Perfection. We all strive for that implausible ideal, especially when dealing with our bodies. We are constantly bombarded with images from the TV, from movies, even from magazines of what the ‘ideal’ figure should look like. Young men and women are often influenced by what they read and hear though the media. Because of this, society often gets a much distorted view of what is considered a normal body image, and thus people resort to drastic measures such extreme dieting, plastic surgery, and excessive excising to lose weight. But what exactly is the perfect body that people would so literally die for?

When we think about what the perfect body looks like, the words skinny or built often come to mind first. Throughout time, the image of the perfect body has shifted and altered. In the 1800s, the ideal body type for a woman was plump and curvy with a small waist, artificially constructed through the use of tightly closed corsets…