The Idea of Perfection Within Society
Every day, I hear people talk about how they need the “perfect” summer body or how they want “perfect” grades to impress their parents. It's like the need for being perfect has been embedded into us one way or another. No matter where we go it chases us and tears us down because that’s what social expectations do to us.
What actually is the definition of perfection?
Well, Google will tell you its “ having all the required or desirable elements, qualities, or characteristics; as good as it is possible to be,” and that’s actually accurate, but not in the way it should be because perfection varies for people.
A friend once told me a quote that went “beauty is in the eye of the beholder” stated by Margaret Hungerford, and she went on to inform me that what you might find things beautiful that others may not. From that day this had an impact on me, and my perspectives of things. This quote alone defines how perfection is different within each person because we see things differently. What may appeal to us may not appeal to others; for example, if I were to look at the famous Mona Lisa and say the paintings bland yet my teacher claims it’s an exquisite piece of art. You can instantly see the difference of opinion. In a way to achieve perfection we must all agree like we must have universal agreement.
When it comes to perfection we are expected to be flawless, within many areas such as school, and im pretty sure if you were to stop an average teenager in the street they would tell you that the thing, which is expected from them the most, in today’s society and parents is good grades. The thing with society is that it forces many things upon you. It forces you to meet a certain criterion of expectations to be successful and perfect, yet again. They don’t realise that the expectations are so high that in way they are ruining us. If we didn’t always have the pressure of society, and parent we could actually succeed better than we do now. However, we have been instilled with the idea through generations of pleasing and being perfect within society.
If we look at it through gender expectations of perfection there are many. For women expectations for being perfect is having the perfect body, relationship, perfect mother, ladylike, be able to cater to a mans need, not being aggressive. These are only a few of the expectations for a women that apparently have to be meet to be the ideal women. When it comes to men they are told to hide their emotions, and not be vulnerable, to be the money maker of the house and masculine. These all apparently create a perfect man.
Everything i have just said focuses on what society wants from us even though we may believe it no longer exist in this day and age. Your going to be reading this, and thinking your opinion, and your totally entitled to that because from the past years to the 21st Century much has changed. There has been so much introduction of what is classed as perfection now. I know i went on talking about how society destroys us, tears us down to meet its expectations but that is only because some of us out there have this stupid, insane idea of being perfect. Like we need to understand that we can not always do everything immaculately. There’s always going to be room to improve.
It probably looks like im babbling, but i’m not. What im trying to say is, throw this idea of perfection out of the window. In the 21st century, the things that are considered norm always change. That’s why, there is no such thing as perfection. Its just a social construct which is solely my opinion. What we call “perfect” or “perfection” in reality is just a goal we want to achieve within our lives. So, stop putting yourselves down over not being flawless and begin to accept yourselves for who you are. If you can not accept yourselves than how will society?
I want to end this on a quote my sister told me a few days ago;
“ Annihilation is always the answer. We destroy parts of ourselves every day. We Photoshop our warts away. We edit the parts we hate about ourselves, modify the parts we think people hate. We curate our identity, carve it, distill it. Krista’s wrong. Annihilation is all we are.” — Elliot Alderson
