STEAM

France have recently enforced the ban of unhealthily underweight models in the fashion industry.

This follows a law passed in 2015, that requires models to prove their overall physical health by providing a doctor’s certificate which confirms as such. Their body mass index (BMI), which measures weight in relation to height, giving an indication of their overall health, is of specific concern.

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France’s decision to enforce a ban on overly skinny models follows a law passed in 2015, requiring models to prove their overall physical health by providing a doctor’s certificate. Their body mass index (BMI), which measures weight in relation to height, is of specific concern.

This new legislation was put into place in an attempt to tackle eating disorders amongst both models, aspiring models and members of the public.

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Employers could be fined up to 75,000 euros and face six months in jail if they are found breaking the law.

The French Health Ministry believe that the promotion of unhealthily thin models creates unrealistic ideals of beauty, and that this can cause the development of eating disorders. According to their figures, 40,000 people in France suffer from anorexia, a life-threatening eating disorder where individuals limit their food intake.

Italy, Spain and Israel have also enforced legislation on underweight models - so is it time that England does the same?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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“With other countries taking action, I’m sure it will happen and hopefully quite soon. The problem is with the agencies, who, despite the message they might put across, at the end of the day are always after very thin models,” says Sally Jarvis, a private London-based counsellor and psychotherapist for patients dealing with eating disorders.

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“They may sign you at a healthy weight, but then go on to ask you to lose a stone. This is very worrying, especially if the individual was already very slim. Asking this of an individual may well lead them to take unhealthy measures to lose the weight and in turn potentially cause them to develop an eating disorder.”

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Eating disorder organisation, BEAT, states on their website that the “fashion industry doesn’t cause eating disorders; they are more complex than this”, but that it “does have a powerful influence, which is highly toxic to some vulnerable people”.

Jarvis, who has aided in the recovery of models suffering with eating disorders such as anorexia and bulimia, added that banning unhealthy models “would help stop the glamorization of being thin. Some people are genetically ‘model skinny’, but for most it is a dangerous goal to achieve, with debilitating mental and physical effects”.

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Alongside the new French law, photoshopped images of models are to be marked ‘photographie retouchee’ (retouched photograph). This is a further attempt to end the not uncommon aspiration to be unrealistically and unhealthily thin. 

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 “Looking at images of pretty, skinny girls in magazines and online shopping websites definitely kick started my obsession with being thin,” says primary school teacher Joanna Symons, aged 24, developed anorexia when she was 15.

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“I had been a dancer for many years so was already pretty slim but then I started to not feel thin enough. I wanted to be like those models. Now I know that was crazy. I think models like that should be banned everywhere. I hate to think that some of the generation I teach could grow up thinking that is something to aspire to.”

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BEAT estimates that more than 725,000 people in the UK are affected by an eating disorder. For support and information on how to beat eating disorders you can visit their website: https://www.b-eat.co.uk/