Aggressive marketing of cosmetic surgery covers up the risk, paving the way for social pressure to make many people believe it is their only hope.

The result is a sort of beauty inflation, comparable to grade inflation in a school. When most students get an A, getting a B is in effect describes you as a bad student. When most people who aren't naturally beautiful get cosmetic surgery, an appearance that 40 years ago would have been just fine may now be regarded as ugly.

Anorexia is part of a similar phenomenon.