The artist Leonardo da Vinci, perhaps best known for painting the Mona Lisa, produced a drawing called the Vitruvian Man. In it, da Vinci depicted his idea of the perfectly sized and proportioned male body. But is this really what a perfect body looks like? And if it’s perfect, does that make every other type of body flawed? Or maybe those are the wrong questions and the idea of a “perfect” body is actually what’s flawed.

Question

Consider Michael Phelps. The winningest swimmer of all time, Phelps earned 28 Olympic medals. His body does not look like the Vitruvian Man. In fact, Phelps’ body is quite unusual. The best swimmers tend to have long torsos and short legs. Phelps is 6 feet 4 inches, but his torso is as long as what you would expect to see in a man who is 6 feet 8 inches tall. His legs are the length typical of a man who is 5 feet 10 inches. Phelps has long arms too. Like the Vitruvian Man, most people have a wingspan roughly the same as their height. Phelps’ wingspan is 6 feet 7 inches, three inches longer than his height.
His ankles are (reportedly) double jointed, and thus extremely flexible. And his feet are big—he wears size 14 shoes. So Phelps’ legs act like flippers when he swims.

No one could argue that Phelps has a perfect body in da Vinci’s sense. But is it correct to say it is imperfect? What does “perfection” mean when we are talking about human biology? Does it even exist?
Maybe perfection has more to do with how a body works than how it looks. How we function actually depends upon how well we fit into our environment. Here’s an example from the animal kingdom. Imagine a population of brown rabbits and white rabbits in a snowy field. Under these conditions, predators are less likely to see and catch the white rabbits. In a summertime field—all brown soil and green and golden plants—white rabbits are more visible and easier to catch. Neither white nor brown fur is perfect for rabbit survival. Rabbits need different bodies for different seasons. And in fact, in some types of rabbits, fur color changes with the seasons. Like rabbits, all organisms, including people, adapt to their environments. The process of evolution selects for the survival of organisms that thrive in their specific environments. But evolution isn’t engineering. Often, imperfections that don’t affect survival too badly get passed on through the generations.
People have plenty. Here are just a few imperfections in the human body. Our knees are less flexible than some of our other joints, which makes injury common. Unlike most other animals, we cannot make vitamin C and need to make sure we get it in our diets. And our jaws are too small to easily fit all our teeth, which is why wisdom teeth usually need to be removed.

All our odd parts and functional compromises exist because evolution builds on what came before. Our ancestors walked on four legs, not two. Our knees are a compromise that allow us to be bipedal. More recent ancestors of humans lost the ability to make vitamin C, but we figured out a way to solve this problem with a change in diet. Humans’ primate ancestors grew bigger jaws than we do, because they ate tougher foods. Now our teeth are crowded. None of these flaws are so serious that they prevent people from reproducing, though. Amazingly, most of us function extremely well despite these flaws. Some of us function spectacularly.
Michael Phelps’ body is not perfectly symmetrical or balanced. His physical variations, however, may have given him the raw materials to be a close-to-perfect swimmer. Phelps’ case is not unique; elite athletes highlight dramatic variability that provides them the physical characteristics to approach perfection in action. Usain Bolt, an Olympic sprinter, has an abundance of fast-twitch muscle fibers that make him speedy and legs so long that it takes him four to five fewer steps to complete a 100-meter race than his competitors.

Simone Biles, another Olympic gold medalist, is both strong and small. The combination is ideal for her sport of gymnastics. She may also have a better-than-average ability to sense where her body is in space, perhaps making jumps, spins, and somersaults a tad easier than for an average person. No athlete is born with the skills to win gold medals, though. Those achievements require years of effort.
Da Vinci’s drawing of the Vitruvian Man combined mathematics and art. To da Vinci, the Vitruvian Man depicted ideal proportions. It was his image of the perfectly formed man. Da Vinci is a time-honored artist, but is there really such thing as a perfect body?

No.

In biology, there is no such thing as one ideal body. In fact, variation in all living things, including us, is the rule. This variation is essential for our survival. Human variation has allowed us to live in wildly different environments—the tropics, deserts, and the Arctic—and to develop many different physical, intellectual, and emotional talents. Not only is there no ideal human body, but our species also thrives because we are different from one another, each of us particularly suited for our own way of living.
How might Michael Phelps, Usain Bolt, and Simone Biles define perfection? Perhaps they might say that perfection, or close to it, occurs in peak athletic performance. Their physical traits certainly helped them excel at their sports. However, it was hard work, dedication, and training that allowed them to soar.

How do you define perfection? Maybe something about you seems different. Can you combine your unique physical, mental, and emotional skills and your attitude in a way that works toward your version of perfection?
What evidence does the author use to support her position?(1 point)
Responses

Leonardo da Vinci's drawing, the Vitruvian Man, illustrates the ideal human body.
Leonardo da Vinci's drawing, the Vitruvian Man, illustrates the ideal human body.

Michael Phelps's body is imperfect, but he is the "winningest" swimmer of all time.

Answer 1

The author uses several pieces of evidence to support her position that there is no such thing as a perfect body. One significant piece of evidence is the example of Michael Phelps, who, despite having a body that does not conform to the ideal proportions depicted in da Vinci's Vitruvian Man, is the "winningest" swimmer of all time. This illustrates that variations in body structure can lead to exceptional performance in specific activities, challenging the notion of a one-size-fits-all definition of perfection.

Additionally, the author discusses variations in other elite athletes, such as Usain Bolt and Simone Biles, highlighting how their unique physical traits contribute to their success in their respective sports. This further emphasizes the idea that perfection in a biological sense does not exist, as different environments and circumstances require different adaptations.

Furthermore, the author touches on the concept of human imperfections, such as the need for dietary Vitamin C and the crowdedness of teeth, which show that our bodies are products of evolutionary compromise, rather than ideal designs.

Through these examples, the author argues that variation among individuals is essential for survival and that the concept of an ideal body is flawed, as it overlooks the importance of diversity and adaptability.