What Does Society Really Mean To Be Perfect?

But even this definition is vague. In the twenty first century, people have come to associate perfection as a physical quality. That’s why society encourages women to be skinny and men to buff and everyone to have beautifully photoshopped faces. But even with the general consensus of the idea of perfect there is still a debate as to what it really means to be perfect.What is perfection? According to the Dictionary, perfect is defined as “complete; not deficient; faultless; blameless in morals or behavior”. But even this definition is vague. In the twenty first century, people have come to associate perfection as a physical quality. That’s why society encourages women to be skinny and men to buff and everyone to have beautifully photoshopped

Here’s the thing. Humans long to prove themselves right. It’s the whole reason why humanity has made it this far from innovation. It’s almost like a sort of competition. Who can build the latest model. Who can land on the moon first. Who can invent the next big thing. Now think of innovation as a subconscious way of searching for perfection. It is thought that once we have created all that needs to be created and we no longer need to improve, that is when we have reached perfection. But that’s merely on a productivity and economic level. On a more personal level, the hunt for perfection is almost programmed into us. From birth until the day we die, there always feels like there is something missing, something that can be improved or changed. Society tells us that it has something to do with our bodies and physical appearances since perfection is synonymous with beauty. In Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, the monster is constantly referred to as “wretched” and “ugly”. These terms are based off of his appearance. Think about this for a second. Everyone has a different idea of what perfection is. No one ever agrees, at least not on a detail based level. That being said, isn’t it interesting that all human characters in the book agreed that the monster was “wretched”, “ugly”, “an abomination”? That brings up another point. Even though people cannot agree on a common representation of perfection, most can agree on

It is a personal belief that perfection lies within, just like beauty lies within. Now some people believe in the idea that perfection itself is not actually perfect. Perfection should come from failing and learning, not preventing failure. In this case, being perfect means having flaws because having flaws means being human. And shouldn’t being human be perfect? “[Our] molecule of DNA was ordained from the beginning to make small mistakes” (Thomas, The Wonderful Mistake. 32). These small mistakes are the true driving factors behind evolution and adaptation. Without them, there wouldn’t be any scientists trying to make the perfect clone or doctors trying to make the perfect cure. There wouldn’t even be an idea of perfection because without DNA’s mistakes, there would be no humanity. Pretty extreme isn’t