Para Summary CAT 2023 actual questions slot 3

The weight of society’s expectations is hardly a new phenomenon but it has become
particularly draining over recent decades, perhaps because expectations themselves
are so multifarious and contradictory. The perfectionism of the 1950s was rooted in the
norms of mass culture and captured in famous advertising images of the ideal white
American family that now seem self-satirising. In that era, perfectionism meant
seamlessly conforming to values, behaviour and appearance: chiselled confidence for
men, demure graciousness for women. The perfectionist was under pressure to look
like everyone else, only more so. The perfectionists of today, by contrast, feel an
obligation to stand out through their idiosyncratic style and wit if they are to gain a
foothold in the attention economy

1. Though long-standing, the pressure to appear perfect and thereby attract attention,
   has evolved over time from one of conformism to one of non-conformism.
2. The pressure to appear perfect has been the cause of tension and conflict because
   the idea itself has been in a state of flux and hard to define.
3. The desire to attract attention is so deep-rooted in individual consciousness that
   people are willing to go to any lengths to achieve it.
4. The image of perfectionism is reflected in and perpetuated by the media; and people
   do their best to adhere to these ideals.

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