Bonesmashing / Bone Smashing

Submission 18,855

Part of a series on Involuntary Celibacy / Incel. [View Related Entries]

Featured Episode

About

Bonesmashing, also known as Bone Smashing Trend, is the practice of repeatedly hitting your bones, often your cheekbones or jawbones, with a hard object like a hammer, to alter their shape, theoretically making them more prominent, appealing and Chad-like. The practice is based on the principle of Wolff's Law, which claims that bones remodel themselves after trauma. It became popularized in mid-2018 among incels as a method of "looksmaxxing" similar to mewing and is often the subject of criticism for being dangerous and ineffective. In early 2023, videos and memes referencing bonesmashing started to go viral on TikTok.

Origin

The origins of bonesmashing are unclear but may have originated or been popularized on the Lookism forums (now Looksmax.org), a forum where men can discuss self-improvement that, according to a 2018 Vice^[1] article, has a reputation of being popular with incels. The first known reference to bonesmashing is an article posted by Vice^[2] on June 26th, 2018, titled "Learn to Decode the Secret Language of the Incel Subculture," in which they define it as:

The dangerous practice of attempting to damage your face to change your bone structure. This appears to be based in part on Wolff’s Law,^[20] which suggested that bones might grow in response to repeated blunt trauma. Some incels are obsessed with radically altering their bone density and jaws to conform to what they consider the male ideal, and this is presented as one way to do that without expensive surgery.

The term became further popularized on sites including 4chan and Looksmax.org over the following months. For example, on September 26th, 2018, Looksmax^[3] user averageblokecel started a thread titled "[Serious] Bonesmashign General," writing, "I put a serious tag because 98.58% of bonesmashing get meme'd to death and beyond so let's try to make a good discussion gentlemen," then explaining what bonesmashing is (shown below).

On October 19th, a "bonesmashing" page was created on the Incels Wiki.^[4] The wiki page lists two opposing arguments against bonesmashing, writing:

After bone smashing was discussed in PSL forums, it was argued that bonesmashing may only provide a temporary swelling and not real bone growth and that may not give predictable results that guarantee a positive outcome.

It has been argued that no individual may reasonably apply enough constant stress to their faces to increase their bone density. Excessive trauma will result in fractures and irreversible disfigurement, while repeated trauma may possibly result in nerval irritation or damage.

Spread

Discussions about bonesmashing continued to appear online in the following years. On December 10th, 2018, a Looksmax^[5] member created a thread asking if bonesmashing is legit in which several users discourage the practice. On May 8th, 2019, a Redditor made a post to /r/orthotropics^[6] asking about it.

On May 17th, Looksmax^[7] user Dude420 then started a thread to debate bonesmashing in which the user doubts its practicality by showing photos of an MMA fighter before and after multiple fights. On July 1st, 2022, a Redditor posted a video of someone bonesmashing to /r/WTF,^[21] garnering over 415 upvotes in nine months.

On August 17th, 2018, YouTuber Tomazzo posted a video explaining the principles behind bonesmashing in detail and offering a tutorial on how to bonesmash, using various athletes as evidence that bonesmashing works, garnering over 246,000 views in four years (shown below).

On October 19th, YouTuber^[8] AsHBoY posted a video claiming that bonesmashing is effective and does so with his fists, garnering over 90,000 views in four years (shown below, left). On March 30th, 2022, steeljawlinegum.com^[9] published an article about bonesmashing. On April 15th, 2022, YouTuber^[10] Ekil, who has multiple videos on bonesmashing, posted a video where he demonstrates bonesmashing with a hammer, garnering over 11,000 views in a year (shown below, right).

TikTok Presence

On July 29th, 2022, TikToker^[11] @wiilliamli posted a video demonstrating bonesmashing, garnering over 700,000 views in nine months, also gaining over 685,000 views on YouTuber.^[12] On February 20th, 2023, TikToker^[17] @jamesthebonesmasher started posting videos, which appear to be ironic, about bonesmashing (popular example shown below).

On March 30th, 2023, TikToker^[13] @ricknotowen posted a series of before and after photos purportedly taken after bonesmashing, garnering over 226,000 views in a week. Later that day, the TikToker^[14] posted another video suggesting he uses a hammer for bonesmashing, garnering over 149,000 views in a week (shown below, left). On March 31st, TikToker^[15] @hyperiddaren posted a video claiming he's starting bonesmashing, garnering over 600,000 views in six days (shown below, right).

On April 1st, Twitter^[16] user @skyicidal posted screenshots of @ricknotowen's videos, writing, "wake up honey new fucked up tiktok trend dropped," garnering over 16,700 likes in five days (shown below).

That month in April 2023, TikTokers^[18]^[19] then began posting satirical videos showing their before and after progress with bonesmashing, as well as memes about bonesmashing (examples shown below).