Why is Perception so different from Identity?

       Why is perception so different from identity? Identity and perception share a strong relationship and have the potential of being total opposites of each other. Identity is how one defines oneself or what they want others to identify them as. Perception is how one views and understands other people, ideas or things. The perception of a single concept can differ from person to person depending on the circumstances. For example, media distorts the perception of true beauty by portraying beauty to be perfection, when in actuality, that is not true nor realistic. People view this portrayal of beauty and try their hardest to live up to those standards, not knowing how unrealistic it all is, only to fall down hard when they cannot reach them. They feel as though they are the ones lacking something.
       Though she has MS, Mairs identifies herself to be a woman who is just like any other woman her age, in that she does all the same things they do. However, people don't perceive her for who she is but see her only for her disease, or "Ms. MS" (Mairs 4). As aforementioned, people's perceptions are distorted largely by the media. For example, advertisements don't even show disabled people using their products in fear that abled people might mistake it for a product that only disabled people use. Films and television shows, however, focus mainly on the character's disability and not who they are as a person. What is society really gaining by portraying these "perfect" people in the media? Those people aren't "real." We are--and so are all the imperfections we may have, because that's just a part of life and it's what makes us human.