A Point of View: Does cosmetic surgery really make people feel better about their bodies?

Cosmetic surgery is a booming industry. Tom Shakespeare worries about people's urge to alter their bodies.

I don't much look in mirrors. But my friends have hung little looking glasses in their hall, and as I wheel out, I see my face up close. I'm not sure I like those crow's feet that have sprouted at the corner of my eyes. But I don't have to put up with them. Cosmetic surgery is becoming normalised. Year on year, getting "work done" becomes more accessible and more acceptable. In other words, we are becoming normalised, both by delaying the impact of ageing, and by tweaking young bodies into conforming.

In 2002-3, the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons carried out 10,700 procedures. Ten years later, they carried out 50,000 procedures of which the most common was breast augmentation. The association's members carry out only about a third of cosmetic procedures in the UK, so the total number is much higher. But even so, we're not in the global premier league of body modification, which is the US, Brazil, Japan and South Korea. In the US, there were more than 10 million cosmetic procedures performed in 2015. One South Korean survey found that more than 60% of women in their late 20s and 40% of women in their early 20s had had a cosmetic procedure.

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I've been learning a lot more about all this recently, because I sit on a Nuffield Council on Bioethics working party on cosmetic procedures . The evidence we're receiving is often shocking, and sometimes makes me keep my legs firmly crossed. But more than anything, it saddens me.

Why are people resorting to cosmetic surgery? There is increasing pressure to look young and beautiful, especially for women, who are still more likely to be judged on appearances, particularly in the workplace. The media is full of makeover programmes glamorising cosmetic surgery and celebrities who look ever more perky. Subliminally and not so subliminally, our culture is changing how humans feel they should look. People believe they will be happier and more successful if they conform more closely to these cultural norms.

Overall, 85% of people who have cosmetic surgery are women. Most of those women will be trying to appeal to men. So we men must ultimately take the blame. We undermine women's self-esteem. And then we make money out of that dissatisfaction.