 Netflix's new animated series, Lookism, has got everybody thinking about how Lookism plays into their own life, Dave. Yeah, I mean, this is an anime, momhwa, whatever you want to call it, that's trending on Netflix, but it actually goes along with this global internet discussion amongst mostly guys about Lookism, because I think for the longest time, maybe only girls were breaking down looks and stuff like that, but I just seen, like YouTube videos recently, four, five, six million views, 30,000 comments, talking about Lookism, IRL, and not just the anime. Yeah, well, you know what? We're gonna talk about it from an Asian male perspective, because if you watch any of those videos, you will know that they always bust out the stuff. And statistically speaking, short Asian men do not fare very well on the dating apps. In fact, they fare the worst in the Western world. Right, but they kinda leave it there, right? Yeah, because they're not Asian, so, you know, we're Asian, so we care, so we're here to break it down from a micro, mid to a macro perspective. We're also gonna share some observations and tips we have at the end, okay? But this whole conversation was sparked by this series, Lookism, that I just watched. Real quick, so make sure you like, subscribe, turn on your notifications, Andrew. What is Lookism about? Because not everybody watched it, right? All right, well, I'll play a quick clip of the trailer, but it's kinda self-explanatory. Park Hyungsuk is an unattractive loser who gets bullied at school all the time. Right, he's short, and he's fat and ugly. I noticed when he's getting beat up, Andrew, the crowds that are watching, they don't even have sympathy. Nobody feels bad, right? So he gets bullied, and then he switches schools. But the day before he switches schools, he wakes up in the perfect body. Like, I'm talking about just like, amazing bod. Like, tall, he's athletic, he's chiseled, perfect hair. Right, so let's just say, looks wise, and I'll make it as simplistic for people. He went from like a two out of 10, or a one out of 10, to a 10 out of 10. Like, I'm trying to think of a pop star that is that, just the thing of the hottest pop star right now, he becomes that, right? At school, he shuts it down at his new school. So he has all these different interactions. Anyways, he goes down on this whole journey. People get treated way different, right? Yeah, he treats him way different, and then he goes in and out of his old, fat, ugly body and his new body. Anyways, there's some lessons to be learned. The last episode, I'm not gonna lie, kind of made me tear up. At the end, the concert, you guys should watch it. Anyways. Let's get into the micro, Andrew, is the show real? Because the whole show is called Lookism. Obviously, it's a dynamic that I think is even more spelled out in the East than in the West because they're more comfortable talking about male's looks over there. They're more okay talking about male beauty in the East, even if, yeah, I don't know why, it's just a cultural thing. But it's real, right? Yeah, I mean, obviously it's a anime, essentially, or a manhwa, or, you know, it's- A Korean anime, you're right. It's a Korean anime, so it's like really fun. It's actually pretty funny, but yeah, basically, listen, he gets treated way differently. The girls all look at him, and it's real because I noticed that like, depending on how you look, man, it can change all the little interactions in your life, right? And that's the micro. I will say this- You know, because I remember there's a scene because I watched one episode where he even gets picked on as a good looking guy, and it's very different than getting picked on when he was in his old, ugly original self because everybody starts showing him sympathy instead of like derision. He doesn't fight the goons anymore. He's fighting the other good looking guys, which is funny. That's a little subplot. And then basically, I think this whole Lookism truth really came about, especially with the age of social media, cosmetic surgeries, makeup filters. Influencers. Influencers. Celebrities. The better health trend, the better fashion trend. So think about it. I think personally, the gap of being treated between being like considered ugly and good looking. You talking about IRL. Yeah, in real life, is as big as it's ever been. However, now there are way more ways to look better. Right. So you're, that's kind of some black pill thinking. I'm just, I think today, it's fueled by this. Yeah, I would say this. I think previously, when people would discuss why guys are good looking, they'd just be like, oh yeah, that guy's just good looking, whatever. And they'd like, people would be like, oh, why do girls like this guy? People would just be like, oh, girls just like what they like. But then nobody was breaking it down. And it always seems so ridiculous to me that you can't break down why certain girls are really attracted to certain guys. But you could talk about why you prefer Android over iPhone or iPhone over Android for like 75,000 videos. Right. They come like, so wait. So something way more complex, like the human desires of the mind and the emotions and the hearts and the