IN my years as a cosmetic surgeon I have found that people will go to great lengths to achieve a certain ideal of beauty or masculinity.

I travel about once a month throughout the United States or overseas for meetings or to lecture. I enjoy people and generally find myself chatting with seatmates. But once a seatmate finds out what I do for a living, I have had some strange encounters.

In a medical office setting, there are specific protocols that are followed. We don’t talk about patients in the hallways, and everything is designed to keep a person’s reason for a visit private.

But on a plane all bets are off. Modesty takes a leap out the window. And no one really cares about privacy. Not only will very attractive people tell me every single thing they don’t like about their looks, sometimes they will try to show me those body parts that for modesty’s sake  and airline rules  really should remain within the confines of clothing.