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CBC Canada has a report on a law under consideration in France's lower house that would require models to meet a minimum body mass index standard.
The link between high fashion, body image and eating disorders on French catwalks may lead to a ban on super-skinny models.
Style-conscious France, with its fashion and luxury industries worth tens of billions of dollars, would join Italy, Spain and Israel, which all adopted laws against too-thin models on catwalks or in advertising campaigns in early 2013.
Under the proposed legislation, any model who wants to work has to have a body mass index (a type of height to weight ratio) of at least 18 and would be subject to regular weight checks.
The law would enforce fines of up to $79,000 [US] for any breaches, with up to six months in jail for any staff involved, French Socialist Party legislator Olivier Veran, who wrote the amendments, told newspaper Le Parisien.
The bill's amendments also propose penalties for anything made public that could be seen as encouraging extreme thinness, notably pro-anorexia websites that glorify unhealthy lifestyles and forums that encourage eating disorders.
Body Mass Index (BMI) is is a measure of relative size based on the mass and height of an individual.
c0lo's random thoughts:
- On one side: governments regulating the BMI... (large soda ban)... hmm?
- On the other side: how is this different from laws against public indecency, laws which are well-knitted into the fabric of westernized societies?
(Score: 4, Insightful) by kaszz on Thursday April 09 2015, @02:50AM
I'll find it kind of interesting that people feel the urge to become like people in magazines and television etc. Instead of asking, what do *I* want.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by takyon on Thursday April 09 2015, @02:54AM
Don't you think it might be a subconscious urge?
Expose people to certain norms all the time, and their behavior and sense of self-worth will be affected.
The pro-anorexia and bulimia communities just use the Web to take it a step further and codify a niche.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 09 2015, @03:36AM
As a nerd I have had urges to be flat, white, with a cellulose texture, and have become a BDSM fetishist. I even have a craigslist ad out to let people write notes on me and tell me I'm boring.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Thursday April 09 2015, @03:45AM
Kinky.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 09 2015, @04:50AM
Just like my headphone chord baby.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Thursday April 09 2015, @04:20AM
Perhaps that's the core of the problem. Exposure is equals to norm in the subconscious of many people. And there's a subconscious drive for many to comply with the norm regardless of its merits or sanity.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 09 2015, @03:05AM
We are taught from birth to obey. If we do not, we are disciplined. So we grow up conditioned to do what others tell us to do.
Except the leadership classes. They give, not take, orders. They are the ones apt to own the media, not watch the media.
Certain classes seem born with a microphone in their mouth.
Obey!
Some of us won't obey and we end up paying the price.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 09 2015, @03:07AM
> Why the urge to become alike?
Because we are social animals. The ability to coordinate with others and function as a group is the reason we have large enough brains to be conscious in the first place. Part of that is mimicry which encourages stronger bonds within the group. In the modern age where we don't know our neighbors celebrities fill the same role.
T.V. is enough
It is providing artificial friends
And relatives for lonely people
What it is is recurrent families
The same friends and relatives come back
Week after week after week after week
And they're wittier and they're better looking
And they're much more interesting and they're richer
Than your real friends and relatives
-- Racing Away [youtube.com]
(Score: 2) by gnuman on Thursday April 09 2015, @06:18PM
Instead of asking, what do *I* want.
People are communal animals. We live in large communities. What most people want is the same thing - we want to belong. The most severe punishment by some communities is still shunning.
(Score: 2) by kaszz on Friday April 10 2015, @01:03AM
OMG, the monkeys are shunning me! ;-)
You have a point. But in many cases one might seriously wonder if it's actually negative thing .. :p