Perfection Changes
Veruska, you look good |
By: Carol McClain @carol_mcclain
Aside from God, perfection changes.
Or the idea of perfection.
My mother, who birthed five children, always battled her weight. However, her mother would decry, “Verushka, you’re too skinny.”
Mom knew it was time to diet when Grandma said to her one day, “Verushka, you look good. Healthy.”
We hold super (anorexic) models as a standard of perfection, yet we ooh and ahh over Rubens‘ heavy ladies.
Thinness is a today’s standards. Not yesterday’s.
How has our perception of perfection changed?:
Do you see what God sees? |
- Tattoos. As a child, those covered in tattoos were relegated to circus side-shows. Now everyone has a “sleeve” of multi-colored tattoos. Even among the tattoo aficionado, what constitutes a perfect tat? A skull? A rose? Pooh-Bear?
- Fat Lips. Yes, I’m dating myself. As a child, Kewpie-doll lips were the standard. Sweet, bow-shaped lips. Today we stuff them with as much collagen as our pocketbooks afford.
- Tans. In the 1800s women used parasols to protect themselves from the sun. A dark skin would indicate they had to work outside. Today, even in the South in summer, women hit the tanning beds in order to have a dark, glowing skin.
- Weight. My grandmother immigrated from Belarus. Poverty denied people enough food. Therefore, being chubby became a sign of beauty.
- Clothing styles. Is it cool to wear jeans falling off your hips? Low cut blouses? Flouncy bows? Pleated skirts?
- Multi-colored hair.
- Acceptance of homosexuality and same-sex marriage.
- Endorsement of abortion.
- Being able to wear jeans to church.
- Organ and hymns in church.
- Church services three times a week.
- Female ministers
Everyone’s ideal looks different. |
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