Looksmatch

About

Looksmatch or Looksmatched is a slang term used in the incel community that describes two people of the opposite sex who are on the same level of attractiveness. The term has been used online as early as 2018 and became increasingly popular over the following years, inspiring a trend on X (Twitter) in March 2024 where users show two people who they believe are looksmatched.

Origin

The origin of the term "looksmatch" is unclear. The earliest known use of the term "looksmatch" was posted to the /r/BattleOfTheSexes^[1] subreddit on August 23rd, 2018, in a post titled, "Do Men Find it Harder to 'Looksmatch'?" On August 27th, a page for the term was added to the incels wiki,^[2] defining the term:

A looksmatch is someone who is equal to another person on the decile scale. In other words, someone who is in the same percentile of physical attractiveness within their gender demographic as the other person is in their gender demographic.

Spread

The term spread throughout the 2020s.

These Two People Are Looksmatched

In March 2024, the term became increasingly popular on X as users began sharing images of two people they believe are looksmatched. On March 6th, 2024, X^[3] user @SeloSlav posted side-by-side photos of actress Zendaya and a stock photograph of a balding man, writing, "These two people are looksmatched," garnering over 4,300 likes in under a day (shown below).

That day, the post was quote-reposted on X^[4][5] numerous times with further examples of the meme, often ironic (examples shown below).

Various Examples

Search Interest

External References