Imperfectly Perfect

 When cutting posters out of some magazines I had recently bought,  I realized that not a single person in the magazine had a pimple on their skin, or a wrinkle on their face; they all seemed to be somehow ‘perfect’. Although I did not notice it at the time, I was wishing I had gorgeous hair like Vanessa Hudgens, and clear silky smooth skin like Selena Gomez. They seemed picture, ‘perfect’ to me.  

This got me thinking, why do we purchase magazines or watch advertisements if they make us feel so self conscious and ugly about ourselves? 

After researching, I started to understand that we are all striving for some sort of physical perfection which is unrealistic.  Without realizing, we are actually trying to  compete with the fake standards media portrays through Television and magazines. Our “Individuality has been abandon to strive towards an unreal perfection”(-Killian Curry). 

Media creates ‘perfect’ people in adds to convince us to buy their products; they play on human insecurities such as body image: by creating adverts that imply that their products will make your life better. The adverts make us think   “If it’s good enough for that famous Hollywood stars, then it must be good enough for me “or “Wow her skin looks perfect! I want my skin to be like that”            

While doing a little research I came across a video called ‘Dove evolution’, it is a sixty second  video showing how they transform a standard looking woman into a flawless perfection of a women, using heavy make-up and Photoshop. Without makeup we see the woman with imperfections such as pimples, pale skin and flat hair, but  within a matter of seconds she has been transformed into this beautiful, gorgeous women who and has smooth skin, big eyes and a long neckline. 

A desire to look as a top model is becoming all-consuming and due to this  teenagers are experiencing serious body image problems.  People who are unhappy about their bodies can develop eating disorders turn to diets, pills or steroids. These false and misleading advertisements have distorted our perfection of beauty.  Teenagers do not realize that the perfect image is not so perfect, but has been made perfect using technology.

During the last 10 years, mainstream society has been able to access free photo shop websites such as Picnic, Adobe and Photo bucket these websites help us try fit into media’s false representation of beauty. From smoothing skin and erasing wrinkles to enlarging muscles and slimming waistline.  

Through  all the research I did for this blog, I have realized that beauty can be lost or gained within a matter of seconds, real beauty is more than skin deep. It is time we accept our bodies and celebrate health and confidence over false advertisements.