chemicals. We can't talk about that, but we can just talk about operating systems. Hey, why do you like that bag? Oh, I just think, you know, blah, blah, blah, it's like this, the color, the shape, blah, blah, it fits well in my arm. Oh, why do you like that guy? I don't know, I just do. Right. And we're just supposed to accept that answer. That's crazy. Moving into the mid Andrew, I think there's an interesting discussion in lookism, the anime as well as IRL about looks versus personality, personalities for looks, which one comes first? Like a chicken or the egg type situation, right? Well, it's tough to say, but I will say this, and I think this has been proven that whenever you do become good looking, if that becomes later in life, you grow into it, you glow up or whatever. As we said, all the interactions change and that, how you're perceived does affect your personality growth. Because let's say you have a lot of positive interactions because you're well dressed and you're good looking and you're standing in line, people always smile and people are generally nice to you or people give you like a little bit of slack or something because maybe you're just a nice person too, but then that is going to build on top of each other and then your personality might build up to be a little bit more confident in life or something. Yeah. And you know what I like about this series coming from Korea and Asia in general, which is hyper, hyper look centric, especially East Asia. It is just like, you have to provide a photo of yourself on your CV, on your resume. Like literally they might just throw you out of the pile based off look, off the rip. Obviously in the West, we have like, I think it's interesting in the West, everybody knows that lookism is real, but you're kind of like, it's taboo to talk about it or it was, but in the East, people have been talking about who's pretty and not pretty for like, I don't know, like 50 years. I think in the West, you're kind of raised and taught that that is still bad, even though everybody still does judge everybody's looks, but I think in Asia, man, sometimes it feels like, and especially if this year around a lot of very traditional Asians that like the parents raised the women, for example, to really care about the guy being just tall and have a good job, just tall and have a good job, that's it. And then, but they don't say like, oh, make sure he's funny or interesting or has like cool hobbies or like can do this and that or, you know, they just want to focus on like, two or three main like metrics. For sure. Can be very shallow. And I got to say, I mean, in the mid, like our family was not really like this. Our family was not into looks because I would say this, if I was to provide an analogy, Andrew, let's say we were both part of ASAP mob, you would be more put in the ASAP Rocky position and I would be ASAP Ferg. Pretty flock of ASAP Ferg would have the grill and Rob with the mob crazy personality. Yeah, I guess. Yeah, but you know, our parents didn't really raise us like that. They weren't like, my mom was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, he's ASAP Rocky. You're going to be Ferg. Okay, so he going to be the pretty one and you're going to be bombastic. Mom did say just like stand up straight. You have to look strong. So she said that, but she didn't really like. But I know some people they like to your point and everybody's family is different. Some people are raising those Asian families where it's almost like they're an extension of like a variety gossip show host. All right, David. So before we get on to the tips and observations that I think are very helpful for a lot of guys out there, at least good for our conversation. What's the macro of it? Man, the macro is that lookism is real, okay? But if we can like see it for what it is, it's just like the dynamic of the gameplay of whatever game map or like game we're playing. Like we always say Valorant is different from Overwatch is different from COD, you know how each game, yeah, they're all first person shooters, but there are the idiosyncrasies and nuances. Once you learn it and you accept it, okay, we play in lookism watch or whatever, you can then try to optimize to see. Obviously you have to look at what your characters, archetypes are and personality traits and the VC points or whatever, but like, once you accept it, you can figure out how to work with it and that brings us to our tips. Like we said, I'm a guy who I feel like at different points in my life, depending on what circles I've been in or what like fish bowls I've been in, I've been like considered like the sub-five. You know, when I'm around all the actors and models, when I'm on set or like when we're in Hollywood, I low, middle, high, I'm putting myself looks-wise of the people who have a red camera shooting them in the low. Like that's that world. I have to go off the, I guess, the ranking power hierarchy of that fish bowl. But it is helpful to know where you're at because different environments do have different metrics or different industries and different settings. Obviously we're in media around a lot of influencers, actresses, actors, models, we met them all and