The Perfect Woman
Even if we think we’ve come a long way in equalizing the gender playing field, the female icons of our generation prove that on a mass scale, we still believe that a woman’s worth is based on her image.
Who is she? You’re probably thinking about famous models or influencers you follow. But if she’s perfect, she’s not just impossibly beauty-standard-meeting gorgeous, with a toned body that is both skinny and curvy (in the right places) – she also has to be talented. Maybe an athlete, an actress, or a performer. She’s got to be funny too, though. Maybe she’s a real estate agent, sourced from Selling Sunset. But she has to be super smart as well! A neuroscientist? No, women today don’t get famous among people our age for being smart. They get famous for all the superficial stuff first, so she’d have to keep up a damn good TikTok and Instagram page if you’re expected to know her.
So, who does the media name The Perfect Woman? We could say an entrepreneur: Kim Kardashian. Just by looking at some of the longer-standing feminine trends of our generation, (meaning upwards of at least 1 year because ‘long-term’ is a joke in this media climate), you’d see that Kim K is reflected in most of them. Examples include the hourglass figure, the cat eyes plus small nose plus high cheekbones plus big lips combo, athleisure as a genre of everyday apparel, and shapewear like Skims, once again, as everyday apparel. Maybe you don’t think Kim Kardashian is The Perfect Woman though, because, well, even she is going out of style. Fads change so quickly that you bat an eye and suddenly we went from nude bodycon dresses to vibrant knitwear (knit crop tops, knit dresses, knit fingerless gloves, knit balaclavas, you get the point, you’ve seen the knit sh*t). Kim is getting older, too, and one of the final pillars of Perfect Womanhood is that she doesn’t age. To be The Perfect Woman, you’ve got to be immortal.
The Kardashian clan dictates today’s trends, markets, standards, beliefs. They say their stupid one-liners in their reality shows, everyone laughs - and maybe that’s the key to the chokehold they have over consumers. They let you laugh at them, but in reality, they control your world. And obviously profit insane amounts off doing so.
Of course, I can’t actually say who the perfect woman is, and if I were to hypothesize about who’s close, Kim wouldn’t be on my list. Perfection, ironically, is subjective. It is a glass word, it is a fantasy. Because of the deep patriarchal history of most countries on this planet, this fantasy of womanhood has been catered towards the male gaze. The male gaze is a term coined by filmmaker Laura Mulvey in her 1975 essay Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema meaning that the sole significance of a woman’s presence is to be looked at as an object of sexual desire, originally through the eyes of a man. Mulvey’s essay is on traditional film, but its contents still delineate how a woman is viewed today. Here are some examples of Perfect Woman archetypes in film and TV, which bleed into current trends (all in my thrifted clothes and stylistic interpretation):
Popular Girly Girl (inspired by Regina George, Mean Girls)
Liked for her femininity and frivolousness
Hot Badass Motorcycle Girl (inspired by Pamela Anderson as Barbara Wire, Barb Wire)
Liked for her cool badassery and supposed opposition to gender norms
“Everyone thinks I’m ugly because I’m shy and wear glasses but that one guy noticed me because I am a literal model and then everyone realized it too” Girl (inspired by Rory Gilmore, Gilmore Girls)
Liked for her innocence, insecure self-abasement, and potential intelligence (aka the glasses)
Indie Bohemian Girl (inspired by Daisy Jones, Daisy Jones & the Six)
Liked for her natural beauty and being chill
Rich Classy Girl (inspired by Cher, Clueless)
Liked for her wealth (her dad’s job) and social standing
Bombshell Girl (inspired by Serena van der Woodsen, Gossip Girl)
Liked for her confidence and sexiness
The male gaze classically outlines variations of the girl that supposedly every heterosexual man wants: sexy but cute, smart but not smarter than you, confident but meek, and more. Somehow, in the real world, a woman is expected to be all of these rolled into one. A character of impossible juxtapositions. Such an established set of perfect, desired qualities eradicates the freedom of a unique identity. Men, on the other hand, have a wide range of characteristics they are free to take on. Their personhood is what makes them valuable in society, not their degree of sex appeal.
What we consume is what we learn, and eventually it is what we know. Even if we think we’ve come a long way in leveling the gender playing field, the female icons of our generation prove that on a mass scale, we still believe that a woman’s worth is based on her image. Kim Kardashian’s fame and success all started with the exhibition of her body and beauty. She is the eighth most followed person on Instagram, with only three “Perfect Woman” candidates above her in these rankings, one of which she is related to: Kylie Jenner, Selena Gomez, and Ariana Grande. Notice how they all look somewhat similar, having undergone plastic surgery and a multitude of photo editing to resemble an even more unattainable look of perfection (read The Age of Instagram Face if interested in the phenomenon of facial feature trends).
The solution to our prevalent cultural errors starts with awareness. We should allow ourselves to dictate what is beautiful in fashion and femininity based on our own sense of self. We should all think more critically about the media we consume and the female figures we praise. Why do we follow Hailey Bieber, Bella Hadid, Kendall Jenner? If they didn’t have stunning model figures or faces, would we still pay attention to them? It’s okay to appreciate beauty – but it’s not okay to assume it is the main source of power and success for a woman. If you were to ask someone of the male species which guy he looks up to, I’d bet you the names on that list wouldn’t be there for being hot. We should all follow suit, idolizing qualities beyond attractiveness in our role models. We should look up to men and women for their skills, successes, leadership, humanitarianism, and creativity.
Below I put together an outfit that combines the best aspects of the aforementioned archetypes that an actual perfect woman would wear in 2023:
Just kidding. Hopefully you already knew I wouldn’t provide a real outfit. If you expected me to, then you should go back and reread this from start to finish.
