Flawless

All these ads and articles about "flawless" skin keep popping up...why does my skin need to be flawless?  As humans, we're not, and unless I'm modeling for something, why?  "Flaws" make us interesting, distinguishable. Sure, if I have big, dark circles under my eyes or a giant zit and I have an interview, I might do something about that, but in general, it's just another way to make us feel inadequate and create a market for a "fault" we can now "correct."  Sure, being told I'm beautiful/flawless (looking-by someone who doesn't know me; I tend to think of that as "pretty" and "beauty" as related more to entire person) is nice, but I'd actually rather be appreciated for kindness, intelligence, courage, problem-solving, fearlessness, willingness to try, compassion, or listening and really hearing you, because that would have the added bonus of knowing that you (general) took the time to pay attention, time to see me as a person, and not just what's on the surface.  (The person who said I looked beautiful recently knows me fairly well, and I certainly wasn't "flawless.")

For some reason, the perceived urgency of it struck me as particularly ludicrous this week.  There's a time for it, sure, but it just feels like one more pressure of some superficial quality women (and to a growing extent, men) are supposed to take on, in addition to every other thing that's been added lately.  I don't have a problem of wanting to look nice, or "put-together" or wearing make-up, (or whether or not you shave) I mean if you have to for your work, then you do.  Or if you enjoy it, doing it for yourself.  Or if you don't care either way and do it because it's part of a relationship give-and-take.  I don't even have a problem with adults that want plastic surgery (if it's what they want, and not to fulfill someone else's expectation of who they should be.) It's just the outside pressure to be some "ideal" image, the fact that the "ideal" is unattainable and the bombardment with it can make you question your worth (and for superficial reasons) when you are already enough.  And if it feels too much like a chore, might not be the best use of your energy.

On a different tangent, I've only read about 60 pages of "The Culture of Fear" book, but I'm now hyper-skeptical of everything I read.  I already knew there was an angle, but I'm seeing it everywhere...and laws that get passed for problems that don't actually exist (on emotional votes) while proposed laws dealing with real issues that need to get dealt with die in committee.  It looks like you care, but if you cared, you'd work to prevent the problems in the first place...only that doesn't make for a good photo-op.  Cynical.