Why does the media keep pressuring everyone to be perfect?

What exactly is perfect?

It’s a simple word that has a simple definition. You can just point to something and easily say, “That’s perfect.”

But it’s a simple word that’s difficult to achieve, because looking at yourself saying,”Yep, that’s perfect” seems nearly impossible.

So it’s no wonder you hear that celebrities nowadays admit to their destructive behaviors of anorexia, bulimia, cutting, etc. But who can blame them? Putting them in a spotlight where millions of people can judge you and can determine whether you’re perfect or not. But these celebrities are not alone, even our females today feel the immense amount of pressure.

Let’s consider this. Seventeen Magazine teamed up with Yahoo! and took a survey on young women on how they look at themselves. And the information was pretty shocking. 74% of teen girls and young women feel the pressure to be “perfect.”
81% of teen girls feel overwhelmed by life.
35% of teen girls have been so depressed that they don’t want to hang out with friends.
15% of young women have physically hurt themselves on purpose.
Wow, this is pretty shocking.
This isn’t right.

I bet that many of you guys know fellow pop star, Demi Lovato. As perfect as she may seem on the outside, something wasn’t adding up on the inside. She was starving herself, binge eating, self-harming, and puking. She seemed so perfect, but inside she wasn’t.

"When I started having body image issues I remember being three years old in a diaper and rubbing my hand over my stomach...and I remember thinking in my head 'I wonder if one day this will ever be flat?'" she told Katie Couric on her talk show Katie.

And her emotional battle with her body escalated to more serious problems. Because she was being bullied in school for her body weight, she struggled with bulimia. When she was about eleven years old, she began cutting herself. In 2010, she dropped out of her tour with the Jonas Brothers, and she checked into rehab, hoping to better herself.
Now she supports millions of others who share the same struggle with her.

Even though your average American girl may not be on the spotlight or judged as harshly as a celebrity, what they see is what they want. And what they want is to be perfect.

They are desperate for perfection, so desperate that they would talk to a psychologist about it
.
According to psychologist Dr. Paula Davis-Laack, the media is one of the most persuasive forces shaping cultural norms. Because the media gives us all the messages on what girls should look like, they are given immense amount of pressure to like that. “The message being sent is that a girl’s value lies more in the way she looks rather than in her power to lead. Finally, girls are expected to look a certain way, and their appearance counts.” she says.

It’s not right that our society has decided to put a lot of pressure on girls. Teens, children, women, and even men. Even though every culture has a different belief on what being “perfect” and “beautiful”, is, we should at least except the fact that many people will not fit into that group, no matter how hard they try. Different is great, and we should express that.