https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/barbies-world-the-normalisation-of-cosmetic-surgery/

If beauty is seen as something you can buy, not just something you’re born with, the result can be an arms race. We see botox is sold as being part of a girl’s make-up kit (‘No different from mascara and blush,’ said one advert). Every time a new example of beauty tech arrives on the market, it is seized upon by the Instagram influencers, who promote it to their millions of followers. Women suddenly find that a ‘normal’ beauty regime goes well beyond manicures and hair dye and now includes regular trips to a surgical theatre, at a cost of tens of thousands a year.

My own suspicion is that this effect is partly a consequence of constant exposure to images of extraordinarily beautiful women – images amplified by filters, as well as aesthetic treatments – which alter a girl’s perception of her own pool of so-called ‘intrasexual competition’. Put differently, girls of the past would have looked at their peer group and seen a bunch of normal kids just as chubby and acne-scarred as themselves. Now, they look at their screens and ask: ‘How can I compete?