The New Pageant: Why Lookalike Competitions Only Work for Men
- Eva Houlton
- 7 hours ago
- 4 min read
Lookalike competitions have grown in popularity online for the better part of the last two years; hundreds of people gather in a park or other public space and cheer and boo over the supposed doppelgangers of a given celebrity. While the trend was most popular in 2024 and Summer 2025 it has continued worldwide with the release of new media like Heated Rivalry in the past few months.
In the fall of 2024, YouTuber Anthony Po posted a flier around New York City advertising a “Timothee Chalamet Lookalike Competition” with a $50 cash prize. Hundreds of people showed up at Washington Square Park hoping to be crowned or see those being crowned before the event was shut down by police. After the event moved to a secondary location, Chalamet himself arrived, giving all following competitions higher expectations.
After seeing the success experienced by the Chalamet contest, more immediately popped up around the world in the following weeks– Harry Styles in London, Jeremy Allen White in Chicago, Zayn Malik in Brooklyn, etc. Almost all of these competitions revolved around men getting on stage for a crowd of young women deciding whether or not they looked like the celebrity they said they were. When later competitions arose around Zendaya or Rachel Sennot, they had far fewer attendants and received less attention online (less than 60 people showed up for Zendaya’s, while close to 10,000 showed up for Timothee Chalamet’s and over 1,000 for Jeremy Allen White’s).
During our current political climate in which women are being constantly (and increasingly with the rise of social media) policed and ridiculed for their appearances, it makes sense for a trend to appear in which primarily young women get to reverse the roles on men. These competitions provide spaces where mostly women get to decide on the attractiveness of a handful of men, determining the requirements and standards to which they are held. Furthermore, it is one of the only spaces in which men are getting publicly judged based on their attractiveness and physical appearance. This modern male pageant is a subversion of what women have been subjected to for all of modern history.
Most of the first competitions centered on white men (Timothee Chalamet, Harry Styles, Paul Mescal, Jeremy Alan White), but expanded with a competition for Dev Patel, intentionally created as a subversion of the trend. This continued with a competition for Zayn Malik in Brooklyn, in which masculine lesbian Selin Ceren was crowned second place. Though the trend until that point was funny and campy, she immediately got attacked by everyone online for “not looking like Zayn,” etc.
This moment is a perfect example of why these competitions can only ever work for men: the moment a woman gets involved, she gets ridiculed. She lacks the campiness necessary for the competition to remain unserious; women are constantly put on a stage and judged, it isn’t fun or funny to clap for it. Or rather, even though Ceren may have been crowned at the Brooklyn event in person, the moment the internet got a hold of the story, she was attacked left and right.
Furthermore, women are told from the time they are born they shouldn’t be cocky or arrogant– the foundational personality traits needed to get on stage at a lookalike competition. Women simply wouldn’t go to a competition in fear of being ridiculed on the internet or seen as conceited. There would be uproar at the audacity of a woman thinking she is attractive enough to get on stage, something that is notably absent around men.
Following the most recent competition in Washington, D.C. for JFK Jr., the internet pointed out the seemingly obvious fact that none of the competitors actually looked like him at all– most were simply dark-haired men who put on a button-down shirt and sunglasses. Cosmopolitan posted on Instagram asking “Are Lookalike Competitions Making Men More Delusional?,” a question that, though humorous, is not without merit. There is an internet sentiment suggesting that “every straight man thinks he would be able to do stand-up comedy, and every gay man thinks they would be able to win RuPaul’s Drag Race” nodding to the level of inner confidence societally instills in men. There is no equal equivalent for women. Any event similar to the lookalike contests (pageants, reality television, etc.) have extremely high standards and high stakes; women are mocked and critiqued more often than not. Because of this difference both in socialization and in what is praised for men versus women, these competitions will never be as successful for a female celebrity as they are for men.
The lookalike competitions have continued for over a year, remaining at least relatively constant until now. It is likely partially due to the fact that it is arguably some of the most honest pop culture we’ve seen. Though it is based on celebrities and celebrity culture, the trend centers normal people, questioning what it means to be famous or to win something based on one’s looks. The audience knows it’s not the celebrity on stage, but seeing someone that looks like him shows the malleability of humans and the transition of fame.
This could also indicate a trend reflecting the rise in AI and the fact that we find ourselves in a time where it is increasingly difficult to tell the difference between what is real and what is fake; perhaps these competitions bring humanity back into the question of doppelgangers– an event uninfluenced by technology, instead based entirely on human connection and community. Fliers hung on telephone poles advertise many of the competitions, and they are an opportunity for people to meet and commune in an in-person third space.
Additionally, it is an activity not judged by officials or confined by rules, not advertised by corporations or influencers, instead based on street fliers, public opinion, and volume of cheers. It doesn’t take itself too seriously in an era of political unrest and seeming global chaos, providing refuge from the hardships of daily life. This seeking of joy in a way entirely separate from anything with government or corporate oversight is perhaps a rebellion in and of itself.
Though the future of lookalike competitions remains uncertain, one thing is for sure: any talk you will see about them over the next few months will only ever be about men.
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