Are you perfect?

Recently I was forwarded a film by a friend on Flickr. It was an interesting short film, played backwards it showed the person undergoing a transformation from a sparkly, glittery creature to a groggy, sleepy eyed one.

You can watch the film from my friend Sandra here.

I imagine I responded differently than most because the thing that appealed to me about the film more than anything else, was the creature at the end of the piece. This would probably contradict the idea most women would suppose the response of most men to be.

However, what occurred to me in that moment was the great joy I have derived from having the companionship of a women sharing my life with me. Honestly, I thought about my last companion who I thought was the most beautiful creature and how much I delighted in being ‘behind the curtain’ so to speak.

In other words, there was a great joy in being able to live a life with someone without them having on their mask.

Nobody is perfect, even the most beautiful among us and one of the great comforts of relationships is being able to allow yourself to be who you are without artifice. It made me think of that scene in the Wizard of Oz where the Wizard says, ‘DON’T PAY ANY MIND TO THAT MAN BEHIND THE CURTAIN!’ Every one of us has that person behind the curtain, no matter what we may present to the world at large.

A few days later, I got a link to this short which you’ve probably seen it as it got a fairly decent amount of coverage in the news a few days after I received it. Part of a campaign for Dove (soap I believe), it shows just what has to happen for the ideal of beauty to be achieved and how that image is so very askew from the reality.

Watch it here: Campaign For Real Beauty.

There have been moments in the past where the ‘image of beauty’ has been taken out and exposed as the ugly lie it really is but, will it change things? I doubt it and that’s a bit of a shame.