The Imperfect Woman

Kathryn McGrotty

Nowadays it is a crime for women to be anything other than perfect, yet nothing short of being computer-modified is perfect by the media's standards. Images of women are composed, constructed and contorted to make them seem flawless, but can you really be perfect in real life?

A few weeks ago, I read an article about a woman who was criticised for being too “skinny”, her response was how she has always been naturally slim and eats healthily but has never needed or followed a diet to keep her slender figure.

I find it ironic; the media constructs images of women to make them thin, but when a woman is like that in reality she is abused and condemned for “being unhealthy” and “promoting dieting and eating disorders to young women”.

Unfortunately, if a woman is overweight they are presented as being lazy and unattractive.

There is no way for us to succeed in meeting the criteria.

Magazines, television, video games and even children’s media engross themselves in images of the “perfect woman” and this utter obsession with this portrayal of women, and men, is having a lasting effect on younger generations, who will soon grow up living a body-obsessed life.

81% of 10 year olds are afraid of getting fat.

53% of 13 year old girls are unhappy with their bodies, and this number increases to 78% as they reach 17.

These statistics are outrageous and things must change.

Why should we allow the media to construct the lives of women today? The “perfect woman”, apparently, has to be skinny, tall, tanned, toned, curvy, petite and elegant, all at the same time. In reality, this must make everyone imperfect, because no one can match up to the form that the media request.

The definition of perfect is: ‘having all the required or desirable elements, qualities, or characteristics; as good as it is possible to be’

But who really decides what these ‘elements, qualities’ and ‘characteristics’ should be? The media has plucked imaginary ones out of thin air in order to create a standard for women to live up to in the 21st century, but personally I think it’s time for a change and time for a new rule-book of standards for woman.

Number one: being, not computer-modified, but simply yourself.