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The Pressure of Perfection: When Good Isn’t Good Enough

Chris Wind HanzeMAG DOCS

What is perfection and who gets to define it? In the documentary The Pressure of Perfection, four Hanze students explore how the constant drive to be perfect seeps into our daily lives.

(This documentary is in Dutch, but with English subs)

Perfection. The word might sound like a compliment, but for many, it feels like an impossible standard. In a world where you’re always visible, both on- and offline, there seems to be no room for imperfection. Students Lianne Betten, Myrthe Forsten, Finette Reinders and Nina de Rooij spoke to five people about their experiences with this pressure as part of their minor in Medialism.

They interviewed Dutch language teacher and influencer Marit Brouwer, community police officer Eva Dijkman, retired KLM pilot Jaap Jan van den Hof, nail artist and influencer Iris de Waard, and lecturer-researcher Willem Vos. Five people, five professions, five perspectives on what perfection means and why it’s sometimes necessary to aim for it, but often harmful too.

Marit Brouwer speaks candidly about her struggles with self-image and the impact of social media. ‘When I first started on TikTok, I was extremely insecure. If I thought I looked fat or ugly in a video, I would slap a filter on it.’ These days, she tries to be more honest, even when she’s not feeling great. ‘Self-love starts with acceptance, not with a filter.’

Community officer Eva Dijkman recognises the pressure to be constantly switched on. In her previous district, she felt continuously responsible, even on her days off. ‘There was no space left for myself. No time to exercise, to breathe. I thought: I need to get out.’

For KLM pilot Jaap Jan van den Hof, perfection is quite literally a matter of life and death. In the cockpit, there is no room for error. Yet he stresses that mistakes must be open for discussion. ‘That’s called just culture: you talk about what went wrong, without fear of consequences.’

Lecturer-researcher Willem Vos places perfectionism in a broader context. He sees it as a symptom of a society obsessed with progress. ‘Every society gets the disorders it deserves. Constantly striving for perfection is basically a recipe for disappointment.’

Nail artist and influencer Iris de Waard knows the game of the perfect image all too well. She creates content for TikTok and Instagram on a daily basis but tries to remain critical of what she puts online. ‘I don’t suddenly make myself slimmer or taller. That’s just weird to me. I don’t follow people who do that.’ Small imperfections, like a blemish or flat hair, she might touch up. But her freckles and scars stay. ‘That’s me. I don’t have to be ashamed of that.’

The Pressure of Perfection shows that perfection means something different to everyone and that no one is immune to it. Not the influencer, not the pilot, not the police officer, not the academic, not the viewer. The common thread? Perfection is often an illusion. And that might just be a relief.