"Because Who Is Perfect?"

I have posted this video before in the past. I came across it again this afternoon and thought it was worth posting again, because it is a topic I feel deeply about, being close to my heart and resonates with me today as a result of the way I'm feeling, a little 'disabled', not 'normal' and very imperfect. However, I think I am neither, and both simultaneously. It is all matter of personal perception.



 Language can be a constructive powerful tool or a destructive weapon. It can be misconstrued and misinterpreted, depending on deportment, tone and intent.  Both our ears and eyes can deceive us easily. We judge, and think what we see and hear, is truth or falsehood. What we see isn't always what we get. What we think we've heard, isn't always what is being said. Add to this, our contemporary society's preoccupation with political correctness to complicate matters in the way we convey language, in all it's meaning, and in all that all that it implies.

There has been some interesting thought provoking discussion about this particular video and about other film shorts produced by Pro Infirmis, an organization for the 'disabled'. Let me say, I really dislike the word disability, because it is often reserved for those of us who are 'disabled' who are labeled as some how being outside the definition of what is so called 'normal'; another word I really dislike. We all are 'disabled' in one way or another, and I question, just what is 'normal'. I am of the opinion that imperfection and diversity is what is normal.
I find it curious that the description I have posted of the video from Youtube below, starts by referring to the mannequins as being 'disabled'



" Disabled mannequins will be eliciting astonished looks from passers-by on Zurich's Bahnhofstrasse today. Between the perfect mannequins, there will be figures with scoliosis or brittle bone disease modelling the latest fashions. One will have shortened limbs; the other a malformed spine. The campaign has been devised for the International Day of Persons with Disabilities by Pro Infirmis, an organization for the disabled. Entitled "Because who is perfect? Get closer.", it is designed to provoke reflection on the acceptance of people with disabilities. Director Alain Gsponer has captured the campaign as a short film.
The figures are life-sized, three-dimensional representations of Miss Handicap 2010, Jasmin Rechsteiner, radio presenter and film critic Alex Oberholzer, track and field athlete Urs Kolly, blogger Nadja Schmid and actor Erwin Aljukic.
"We often go chasing after ideals instead of accepting life in all its diversity. Pro Infirmis strives especially for the acceptance of disability and the inclusion of people with disabilities," says Mark Zumbühl, a member of the Pro Infirmis Executive Board, in describing the campaign. "

                                                                               

See our former TV-Spots under:

Bear: http://youtu.be/zFWr-CKMWGY
Gianni Blumer: http://youtu.be/Qr-xnqgpin8

What Is Beautiful? Who Is Perfect? Get Real?

This article from Global News entitled, Mannequins are getting tatoos, back fat and pubic hair, makes me think it's a great thing there is a discussion happening about how people are getting all "haired up", ( pun intended), over hair, and mannequins etc. In spite of there being so many other things to concern ourselves with,  I do believe it is an important, and necessary discussion.

People are perfect in their imperfections, in an natural state, and we all have a story to tell. Life isn't perfect, far from it, causing one to ponder perfection, beauty, reality and the meaning of our lives.

Many don't see beyond the surface, not seeing the person first, but only the superficial. Often we can't see past the so called, disability, the disease, whether it be physical, or mental. The preconceived, rigid, and often self or externally imposed , social, economic, and cultural norms within society lead us to judge, compare others, and ourselves relentlessly , according to a existing every changing standard.

I believe it to be a positive development in the world of fashion in particular, that challenges the constraints, and confines of  the ideal . Body image, appearance, ideas surrounding beauty, and perfection are based on image, and illusion, certainly not on reality.

I remember a good friend once relating to me the idea, if we perceive ourselves through an image, and not through a belief in what I would describe, as being the God of my own understanding, image does not exist. Image is illusion, and a standard we will never measure up to, and we will always fall short.

 Reading the book, The Spirituality of Imperfection , by authors, Ernest Kurtz and Katherine Ketcham,  helped me immeasurably, to understand the importance, and necessity of imperfection and how the idea of perfection is so imperfect.