The Pressure to Be Perfect

Body image and beauty standards have changed drastically over the years. By establishing impossible standards of beauty and bodily perfection, the media drives people tobe dissatisfied with their bodies. This dissatisfaction can result in disorders of behavior as people try to achieve unreachable goals with unhealthy

Society and the media have an enormous influence on an individual’s concept of beauty and bodily perfection. Even the “beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” many people allow the media’s influence into their lives, which is a dangerous thing to allow (Vogel, 2015). According to David Newman, author of Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life, society is defined as the “population of people living in the same geographic area who share a culture and a common identity and whose members fall under the same political authority” (Newman, 2010, 18). The people within a society constantly create and add to the pressure already placed on individuals which can severely alter and harm one’s self-esteem. Self-esteem is

The daughter is bored with her mother's dreams and lets her pride take over. She often questions her self-worth, and she decides that she respects herself as nothing more than the normal girl that she is and always will be. Her mother is trying to mold her into something that she can never be, she believes, and only by her futile attempts to rebel can she hold on to the respect that she has for herself. The daughter is motivated only to fail so that she may continue on her quest to be normal. Her only motivation for success derives from her own vanity; although she cannot admit it to herself or her mother, she wants the audience to see her as that something that she is not, that same something that her mother hopes she could be.

She allows herself to believe all she is told. She also allows herself to believe that being treated as she is is going to make her better, when in fact it is only making her worse. Her being sent up in a room, like a penitentiary will add loneliness to her illness. Her being told not to write or not to go and see family and friends, again, adds to her loneliness. She is separated from society. Therefore, she feels as though she is alone in society. She gives into the fact that the male-dominated society would rather her alone, than be with lots of women and cause chaos. She gives into everything the world wants instead of listening to her inner self. She ignores herself, causing her to act out in madness. When one does not listen to one's inner self, he or she is then turning away from his or her conscience. It's like the "devil and angel" episode that has been seen in numerous cartoons. If the person listens to the little devil, it will end up being the wrong decision. It the person listens to the little angel, it will be the right decision. The narrator listens to almost neither. She allows what is happening to happen and does nothing but sit back. This would cause anger inside anyone.

Salvador Dali once stated to, “Have no fear of perfection - you’ll never reach it.” Although a widespread concept, unattainable perfection seems unrealistic. For instance, society today inscribes the notion of perfection into its’ members, from the first days as a newborn to the last days of life. So, is it healthy to strive for perfection when it in fact doesn’t exist? It is healthy for society to distribute support for this unrealistic perfection? No. Therefore, to balance the unrealistic goals of perfection set forth through certain branches of society, society has those individuals who not only mock, but ridicule, through various forms of media, these unrealistic expectations of perfection. One example of such mockery and ridicule includes

In the film, Black Swan, we saw how the fear of failure greatly affects a person and could push them to the breaking point. We saw how NIna was determined to achieve the role that she had worked towards for so long. When she achieved the part she is faced with lots of negativity from her coach and from herself, despite having a passion for dance and being

The loss of her family plantation marks a loss in the Old Southern ideals she grew up with and results in her desperately holding onto her beauty, which is ever fading. The suicide of her husband has a lasting impact on her outlook on life as she places the blame on herself, which causes her to become reluctant about letting go and

leading to losing her life in a tragic way. All the people in her life suffer greatly, and she becomes blind to her actions, and the life she had wasted away.

“Black Swan” is a dark and chaotic film that follows a ballet dancer named Nina who's only and greatest dream is to become the “Swan Queen” in the production “Swan Lake.” The movie follows Nina’s demise into chaos as she attempts to master and embody both the white and black swan. Although dark, confusing, and sometimes frightening, the movie excellently portrays the utter chaos of living with an eating disorder, as well as the perils of schizophrenia, and anxiety. The movie begins with the portrayal of Nina as a timid person struggling with Anorexia and self-confidence with the aspiration to become the perfect ballet dancer.

Given this, it is explained that the expectations listed above are the problems with society. Society’s expectations of perfection and hiding of emotions give unrealistic ideas to women about the individuals they should be. Instead of trying to fit the expectations of society, everyone should reveal their flaws and be proud of themselves. When everyone tries to be perfect, they are only disappointed because of how unrealistic and impossible it is to achieve their goal of perfection. These expectations and disappointments are the problems with society, because perfection is an unachievable objective. These lines explain that the American individual should not be one to follow societal expectations, even though it is falsely believed that perfection makes the ideal individual.

Synopsis Black Swan is a story based on the character Nina Sayer, who is a ballerina who is struggling to achieve the lead role in the play, Swan Queen. Nina is a fragile young woman whose life is dictated by Ballet. She lives her daily life through a repetitive schedule and she does not drink, go out, or socialize with friends. Nina's mother is very controlling and has an obsessive attitude towards her. She treats Nina as though she is still a child which leads to a unhealthy relationship between the two characters.

In the film, Black Swan, the plot centers on Nina Sayers, a ballerina whose only goal is to play the role of the Black and White Swan in her company’s production of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake ballet. While she easily embodies into the innocence and grace of the White Swan, her shy and fragile personality does not fit the seductiveness and mysteriousness of the Black Swan. As a result, she struggles to become the opposite of who she is, worsening her issues with depression and anorexia.

Based on her symptoms, Nina could have both schizophrenia and obsessive compulsive disorder towards the idea of perfection. As she tries to awake her inner “black swan,” Nina falsely hallucinated some of her body injuries, her actions, and that another ballerina is coming after her. These false beliefs and decisions she made due to her beliefs prevented Nina from having a normal, healthy life. Nina also experiences anxiety by picking and scratching her skin as evident signs and her obsessive traits are highlighted as she puts efforts to achieve “perfection’ in dancing and body image by developing eating

The main character in the film Black Swan, twenty-eight year old female Nina Sayers, displays signs of numerous disorders through her abnormal behavior. Nina’s life is consumed by her occupation: professional ballerina/dancer. Nina resides with her mother and rarely socializes with others. She has difficulty concentrating, is restless, irritable, suffers from muscle tension, and sleep disturbances from nightmares. Nina also feels very uncomfortable in social and intimate situations. She appears to be unable to successfully interact with those around her. The interaction that Nina has with her fellow dancers appears to be strained and superficial. Nina exhibits behavior that indicates she views all other dancers as competition instead of

Black Swan is a psycho thriller film that narrates the life of a ballerina called Nina Sayers (played by Natalie Portman). She is a young, ambitious dancer working for a prestigious NYC ballet company. According to the movie, she was around twenty-some year old when the story begins. Even though the main point of the movie is how bad Nina wanted the lead role for a theater production called Swan Lake, the dark drama around the movie is built by the psychological illness of its protagonist. Nina’s disordered relationship with her roommate/mother Erica, played by Barbara Hershey, sets the stage for Nina’s psychological breakdown. In the movie, the role that Nina always wanted requires her to play both the black and white swans. Her innocent, almost child-like personality makes her a perfect hite swan; however, she was having trouble getting into the character of the white swan’s dark and seductive counterpart. This film brilliantly captures the brutal physical and emotional demands that ballerinas face in their short-lived career span.