Pobody Is Nerfect

On the one hand my rebuild is going swimmingly. My workouts are going harder, better, faster, stronger. Muscle that went into exhile during the starvation phase has returned and is re-establishing itself as a productive member of the group, even lending bones some support as they rebuild. I’m sure it’s reciprocal.

On the other hand like any community rebuilding after a disaster my body has its share of opportunists milking the system. Bits of fat growth are sneaking in and feeding well on the influx of nutrients. I’ve gone from 177 on the last day of starvation back to 198 lbs.

But as I’ve said, it’s not the numbers on the scale. When I feel as though eating again is like ignoring an old friend, filling me with guilt – and that happens surprisingly often – I remind myself that the old friend, starvation, was actually kind of a prick.

With 21 lbs more weight back on in less than a month, these reminders don’t always work. But it’s something.  As metro as it sounds to go around moaning about feeling bloated, that’s more than 10% of my body mass packed on in a very short amount of time. I keep telling myself it’ll help feed the muscle as I continue to grow stronger.

Speaking of growing stronger, back in April of this year Britney Spears, the oft derided pop star, did something courageous. She showed herself naked.

I don’t mean she did a spread for Playboy or anything – I mean she revealed a “behind the scenes” of a photo shoot by releasing both the “official” images, and those denuded of any airbrushing intervention.

A part of me thinks it’s interesting that we still use the term “airbrush” when anyone with photoshop can do the same, and without having to use canned air, pots of paint, and a mask.

Mask… that reminds me; a few years ago a chap called Dr. Stephen Marquardt, a plastic surgeon, came out with a beauty mask that he claimed represents the “ideal” facial archetype.

It seems certain ratios are ingrained in us biologically to perceive as “beautiful” – the width of the mouth compared to nostrils, how far apart the eyes are and how high up on one’s face, and so on.

As the faces shown being measured by the mask were all female I suspect the ratios are gender specific. Women, after all, are perceived as being more beautiful when they have traits that mimic youth; big eyes, a small jaw, etc. Dr. Marquardt even admits his mask describes a woman’s shape.

What bothers me about this is not that I don’t have the type of androgynous face that many women find attractive on a man these days; it’s that people take this mask concept so seriously that some of the good Doctor’s fellow plastic surgeons consider it a template to work by, and some of their patients insist on receiving these golden ratios.

They’re both forgetting something critical: while faces that are far off the mark from matching the ratios were considered useful-for-frightening-away-kids-selling-magazine-subscriptions ugly, faces that were found to fall right into those ratios were intellectually recognized as beautiful… but the emotional response of looking at them left something to be desired.

Perfection is, in a way, boring. That little birthmark, or the slight scar in the eyebrow… maybe the way one eye is a millimeter lower than the other… these are all things that, if exaggerated, would be considered defects but are still necessary to add that bit of humanity, that spark, that provides the quirkiness that actually compels others to notice you in a good way.

So kudos to Ms Spears for showing herself warts and all. Or in this case cellulite and all. Deep down we all know that even the “perfect” people get touch ups, but often we don’t feel that way when making comparisons to ourselves.

Sear these images into your brain. When next you’re clutching a fashion mag in one hand and pinching an inch of flab in the other, thinking “why me?” remember these photos of Britney and remind yourself “because everybody else, too”.

We are, all of us, imperfect. And that is a part of our beauty.