April 12, 2004
Perfection-ism
Note: People whose email addresses are firmly intact in OoN’s address book are missing copies that have been sent. Their applications may be spamming and junking us. One way possibly to prevent this, we’re told, is to make sure OoN’s sender’s address (john.l.denson@vanderbilt.edu) is in your address book. If you know another way, please tell us. Just on an uninformed hunch, we’ve also tweaked the subject line ever so slightly in an effort to fool the usually unfoolable electrons. Let us know if anything’s changed. — JLD
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Perfectionism is sweeping the campuses, and the deans, of all people, are worried about it.
Far from being shocked, the dean of student affairs at one college supported the women’s group that came up with a campaign of posters showing naked undergraduate women from the neck down in all their short, tall, thin, not-so-thin, fit and unfit, anonymous, unairbrushed glory — anything to stop students from worrying so much about body image, grades, careers.
College officials are telling students to get off the treadmill. Go for a walk, go surfing. Read a novel just for pleasure. Eat ice cream. Hang out with the knitting club. Find your passion.
All of this reflects the ever-increasing attention colleges across the country are giving to undergraduates’ personal growth and emotional well-being. There are now free massages and dogs to cuddle in exam seasons, biofeedback workshops, and therapists available just to help students work through their first C.
We didn’t have those posters when I was an undergraduate. All we had was our imaginations where the bodies were always perfect. But I do remember very well my first C. I was so grateful finally to make one, that I gave the prof a massage.