Clavicular, "Looksmaxxing", and How We All Became Narcissus
How our culture promotes narcissism and how to save our souls from it.
If you spend any amount of time online, you probably have seen the rapid rise in popularity of the influencer nicknamed “Clavicular”, the man depicted in the photo above. He has made a name for himself by talking about “looksmaxxing”—trying to make oneself as attractive as possible—in his social media profiles, and has amassed hundreds of thousands of followers, become incredibly popular, and probably made millions of dollars from the attention he’s receiving.
I don’t intend to bash or criticize Clavicular, but simply use his example to illustrate a point I’ve been thinking about lately: we’re all way too worried about ourselves and how we look.
The specific case of Clavicular is, in my view, the natural consequence of a society that glorifies the self. I don’t know him or his heart, and from what I’ve seen online, he’s a young man who’s been tempted by the shiny objects of the world, and who’s been heavily influenced by the economy of attention. I think he’s a young man who’s full of fire, but he’s sadly been misusing that fire and his God-given gifts, reaching extremes and levels of obsession that might not be easy to come back from:
As I said, it’s not my intention to criticize the guy. He’s a very young man desperately needing God’s grace (like all of us). So I encourage you to pray for him, so that God might reach him and he can reform his life and use his gifts to serve the Lord and all the others that look up to him.
It’s Not Necessary to Be That Extreme to Be Guilty of Narcissism
Moving on from the specific example of Clavicular, his recent virality reminded me of a quote by Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa, which I posted years ago on my Instagram page:
If the inventor of the mirror poisoned the human heart, then the inventor of the smartphone drenched it in gasoline and set it on fire to be completely consumed by the flames of self-worship.
Every photo, every video call, every mirror we cross are our very own reflections on the lake. Narcissus couldn’t even imagine just how easily he would be able to linger on his own reflection, had he stayed alive until the 21st century.
Think about it for a second:
How many pictures of ourselves do we have?
How many times do we look at ourselves in the mirror, every day?
How easy is it to become overly concerned with how we look?
We see our own faces constantly, whether we want to or not. And this has given us main character syndrome. We have started to believe that it’s all about us. We are constantly worried about how we look, thinking that every person we meet will focus all of their energy in analyzing our appearance.
We are simply not that important. And we are not on this earth to be the main characters.
I believe that’s the deeper point that Pessoa was making when he wrote the earlier quote, and that is that mirrors (and smartphone cameras, by obvious extension), make us overly aware of our presence, appearance, flaws and successes: no man was created to see himself 24/7, or to even know exactly what he looks like. Because it’s only thus that he can forget about himself, behave completely genuinely, and shift his energy outwards, towards the mission entrusted to him by God almighty.
What we focus on determines who we are, and from that it naturally follows that when we focus on ourselves, we become self-absorbed, caught in the cycle of self-worship fueled by hyperawareness of our appearance.
If we focus on ourselves, we’ll find it hard to focus on God and become more like Him.
As you know, I’m not one to just point out the negative to create drama, but rather so that we can be aware of it and devise strategies to combat it with virtue and purposeful action. For that reason, I want to end this article with some Catholic wisdom that can help us all resist the pull of our narcissistic society.
Breaking Free From Narcissism
Narcissism is an expression of the vices of pride and vainglory. Thus, to combat it, it’s appropriate to work intentionally on developing the virtues opposite to those vices, namely charity and humility.
Charity (love of God and neighbor) overcomes self-centeredness and reminds us of our vocation to service, and humility (the right appraisal of oneself under God) overcomes self-worship and reminds us of our position as sinners saved by Grace.
Practically speaking, we can hold narcissism at bay by:
Reflecting on divine charity: This helps you combat indifference and ingratitude by realizing that everything good about your life was given to you freely, out of love.
Seeing others as brothers through acts of kindness, mercy, and gratitude. Remove yourself from the spotlight and place others there to connect with your vocation as a servant, as Christ was.
Centering on Christ:
Charity, however, makes us draw back from the centre in order to set ourselves in the real centre, which is Christ alone. Then, and only then, can we be persons who are respectful and attentive to the good of others.
— Pope Francis1
Cultivating humility through self-examination: Accept your talents and flaws honestly, remember how desperate for Grace you are, accept your limits, and glorify God in your neighbors’ merits.
Close your social media accounts if possible: The focus on the self and the constant comparison to others that social media promotes fuels narcissism, insecurity, envy, and pride.
Beyond these practices, it’s all about remembering the temporary nature of life on earth, the impending decay of our physical bodies, and the hope of resurrection only if we give our lives over to Christ.
Life was simpler and happier back when we could forget, at least for a few hours, what we looked like.
But we can still, through great effort, switch our focus from ourselves towards the needs of others, and we can do so by maintaining the light of Christ at the very center of our lives.
Christ, who came to serve and not be served.
Christ, who, being God, became man.
Christ, who, being the King of Kings, chose to be born in poverty.
May we all learn to imitate Him every day, removing ourselves from the spotlight and directing all glory and praise to Him.
Pro regno Dei,
Juan
Thank you for reading!
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Ordinary Public Consistory for the creation of 20 new Cardinals (14 February 2015), available at https://www.vatican.va/content/francesco/en/homilies/2015/documents/papa-francesco_20150214_omelia-concistoro-nuovi-cardinali.html
At the heart of all sin is the inordinate love of self. At the heart of all virtue is a reflection of the character of God.
I'm glad you wrote this, sir. I've uttered a prayer for Clavicular's soul. There's a little bit of this tendency in all of us, so this article (ironically enough) affords me the opportunity to reflect on the ways I fall short in this area and how I can do better.
Banger article, sir, keep up the great work!
I wrote about this a few weeks ago. You should check it out! Good take on here -- seems to match what I'm seeing. https://substack.com/home/post/p-182826240