Lesson Topics: male culture, beauty, influencers
Skill Focus: Speaking, Vocabulary, Listening, Writing
Approximate Class Time: 1.75 hours
Lesson Plan Download: looksmaxxing-advanced-lesson-042026.docx
Lesson Overview:
- Students first warm up with questions about appearance and attractiveness.
- The lesson's input is a 4:38 (AmE) video from NBC News about looksmaxxing, a new trend among young males that aims to optimize appearance. The segment features a few popular looksmaxxing influencers and mentions the negative impact the movement can have on young men.
- The video is followed by comprehension and follow-up questions.
- Next, students review phrases from the video and match key vocabulary to definitions. Once complete, students use some of the new vocabulary to complete discussion questions.
- The first speaking activity is a roleplay between a teenage son and a mother who is worried about her son's unusual beauty practices.
- This is followed by a devil's advocate activity in which students must argue for and against three appearance-related statements.
- After four famous quotations, students then review vocabulary and the lesson's collocations.
- Finally, the lesson ends with a few final discussion questions.
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This lesson plan was created by Matthew Barton of EnglishCurrent.com (copyright). Site members may photocopy and edit the file for their classes. Permission is not given to rebrand the lesson, redistribute it on another platform, or sell it as part of commercial course curriculum. Claude was used to generate answer keys and some famous quotations. For questions, contact the author.
Comprehension questions:
1) Subjective, but should include: Looksmaxxing is a trend, mainly among young men, focused on maximizing physical appearance. Methods range from skincare and facial exercises to extreme measures like bone smashing and cosmetic injections. Communities have formed online with their own terminology, rating systems, and beauty standards. Experts warn of negative mental health impacts and links to misogyny and racism.
2) Subjective/discussion.
3) A chiseled jawline, specific facial ratios, and eyes that are one eye-width apart.
4) Fat dissolvers, lipolysis injections into his face, and bone smashing.
6) Misogyny, nationalism, and racism — particularly beauty standards that encourage men of color to make themselves appear more white.
7) Subjective, but students might note: looksmaxxing communities often exist in male-dominated online spaces where women are valued primarily for their appearance, which can foster resentment toward women or treat female approval as the ultimate goal of self-improvement.
8) Social media has amplified the trend and created an insular subculture with its own language, terminology, and rating systems — it's no longer just about looking good but has developed its own cultural identity.
9) Subjective/discussion.
Vocabulary answer key: a-shortsighted, b-shallow, c-extreme measures, d-vanity, e-implications, f-obscure, g-flawed, h-optimize, i-take sth to the extreme, j-misogyny, k-mainstream, l-affiliated
Collocations: 1-h, 2-a, 3-c, 4-I, 5-b, 6-g, 7-d, 8-e, 9-f
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Looksmaxxing#:~:text=While%20this%20practice%20is%20considered%20an%20inside%20joke%20and%20few%20have%20actually%20done%20it%2C%20it%20has%20been%20labelled%20misinformation.