If It Ain't Broke....

One of the things that bothers me about this generation is our obsession with perfection. Our film stars have to look a certain way, and our singers have to hit those notes perfectly every time. We’ve no room for imperfection. 

Take Florence Welch for example. I was never really a fan of Florence and the Machine until a few months ago, and the reason was Miss Welsh. There was something off about her voice to me that took a while for me to appreciate. What it is is that her voice isn’t polished. Her vibrato is often too fast and sometimes when singing live, you can hear her stretching for the high notes; stretching but hitting them. Her voice is undeniable, but because it isn’t perfect, I’d disregarded her.

Another case of this is Kristen Stewart. Kristen Stewart is by no means a great actress, but people seem to have made the decision that she is a bad one. I think Stewart has an awkward quality on screen and I don’t mean this as a bad thing as the characters she plays are in the most part introverted characters, and her own introverted nature works well. She isn’t groomed like other actresses to say the right thing or hold themselves a certain way. She’s not a star. And I think this is a lot of the reasons people have a problem with her. I think it also comes down to the Twilight films in which I am not a fan of her performance, but a bad performance does not make a bad actress. And because she doesn’t have the slick magnetism of someone like Charlize Theron, doesn’t mean she’s bad at her craft. I think Kristen has her own unique performance, and it will either be to your taste or it won’t, but it’s not right to disregard her completely.

I think the obsession with perfection comes down to beauty as well. Most people see beauty in the manufactured look of Nicki Minaj or Megan Fox, and the truth is that it may be ‘beautiful’ to you, but isn’t real. Take someone like Lady GaGa. GaGa uses make up and wigs to complete outfits, neither of which have to flatter her. In some videos, darker make-up doesn’t highlight her natural features, but instead crafts her into her outfits, instead of the other way around. Take all that away and you do have a beautiful woman. No, her face isn’t perfect. But she is beautiful. What I think this stems from is the media either highlighting these ‘imperfections’, or trying to hide them with Photoshop and airbrushing.

 I clearly don’t exempt myself from this; I do it with many things. I’m just saying that it’s a really unattractive quality that the media has moulded our generation into demanding perfection, because it then puts pressure on the people in the limelight. But the question I really want to ask is: 

“If something isn’t perfect, is it broken?”