Altered perception

I stumbled across a clip (below) on the Internet today and it brought back memories of when I was learning about ‘perception’ at KIAD and the perculiar question "how does a frog perceive the world?" and thinking what's that got to do with design. Then later as a youth leader being acutely aware of an underlying pain of some of the young people who found it difficult to 'fit in' at school or be accepted in a peer group and more often than not it was because of their 'look'. Maybe they didn't have the right trainers, maybe they had spots, maybe they were a little overweight. Maybe they were a little skinny. I'm guessing every one of us wanted to change something about the way we looked when we were at school. I can't think of a boy who didn't want bigger muscles and the latest trainers, I know I did. Now along way down the line it is blatantly obvious to all of us that advertisers and the media play on this same desire to 'look' good in their pursuit of profit. Most of us live in a world where we are judged by the way we look, whether we like it or not. It's a part of our culture and we've learnt it from childhood up, so we can't blame it all on glossy magazines. I don't think anyone would deny that it's a huge advantage being attractive ('nearly' all of the time) so it's hardly any wonder we desire it. Which leads to the question, what is beautiful? Our perception of beauty can depend on our culture. Some cultures persive a fuller (plump, even fat) figure to be more desirable. Leonardo da Vinci studied human proportions and came up the ‘Vitruvian Man’ as an ‘Ideal’ of body proportions. There have been countless studies into what makes the ideal ‘beautiful’ face including mathematical equations and ‘Eurasian’ a mixed race highbred of perfection. Rather than go into great depth I think it’s safe to say we all ‘know it when we see it’. The point is that someone could never fit that mark because they simply don’t exist, their not real. You would never believe the amount of ‘touching up’ that’s done on photos in tabloid newspapers let alone fashion magazines. We spend so much energy trying to keep up with fashion and not just cloths, our bodies are just as much victims of fashion. Film stars are now re-writing the rulebook with there Size 0 clothes (no the 0 isn’t a mistake) and Eva Longoria is a size 00. It’s been written that ‘0 is the new size 8’ that’s more than unhealthy its dangerous but I’d imagine that in Hollywood you’ll soon be perceived as fat if you’re a 6. It’s ridiculous but that perception it will undoubtedly filter down to Jo pubic just the same as the style of cloths on their backs. I was shocked to see a programme called ‘Extreme Makeover’ where women with low self-esteem and a belly or buckteeth are given every cosmetic ‘enhancement’ under the sun and changed to the degree of being unrecognisable (I’m thinking a bike, brace and some counciling would of sorted that). My fear is that as these type of treatments become more and more accessible, by the time I have kids your going to be the ‘odd one out’ if you’ve got real boobs and your own teeth. Don’t get me wrong I believe you should look after your body, you’ve only got the one (at the moment) so exercise, eat healthy food etc. that’s common sense but if we don’t want our children to live in a world where everything is fake then we all need to love our bodies a little more and look a little further than skin deep (in ourselves and in others) we should (in my opinion) be using Jesus (even Martian L King or someone who has actually done something would be a huge step up) as our ideal not Paris Hilton – and stop buying those flipping magazines!

Alter your perception