Imperfect Perfections
Posted by: Cléa in Life, tags: beauty, cbmused, imperfect perfections, imperfections, insecurities, womenOn 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.
