If you have teenagers in your life, they’ll probably have heard of the PSL scale. Or at least the language associated with it. Chad. Stacy. Normie. Subhuman.

The PSL scale is a pseudoscientific attractiveness rating system used by looksmaxxers, men in a part of the manosphere who sometimes use extreme methods to change their appearance. The scale purports to rank people into different categories based on their physical appearance, with looksmaxxers deeming that the higher up the scale a man is, the more attractive he will be to women.

The roots of this rating system lie in misogynistic online forums used by incels or involuntarily celibates, but now it’s all over social media, where teenage boys post photos of themselves,........

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