There is no perfection in the 'average' world.

Perfection is an obscure ideal.

Throughout our lives we strive for, but most unfortunately never reach what the world and society demand and dub perfection.

We strive for what is perceived as perfection in the work we do, the hair we style on our heads, the clothes we wear, the cars we drive, the houses we live in, the suburbs we create, the cities we build and the bodies we inhabit.
(See the blog this image is from, here)

The latter is where most have run-ins with family, friends and mostly themselves that invites notions of perfection, imperfection, normality and abnormality, etc. again, in a society that demands former of the listed.

Allow me to regale you with a personal anecdote...


Having recently lost what most would consider a very large amount of weight, I know the stresses and strains that are perceived through friends and family that would force people in a similar predicament to mine to ask ‘what was the point?’
As a self- and to a degree societal-dubbed ‘imperfect’ figure, I, after a fortunate bout of something short of illness, found myself shedding weight to the figure I am today. Something that up until recent times, did not strike me as an imperfect health hazard, did not strike me as a problem, nor fault but rather struck me as something I’d been striving for, for anywhere between five to ten years – one loses track or care when such determination to achieve a goal is met with nothing but adversity.

I saw, for the first time in as far back as I cared to remember as what I considered then, a perfect figure.

However, as society, family and friends tend to do, whether it is intentional or unintentional, threw my perceived success back in my face.

Without delving into and boring you with too much personal information, my perceived success and colossal amount of comfort with my new figure was insurmountable by any means, or so I thought. Labels such as scrawny, thin, anorexic, gaunt and ‘ill’ became associated with my stature (doesn’t paint a flattering image of me, but I am far from the listed).

Herein lies the thought thread through this post:

From a societal perspective at large, at what point does one standing that is perceived as imperfect and elicits feelings of inadequacy, change? But change to the point of such perceived societal ‘perfection’ or in this case acceptance and comfortableness, so much so, that perfection is not allowed and something else wrong must be illustrated?

Or plainly; why must society find things wrong with imperfections, have the imperfections in people and on things modified, then find things wrong with perfections?

I doubt I am the exception to the rule and often do as society does, but having gone through what many do every year and transforming from one standing to another, only to have labels of inadequacy attached to me again, I can empathise with others – which can be extended to people, buildings, structures, corporate bodies, etc. – in their frustration with the blinding imposed goal that is ‘perfection’.

This is again illustrated more in the more mainstream fashion industry. And to harp on about it would only invite comments of negativity, but how often do we hear stories of ‘unhealthy’ girls striving so hard to be ‘perfect’ in order to model for international fashion brands? They no doubt begin as regular looking individuals, become what the industry deems ‘perfect’ – for the role at least – then are slapped with labels and imperfections such as ‘unhealthy’, ‘sick’ and ‘ill’.

If there are any imperfections in the way we all think it’s that in our thoughts and thought processes: perfection is perfection only during the transitional period from what society deems as imperfect to perfect, before it is picked to pieces and does a home-run back to perceived ‘imperfection’.