Gen Z Is Concerned About Their Negative Canthal Tilt As "Looksmaxxing" Trend Grows

We now have 14-year-olds sharing the "anti-aging" routine on TikTok and teenagers calling people in their 20s "ancient," proving how this generation has an unhealthy obsession with appearance. Now, Gen Z is saying that your eye shape determines your attractiveness, and if you have down-turned eyes (otherwise known as a negative canthal tilt), it's "over for you."

An influencer, Kenny Haller, got a comment on one of his videos informing him of his eyes and his fate. "Negative canthal tilt its over for you bro," the person wrote.

"Why?" Haller responded in a video. "What's wrong with my – I don't even know what a canthal is." He proceeded to hilariously look up the term in Urban Dictionary, which stated, "When the inside edge of your eye (medial canthus) is higher than the outside part of your eye (lateral canthus). This forms a negatively slanted eye that can make you look tired, submissive, or old. Popular determiner of attractiveness in looksmaxxing/incel communities."

The looksmaxxing community is exactly what it sounds like: A group of people (predominantly male) hyperfixated on appearance, and doing everything they can to look as best as possible. In my opinion, there's nothing wrong with improving your appearance, but the ideology becomes incredibly harmful when they deem certain features "undesirable" or ugly" – and this is exactly what's happening in the "looksmaxxing" corner of TikTok. Like Haller, most people never saw their downturned eyes as an issue before. If young people are coming across comments telling them "it's over" because of their features, there's no telling what this will do to their self-esteem.

The looksmaxxing craze even brought about the viral canthal tilt filter on the platform, which measures if someone has upturned (positive canthal tilt) or downturned eyes.

Most people in the community are joking when they diss someone's eye shape, but some truly believe that you need deep-set eyes (or "hunter eyes") and a positive canthal tilt to be good-looking.

Dr. Norman Mohamed, a dermatologist on TikTok, gives his two cents on the matter: "Generally speaking, a positive or an upward tilt is more desirable because it signifies a more youthful, alert, and attractive look. If you have a negative tilt, this signifies a more tired or sad look," he says. "Which I guess explains why everybody always asks me, 'Are you tired?'"

Let's not forget that Dr. Mohamed said "generally speaking" when discussing what people found attractive. Having a negative canthal tilt does not make you ugly. Anne Hathaway, for example, has large downturned eyes, and she's still stunning.

Actress Camilla Belle also has the same eye shape, but you don't see her making a fuss about it.

It wouldn't be fair not to add a male celeb in this article, so allow me to include one of the hottest men in Hollywood – Henry Cavill.

So, there you have it. Your eye shape alone doesn't determine your level of attractiveness. This isn't to say the looksmaxxing community is all that bad, though. If you ask me, I think it's great that many young people are focused on enhancing their appearance and even working out more. If this keeps up, Gen Z may be the prettiest and healthiest bunch of individuals we've seen in a long time.

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