The quest for perfection (From Watford Observer)

The quest for perfection

1:28pm Wednesday 14th July 2010

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Sometimes when I look in the mirror I wonder how anyone can bare to look at me for any amount of time without vomiting into their hand bag. I’m sure most girls have gone through this thought process at some point. It’s almost like an epiphany, a realisation that has come to a head at a most inopportune moment, leaving you wondering if eBay do shot guns. Because the will to live has just evaporated.

I warn you now, the following piece of writing will more than likely make you wish I would ‘STFU’. But I am merely speaking the thoughts that are at the centre of all women’s minds and that fuel society’s quest for perfection.

I could rant for hours about the medias influence on beauty, about models that are almost transparent and about ridiculous airbrushing rendering the model no longer a real person. In fact, the latter I will have a quick rant about because I know how much you all want to hear it. Take mascara adverts for instance, we are shown a woman ‘wearing the mascara’, her eyelashes are full, perfectly curled, and unfeasibly long. However what the advertisers do not chose to point out is that they are not wearing the mascara at all, they are wearing false eyelashes, cleverly padded out with the use of computer graphics, surely rendering the entire advert completely pointless. If you are someone who is influenced by said adverts, I will be coming to your house to give you a slap.

I’m sure we all have one specific part of us that we would change without hesitation should the opportunity so arise. For me it is my nose. If it wasn’t for the fact that I have approximately £4 to my name, I would be seriously considering a nose job. Over the years I have developed many a technique to create the illusion that my nose is smaller than it is. Or so I hope anyway. I do not allow people to take photographs of my profile view, when conversing with someone I will be constantly attempting to look at them directly so as not to give them the full dose of my nose in all its glory, and I make every effort not to laugh too freely creating the well-sort-after flared nostril look. However, having said all that, I am consciously attempting to put my nose-insecurities behind me and adopt a new found confidence and/or arrogance. Because, IT IS POSSIBLE that complaining about my nose will in no way change the size of it.

Bare with me, I’m almost finished.

As a final thought though, I would like to address all the woman who are whole heartedly against the effect the media has on our view of what is ‘beautiful’. I agree that it is warped, and in many cases unsustainable, but asking a young girl who is plastering their face with foundation because ‘Jessica Alba wears it and I’d like to look like her’, who decides what is beautiful? Is not going to change the fact that societies view on attractiveness is not going to suddenly adapt just because you head out the door with scraped back greasy hair, a pasty spotty face, and considerable belly over-hang. It is important to have a clear image of what is attainable but I cannot see any harm in attempting to become the best version of yourself.

Lets all just chill out. Lets eat fairly healthily and exercise plentifully (I know, effort). Wear makeup if you fancy it, remember, its one blessing we have that boys do not. But if, on your quest to look like Cheryl Cole, you find yourself passed out in the office, its possibly time to open the Jaffa Cakes.

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