Kudos to the French Parliament regarding ultra thin models.

[Stinky The Clown]

http://www.reuters.com/article/2015/04/03/us-france-anorexia-idUSKBN0MU0JK20150403

(Reuters) - France will ban excessively thin fashion models and expose modeling agents and the fashion houses that hire them to possible fines and even jail, under a new law passed on Friday.

The move by France, with its fashion and luxury industries worth tens of billions of euros, comes after a similar ban by Israel in 2013, while other countries, like Italy and Spain, rely on voluntary codes of conduct to protect models.

The measure is part of a campaign against anorexia by President Francois Hollande's government. Lawmakers also made it illegal to condone anorexia and said any re-touched photo that alters the bodily appearance of a model for commercial purposes must carry a message stating it had been manipulated.

"The activity of model is banned for any person whose Body Mass Index (BMI) is lower than levels proposed by health authorities and decreed by the ministers of health and labor," the legislation says.

>snip<

[hifiguy]

1. The intentions are good, but I cannot imagine

how the hell you would enforce this. What if there are some models who are naturally skinny as a rail?

[Stinky The Clown]

4. As I understand it . . . .

. . . . . the health ministry will set the standards based on some percentage of the Body Mass Index.

I also understand that it is about the image projected by the fashion and advertising industries as much as "protecting" models.

Some years ago Massachusetts (I think it was) passed a similar law about dancers. George Ballachine was one who liked 'em tall and skinny, as in heroin chic. They now have minimum weight, based on height and age, and require documented weigh-ins. The big dance shools on New York followed suit and now it is the norm for the industry.

Again, Kudos to France for this.

[Scootaloo]

6. Pretty easy. The law requires models to have a BMI of at least 18

That's already pretty low, and the BMI index is already skewed towards thin caucasian bodies. Skinny models are going ot be fine, it's the stickfigure skeletor models being looked at.

[hifiguy]

7. Thanks, Scoots and Stinky.

That all sounds sensible.

[NYC_SKP]

2. Do we even need models?

I'm all for doing away with skinny models and the profound effects presentation of the human form has on men and women.

But, to be honest, this seem draconian and selective. If they want to ban excessively low BMI workers then maybe they should also ban excessively high BMI workers in other industries!

Have they really thought this through or is it one of those feel good laws that are all show and don't really address the issues at the root of the problem.

How about sketches of very thin models, shall we ban those, too?



It's a problem, glad to see something done about it, even something as minimal as this, but more needs to be done.

[Stinky The Clown]

5. I appreciate your sarcasm, but no one encourages high BMI workers.

It is a serious issue whether you see it as such or not.

[BlueJazz]

3. In other news: "Many Paris restaurants were packed last night and many had to stay open late."

"The strange thing, said one owner.."Most of the customers were fairly young women who acted like savages when their huge orders were served"

[Stinky The Clown]

8. Uh

What?

[BlueJazz]

9. I was kidding that the poor Women have not had a decent meal in years.

When I had surgery and didn't eat anything but brown lousy broth for 8 days, I "packed in the food" after I was well.
It wasn't a pretty sight.