we know a bunch of them. Obviously they're extremely good looking. Sometimes I'm like, who are your parents, man? They have great frontal projection, lots of like great hair out there and stuff. So I guess it is important to know where you're at though. That's the number one thing. And that's the tough thing is that like, let's say you don't rank very high. Let's say you're considered unattractive. Are you a sub-five? But you almost got to know, but just enough for it not to break you. So let's go into some tips of things that could help people. And the reason these tips are relevant is because a lot of these like lookism channels, they get like four, five, six, seven, eight million views of video. Andrew, when they mentioned something like Asian men, all the least desired reply to by this type of person on the web, they just kind of leave it at that because they're not Asian themselves. So why would they give like the coaching tips or whatever? I think one of the main keys is, Andrew, is that all this lookism stuff is relevant if you go to a new city and you just log on in your Tinder, but it's not necessarily relevant if you're more like rising up the ladder of a micro circle. You know what I mean? Like that could be a completely different way of doing it. Let's say I'm at a hospital. I just got to be the best looking doctor. And you know, if there's nurses, I'm not saying whatever, like they value me as a doctor. I don't got to beat the models like in LA. Like, you know what I mean? I just got to be a good choice of the people who are looking at me. Yeah, because you're in a system that values already what you do and what you're bringing to the table besides your looks. Right, or if, Andrew, we even saw people doing it growing up, Andrew, this is a crazy thing to say. Listen, guys, you used to help me if it's problematic or not. Guys, this is human. Some people did it at church, bro. We knew there's one dude. I'm not gonna say who he is. He was trying to be the church leader and he would constantly date chicks that were out of his league in the church. As long as they were wholesome, spiritual and God-led relationships. But yes, of course, guys, there's microsystems that will value certain things where if you rank high in that system, no matter what the other world, the rest of the world thinks, then kind of you get that bump, you know? And women who are dedicated to the medical field or dedicated to the church, they're gonna value you and your position at the church or in the hospital. Because they're mostly like looking for somebody who's from the same circles that they're in. Yeah, I mean, another thing I will say this and I said this recently, is just like sometimes for some people, depending on your personality and how you look, it is tough to be around very traditional Asian thinkers. Because that traditional Asian thinking is gonna be very blunt about who is good-looking. Like, you know, some people I've heard parents in the past being like, oh yes, my daughter's so good-looking or my son's so good-looking. Oh, he's all good. He's had some. But my parents didn't... Our parents didn't really do a lot of this, they're some of their friends or people of our extended circle would say. So I think... No, they'd be gossiping like Joan Rivers does about like, you know what I mean? Like, it's funny cause it's like, yeah, every... You know what I mean? Buddy, who's an immigrant? I'm not saying other people don't go through it too, but you just know what I'm talking about. Old people, you know, they're just like, come here and they're like, oh yeah, my daughter's good-looking, your daughter's so good-looking. Put them together. Oh man, my daughter's kinda fat. My son a little fat. Yeah, my daughter's fat. Like, so she just had to study. I just make her shit. Just like... Really like, yeah. So I think that can be... It can weigh down on you. That's not cool. Yeah, so I think you just gotta know what fish bowls and how to move and stuff like that and understand that it's like, okay, so we're in look-as-and-watch, right? That's the overall game, but your character that you were born, which you can upgrade and augment a little bit, is better in certain game maps than other ones. Yeah. Right? Like, oh yeah, we in a different... This game map, this character was better for this game map. Yeah, changing environments, changing schools. Another tip I would say is like, and this kinda goes back to what field you enter, as in like, I notice a lot of Asian dudes that go into computer science engineering. We know this. It's a popular... A lot of Chinese guys specifically. Yeah, a lot of Chinese guys, a lot of Asian guys, but let me tell you this, there's not a lot of women in that field. Now, you don't pick a major just based on trying to meet women, right? However, you just have to know that if you're going into engineering, you're not gonna meet a lot of women or interface with a lot of women in your everyday life. Yeah. So that's not cool. You're not even gonna interface with guys who prioritize women either. Yeah, I'm not saying engineers don't get women. I noticed that a lot of the guys on the internet who try to coach guys, they're like ex-engineers