Thinking Face Emoji
Thinking Face Emoji
Podcast Description
From girl math to men who are babygirl to looksmaxxing incels, online culture has accelerated, and perhaps even changed, how we express our gender identies. In this podcast created by The Hmm in collaboration with The Institute of Network Cultures, we are focusing on online gender expression. The early Internet is often viewed as an emancipatory space where people explored and experimented with identity and gender. Today, this spirit of identity play exists simultaneously alongside a broader trend that leans toward more cisheteronormative gender roles.
This podcast series is an extension of The Hmm’s 2025 research topic THIS IS WHO YOU’RE BEING MEAN TO.
Podcast Insights
Content Themes
The podcast focuses on themes surrounding online gender identity, cultural trends, and societal commentary. Notable episodes explore topics like looksmaxxing and its connections to eugenics, the mainstreaming of incel terminology, and the evolution of the girlboss phenomenon, examining how these concepts impact online and offline culture.
From girl math to men who are babygirl to looksmaxxing incels, online culture has accelerated, and perhaps even changed, how we express our gender identies. In this podcast created by The Hmm in collaboration with The Institute of Network Cultures, we are focusing on online gender expression. The early Internet is often viewed as an emancipatory space where people explored and experimented with identity and gender. Today, this spirit of identity play exists simultaneously alongside a broader trend that leans toward more cisheteronormative gender roles.
This podcast series is an extension of The Hmm’s 2025 research topic THIS IS WHO YOU’RE BEING MEAN TO.
In the third episode of Thinking Face Emoji, Margarita Osipian from The Hmm and researcher Mita Medri, are joined by writer and cultural commentator Ana Sumbo, to discuss the online phenomenon of looksmaxxing. Hunter vs prey eyes, the canthal tilt, siren vs. doe eyes, angel vs witch skull, or a FYP filled with Gigachad jawlines. This is the landscape, or some might say cesspool, of looksmaxxing. With its incel-verse undertones and radical history, we discuss whether this phenomenon is just another glow-up trend or is it signaling a resurgence in eugenics?
Mentioned in this episode:
“men used to go to war” | TikTok clip from Kareem Shami
The Slow Burn Back to Eugenics by Ana Sumbo
The Digital Legacy of Eugenics project by Lila Brustad
Rage against the machine: how incel culture went mainstream in 2023 by Günseli Yalcinkaya
Predatory Data: Eugenics in Big Tech and Our Fight for an Independent Future by Anita Chan
I tried all of the most popular looksmaxxing glowup tips! | TikTok clip from Michael Hoover
Deathnics thread on looksmax.org
Yassified Eugenics by Abha Ahad
POV: How the SS officers pulled up to the Nuremberg trials | TikTok clip from Kareem Shafti
Are you the hunter or the hunted? | Instagram video from @rawreturned
Lard of estrogen | Instagram video from @nickfraserrrrr
Find The Hmm at:
thehmm.nl
Find Ana at:
Substack
Thinking Face Emoji is a podcast by The Hmm, in collaboration with The Institute of Network Cultures, and financially supported by the Creative Industries Fund NL.
Jingle and sound design by Jochem van der Hoek.
Editing by Salome Berdzenishvili.
Cover art by Aspirin.
Disclaimer
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