Perfectionism

In a historical aspect, “perfectionism” is described as the American desire to constantly improve society. Many people think of perfection as something to strive for, something like striving for the moon and actually landing among the stars. Perfection can’t be attained; there truly is no such thing as perfect. If there was, why would humans still be constantly pursuing it despite all the decades and centuries they’ve had to do so? Although striving for perfection serves as a powerful motivation for success, perfectionists tear themselves apart and in the process, they lose sight of their achievements and accomplishments because true perfection is unattainable. 

To begin, I have experienced the pressures of perfectionism firsthand through my past experience as a realistic portrait artist. Freshman year I was creating a graphite-pencil portrait of my father based on a picture I had taken of him. The process consisted of tearing myself apart while trying to make the drawing look exactly like the picture. I would stare back and forth from the picture on my phone to the drawing on my table and nitpick at every detail. The reflection in his eyes had to be accurate. The way the light reflected off his hair had to be accurate. The wrinkles around his eyes had to be accurate. If not, I wasn’t a good artist. When I was finished with the piece, I was proud, but I was also unsatisfied. Even though my parents and peers were blown away by my work, I could still see the things that just weren’t quite right. I lost sight of everything that was amazing about my piece of art. You can be a master of an art, but you will never be perfect at it. In a similar way, these standards of perfection are reflected in our American beauty standards.

Additionally, the consequences of perfectionism can be easily seen in American women. Countless women across the country place a high value on their appearances. They want to look beautiful and feel beautiful as well. This can be seen specifically in celebrities; the Kardashian sisters are a prime example of excessive beauty treatments in the desire to look “perfect.” Khloe Kardashian is known for her excessive facial surgeries and her extremely prominent BBL. But the reality of changing “beauty standards” leads them to constantly changing the way they look. The increase in the popularity of Botox, and fillers also reflects this idea. People want to attain the best looks possible, and in the process of doing so, they lose so many other important aspects of life. They lose connections with others, quality time with people who matter to them, and overall, they hinder their abilities to be confident in who they are. They lose the ability to be true to themselves. They lose sight of their life’s accomplishments and what they have built for themselves. These women tear themselves apart the same way I tore myself apart while trying to create something visually “perfect.”

So although perfection is something we are all striving for, it’s extremely important to acknowledge the fact that attaining perfection is almost impossible. We have to realize that our desire for perfection becomes unhealthy when it hinders us from enjoying ourselves. Perfection is something that us as Americans are constantly striving for, but we need to realize that being imperfect is what makes us humans. We have to stop demanding perfection from others when we ourselves are not anything close to perfection. Perfection can be defined as the best, most complete version of something, but the truth is, that means something different to each and every one of us on this Earth. If being perfect means something entirely different to different people, do we really have a collective understanding of perfection for different aspects of life? Can anything truly be perfect?