Picture courtesy: xkcd.com
Perfectionism costs much. You’ve to be perfect so that you can prove your worth. I can hardly call myself a feminist in the true sense of the term, because the thing is I never ever understood this concept in its ‘true’ sense. I am standing in the middle here, right between bra-burners and Femi-Nazis and people who do not give a damn. I hardly ever cared about achieving ‘absolute’ perfection because in the end I got what was due to me, or something pretty close to what I wanted. I admit, I am average. But that was school.
I was made to read a book when I was fourteen by an aunt who is a surgeon by profession. I found it pretty boring and preachy back then. It was The Making of a Woman Surgeon by Elizabeth Morgan. Only now do I understand what it actually meant. Morgan gives an example of one situation where she had to treat a patient met with an accident, and she hurriedly and untidily put in the sutures to close the wound for the fear that he would lose his life. The chief resident, a woman, told her to take the sutures out and do the work neatly. The patient died as expected but the sutures were neatly put in. According to Morgan's chief resident, you can’t remain satisfied with being as good as men; you have got to do better than them. My point, that's where situation starts to suck.
That’s what it is. Perfectionism is not the same thing. One mistake and you are labeled. Not just you, but your whole gender. You won’t even know when you become a part of the gender politics. Because one day, you will start chirping the same tune. No one would take names if I draft badly in my internship. But the blame would be on all future female legal interns because they cannot draft well. A standard has been set, a really demeaning, crippling standard. This is what people call “the glass ceiling” in such endearing and graceful terms. Its amazing how everything is taken to be a matter of scrutiny right from speaking skills to one's integrity. One stupid mistake is all it takes.
