Imperfect Perfections
CBMUSED at 4:37 pm Category: LifeTags: beauty, cbmused, imperfect perfections, imperfections, insecurities, women
On the weekend, I took myself and my insecurities to the beach. I walked down the long stretch of sand towards the water’s edge, blue beach bag on my shoulder, Havaianas in hand, and passed by the countless beautiful women who dotted the shoreline with bodies better than mine.
Multi-coloured swimsuits adorned a myriad of body shapes and sizes, triggering a mental comparison of mine to theirs. The one in a pale pink bikini is taller than me yet her skin is covered in large and raised freckles. The one in brown and blue stripes has a totally flat abdomen but her breasts are almost non-existent. The one in powder blue has an hourglass figure but the top of her thighs don’t hide that dimpled look very well. The one in orange bottoms and a black top has beautiful hair and a perfect mouth but she is much shorter than I am. The one in a one piece black costume has arms and legs that are perfectly toned but her face is creased with lines that make her look older than she is. The one in a yellow floral bikini has long and shapely legs but her tummy sticks out farther than her breasts.
And the comparisons continued. By the time I picked my spot, laid my towel on the sand, wiggled out of my beach dress down to my bikini, the insecurities washed away with the next wave that tickled a little girl’s feet.
We live in a world surrounded with images of imperfect perfections. With photoshopped models selling us unattainable figures and flawless skin, air-brushed celebrities promoting their excessive lifestyles as the norm, we are slaves to a rise in insecurities. When the media and society simultaneously poke fun at women with an ever shifting goal post, and praise those for not looking their age, it is with a blatant disregard to the truth being a massive advertising campaign for Botox, liposuction, enhancements and other forms of plastic surgery. We don’t even bat our heavily-mascaraed eyelids when they label younger women “slutty” or “slappers”, older women as “mutton dressed as lamb”, and promote the Brazilian wax and pole dancing to pre-teens.
Just like the inevitable rising tide at the end of a sun-soaked day, there will always be someone who will challenge our insecurities. Taking a fresh and realistic look will serve well to reaffirm our individuality instead of feeding our imperfections.
No woman is perfect, yet we continue to seek that holy grail through imperfect means.
February 25th, 2008 at 5:38 pm
No woman is perfect to herself.
That’s not to say she isn’t perfect to somebody else.
February 25th, 2008 at 6:40 pm
Ahh…the insecurity deal again.
It’s alright to be self-conscious and vain, but to the point where you build a society of men and women who define the perfect female as baby smooth curvy women in skin clad outfits that is as nimble as a snake?
I’m sorry, I no longer subscribe to that form of thinking. Then again, doesn’t mean the bulk of the society doesn’t either. For as long as there are men or women in the industry who think women should look like that, so will future generations of kids grow up believing that they are imperfect the way they are.
Now that really…isn’t pretty at all.
February 25th, 2008 at 8:29 pm
GBoy: Oh that is gold. Such a feel-good thought.
And there’s chalk for you on the Chalkboard page… (now the Martini Lounge)
Kamigoroshi: My point exactly. All these imperfect visions of perfection that we are fed by the media. Add to the equation that women can be their worst enemies and you have it ingrained deep in the psyche, to pass on to future generations.
February 25th, 2008 at 11:27 pm
I thought you were perfect!
February 26th, 2008 at 4:52 am
Well said.
February 26th, 2008 at 9:29 am
Sidney: if a woman really believes that about herself, then she’s got other issues. And I’m far too humble to think of myself in those terms.
Thanks Zen. Sometimes it has to be said, even as a reminder to self.
February 26th, 2008 at 5:15 pm
That’s it. Any future generation of women I’m raising ain’t going to have that insecurity.
They are going be balls to the bone, no hold barred, get what they want kinda people.
Yes ma’am.
February 26th, 2008 at 6:13 pm
Women who don’t care whether strange men find them attractive are truly liberated.
February 26th, 2008 at 10:49 pm
Kamigoroshi: You’d have to keep her/them away from the media, and we all know how easy that is for teenagers!
Gorilla B: Ah, but liberated from whom, men, ourselves or other women? While we do it to feel good about ourselves, it’s often a competition against other women, trying to prove we are better.
June 25th, 2008 at 3:13 pm
[…] I am not immune to physical insecurities, fine lines are not my concern, thanks to good genetics and a healthy lifestyle. And when life […]