2008 Woodie Awards
One woman strives to become 'perfect' by questioning society norms
By Nate Lipka
Issue date: 2/21/08 Section: News
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Lonely hearts: meet Delia Oman, The Perfect Woman.
Well, she's not perfect yet. But she promises to be.
Oman is the creator of The Perfect Woman Project, and she swears to transform herself into one man's idea of womanly perfection - whatever that may be.
The idea is simple: men from across the country have submitted their definitions and descriptions of "the perfect woman" via Oman's website, www.perfectwomanproject.com, over the last four months.
Starting Valentine's Day, users will vote for their favorite submissions on the site, and the one that garners the most votes will serve as the template for Oman's complete physical and intellectual transformation.
Oman promises to do "anything and everything" to be perfect for the winning man, and will document the transformation process via an ongoing blog on the project's site.
In May, Oman will fly the author of the winning submission to her hometown for a series of dates to be broadcast live online for all to see.
The typical reaction to the project thus far has been disbelief, Oman said.
"People are like, 'this girl is sick, this is sad, who would do this?'" Oman said.
"It usually stops at a real discomfort with it," Oman said, "… and that's enough for me, because I hope that they take another step and question why."
The absurdity of the entire project is by design, utilizing the shock and disgust it can conjure up to raise questions about the ideals being promoted in popular culture today.
The laundry list of social concerns Oman raises is a lengthy one. She proposes that online dating, Myspace, blogs, self-help books, women's magazines and especially reality television have contributed to effectively corrupting what is expected of women, and that we have even grown accustomed to such persuasive media tactics.
"It's funny to me that we're willing to watch a television show where someone's face gets completely reconstructed," Oman said. "They change this person completely, that people are comfortable with that. But when I'm doing it, suddenly it's scary and weird."
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