicitly political content. The authors describe this pathway as significantly underreported in mainstream safeguarding discourse.

The glossary draws from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, the Anti-Defamation League, UN Women, the EU’s Radicalisation Awareness Network, the McCain Institute and peer-reviewed academic sources. Every term in the red-flag tier has a direct evidential link to documented violence, dehumanisation or self-harm.