Can perfection be dangerous?

Can the desire for better skin, better cupcakes, better sex, slimmer bodies, immaculate homes, flawless children be harmful?

“Absolutely,” said women’s health expert Alice Domar ’80. “There’s nothing wrong with making a delicious cupcake, but there is something wrong when women feel inadequate if they make brownies out of a box.”

A psychologist, Domar has spent the past 20 years studying women’s health and teaching women skills to make themselves healthier and happier.

While it is normal to want to be perfect in some aspects of our lives, it is not healthy, Domar says, to aspire to perfection in everything, and such unreasonable expectations can create anxiety and stress.

“Stress,” Domar said, “suppresses the immune system. It hastens the aging process. It can kill you.”