because they figured it out in a very step-by-step process way. But yes, generally these guys, they don't make it about their life because that's not a social field, right? And you're not dealing with women and having those interactions with me to build up your reps with them so that you can talk with women better and stuff like that. So yes, sometimes if you are a underdeveloped, social-skilled person and you enter engineering just so you know that that's a tough pick. So I guess to wrap it up, Andrew, I'm sure we could just list tips forever. Literally, I think we did a video about Mike Cabellans, like Asian guys struggle dating article and it hit like 150K. Literally, I think, Andrew, if we wanted to run a successful YouTube channel strictly off this topic, I'm pretty sure we could. That's not what I wanted to only talk about. I think the market is there. So, Andrew, do you think that guys that are really good-looking, that are chads, the rare Asian guy with super good-looking Western features or whatever, is life super easy for them or does it just make things easier? What is the truth? Because I think that most people, logically, know that looks matter, right? I would say maybe 10% of people are like, oh yeah, looks only matter a little bit. Most people between the other 90% are distributed between looks matter at a medium impact level and looks matter at an ultra high impact level. And I think that's just the disagreement, high and medium. I don't really think anybody can say that looks is at a low impact level, especially in 2022, 2023 with all this digital media, social media, cloud chasing and everything. So, what's the truth? I think the truth is it depends on what your expectations are and what type of family background you come from. If you are tall, rich, good-looking and born from a good family and you don't wanna achieve that much in life, yes, life will be very easy. I'm just gonna go ahead and say that it's easy. That's easy mode, even if you're a man, that's easy. But even if you're tall and good-looking from a poor family and you're very ambitious, you're still gonna have to work your ass off. A couple of things might be easier. The doors might open easier, right? Maybe more people are willing to meet you or it'll be easier for you to find a relationship to hold you down so that you can work your ass off and not be frustrated in your dating life, right? Those things help, but no one's gonna do the work for you just because you're a good-looking man. The best way I could describe it immediately off the top of my head is if you're poor but you're really good-looking, it's almost like you get better power tools, but you still gotta build the house. It's like, yeah, somebody else got lower tier, the budget power tools from Home Depot and you got the top of the line ones, which does make it easier, but you still gotta do the work and lay the bricks. Yeah, we're gonna wrap it up there, guys. But yeah, let us know in the comments down below what you think, what are some tips or what are some things you realized about lookism moving into 2023? It's like, you know, we have surgeries, we have filters, we got Photoshop, we got poses, we got lighting, we got cameras, everybody knows what to do, everybody knows how to look good. So I guess the question is, is this gonna make everybody just step their game up? Everybody, like if you're not thinking about your looks at all in 2023, you're losing. Oh yeah, I forgot one last thing. You know where I see a lot of lookism, Andrew? It's TikTok. The level of joke and entertainment value you have to add as like a good looking like Chad versus a sub five is tremendous. The difference of value and prediction value. I still think, I believe in YouTube, man, you still gotta, you still got to add hard value even if you're good looking on YouTube. Oh yeah, by the way, I think also like if Asian guys, if you have no fashion sense at all, you should just like wear a suit and I think you'll get treated differently when you wear a suit. It's like for different reasons, but just wearing a suit nowadays, that's a good fitting suit. I don't know, I think you'll be seen as different. All in all, whether it's like the pill theory, it is that thing. I mean, I just think it's better that people talk about these things cause personally I know a lot of people that I grew up with, even in a way myself growing up, like I struggled with a lot of feeling like unattractive, you know, to the opposite, you know. So it's like, it's like, it is something that's worth talking about because otherwise people are like living their life in the dark. Yeah, no. And I do think I agree with your point previously. Like, especially in this day and age, you got to understand almost where you stand. Like you got to have an idea of where you fall. Like it doesn't, it shouldn't break you. It's not that you can't improve, but have an idea because you can move on from there. All right, you guys, let us know what you think in the comment section below. Let us know what you think of that manhwa anime lookism on Netflix right now as well. And you know, what do you think about lookism in IRL? Until next time, we're the hot pop boys, we out. Peace.