P!nk's video for "Fuckin' Perfect" stars Tina Majorino (Veronica Mars, Big Love) as a troubled teen who feels alienated from her classmates (with what seems to be good reason) and who is tempted to self-harm in order to deal with the pain. But the empowering message of the song—not to mention the artistic talent she displays while working out her pain on canvases and locker-room walls—results in her beating her pain, and getting a very flattering hairdo to boot.
Perhaps realizing that a video showing a young woman engaging in self-mutilation would rattle the culture-war hornet's nest that's been working in overdrive lately, P!nk posted a message about the clip on her site:
My favorite books, art pieces, films, and music, always have something jarring about them. I want art to make me think.In order to do that, it may piss me off, or make me uncomfortable. That promotes awareness and change, or at least some discussion.
That is my intention.
You can't move mountains by whispering at them.
Cutting, and suicide, two very different symptoms of the same problem, are gaining on us. (the problem being; alienation and depression. the symptoms; cutting and suicide). I personally don't know a single person who doesn't know at least two of these victims personally. A lot of us have seen certain starlets showing off their latest scars on a red carpet somewhere, usually right before they head back to their favorite rehab.
Its a problem, and its something we should talk about.
We can choose to ignore the problem, and therefore ignore this video, but that won't make it go away.
Truer words were never spoken, although surely there are loud voices out there who are going to do their damndest to try.
