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Tuesday, May 26, 2009

Cult of Perfection

The Washington Post has a congratulatory article written about a student who has never missed a day of school (from kindergarten through to high school).

The creepiest parts of it come at the end, where they laud her accomplishment of basically being "perfect" while anyone who has any experience in gender/psych studies knows that girls who have this strong a desire to be perfect also often suffer from severe eating disorders.

Yep, let's just feed this cult of perfection that tells women they if they can't be perfect they shouldn't even try. (Or, in this example: "Stef would say, 'If I don't get the A, my life is coming to an end.' ")


I honestly fear for this girl.

2 comments:

  1. I totes was that girl. I did 12 extra-curriculars my senior year of high school. If I didn't get an A, I would skip all of them to go home and cry. On the outside, I was the epitome of a perfect high school student. Through another lens, I was one totally fucked up kid who was too perfect for drinking or drugs but not for reckless sex, eating disorders, and mutilation. Woo!

    ReplyDelete
  2. (((Breadmaker)))

    I know so many other people like that (I don't know about myself since I never wanted perfection, just to not be me). It makes me sick that society does this to girls.

    I wish I could go back in time and hug all the kids that hurt themselves because of this type of stuff.

    ReplyDelete

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