F**kin' Perfect

"But you, O you/ so perfect and so peerless, are created/ Of every creature's best!" - The Tempest

Apparently, there has been some controversy surrounding the video for P!nk's new music video for her song "F**kin Perfect."  There are images of sexuality, anorexia, and self-mutilation along with a sleuth of other images of a young girl being neglected by her peers and berated by her parents.  Having struggled with quite a few of these myself, I appreciate a contemporary mainstream artist who isn't afraid of ruffling the tail-feathers of the "politically correct."

On her website P!nk defended her music video by saying "My favourite books, art pieces, films, and music, always have something jarring about them. I want art to make me think. In order to do that, it may piss me off, or make me uncomfortable."  I can certainly relate to this.  Just because something is uncomfortable doesn't mean that is isn't, well, perfect. 

Perhaps it is in these most uncomfortable moments that we are truely challenged to be who we really are--not who other people expect and tell us to be.  It is in these moments that we sometimes come to realize how imperfect we really are.  Perfection is something that we, as humans, seem so detached from.  Even geometric perfection doesn't exist.  No snowflake is the same, roots are gnarled, the sun is always a day older, and even buildings built after eons of mental and physical labor are missing a few screws.  Yet, P!nk's song has a different suggestion: "Pretty, pretty, please.  Don't you ever, ever feel like your less then fuckin' perfect.  Pretty, pretty, please.  If you ever, ever feel like your nothin', you're fuckin' perfect to me."

One of the last images in the video is of the main character waking up, nuzzling out from the grasp of the man sleeping beside her, and walking down the hall to her daughter's room.  This last image, of the love of a mother, is probably the least controversial and the most powerful.  Though this little girl will mess up, though she may face the same kind of trials and triumphs her mother faced, she is still perfect in the eyes of someone who cares for her.

Human beings aren't perfect in the dictionary sense of the word.  We aren't all the same, we're gnarled (not just talking about bed-head), we're always getting older, and even after mental and physical labor we are still missing a few screws.  Yet, to someone, despite all our imperfections, we are perfect.  Not perfect in the traditional sense, but still...still perfect.



If you want to watch the video, here is the link.  Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s4Rax2PXiWA