France bans thin models. Should we do the same?

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  • A law in France banning the use of unhealthily thin fashion models has come into effect.

    Models will need to provide a doctor's certificate attesting to their overall physical health, with special regard to their body mass index (BMI) - a measure of weight in relation to height.

    The health ministry says the aim is to fight eating disorders and inaccessible ideals of beauty.

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-39821036
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    Normally, I don't agree with anything the Frenchies do, but on this one, I am with them. In fact I would go one step further and make it a criminal offence if model agencies take on thin models and prosecute the owners of the agencies for abuse, if they take on or make very young women (or chaps) eat next to nothing.

    Should overly thin models be banned here? I say YES!

  • No.

    The French seem to be heading down an authoritarian route but with a populist bent to it.

    Ban the burqa
    Ban thin models

    All with plausible sounding justifications of course.

    It's a fairly small step from that, to banning political views they don't like. With plausible explanations of course.

    Mark

  • Seems a bit draconian to me. While I agree that the fashion for very thin models isn't a good thing, I also think the state stepping in (via doctors) to say who can appear on the catwalk, in magazines etc is a bit much. I also question whether it will work anyway. No doubt the model agencies will have their 'pet doctors' who will sign off their models as healthy, in a similar way that celebs have doctors that will give them their prescription drugs of choice on demand.

    Agree with the labelling of airbrushed photos though.

    • Staff Notice

    But the thing is Tabasco, these agencies are making money out of forcing people to diet themselves into a grave. Alright, it might take a long time, but the damage done by these extreme diets has permanent effects on the models' health.

    I'm with the Frenchies on this and that's saying something!

  • But the thing is Tabasco, these agencies are making money out of forcing people to diet themselves into a grave. Alright, it might take a long time, but the damage done by these extreme diets has permanent effects on the models' health.

    I'm with the Frenchies on this and that's saying something!

    Well yes, it's certainly not a good thing and even if they aren't being forced directly (told they must lose weight), they can be forced indirectly when the work dries up. I just think the state getting involved is going a bit too far. I'm usually in favour of small government, so that's where I'm coming from really.

    What I've never understood is the reason really thin models are preferred. I don't think they look good. I've seen the argument that clothes look better on stick thin models, but I think the opposite. This is coming from a blokes viewpoint though, so maybe things look different to their customer base, but then your average customer for clothes won't be a size zero and half the clothes you see on the catwalk for example most people wouldn't be seen dead in.

    It's a bit of a weird industry to me, the catwalk side of it I mean. Just seems to be designers showing off clothes that nobody in the real world would actually wear.

    I always thought the anti-lads mags people were attacking the wrong people. They tended to show a much more realistic body image and it was the fashion mags that were pushing forward the unrealistic on to women and girls.

    • Staff Notice

    I agree on the small state overall, the French like to be top down heavy in regards to bureaucracy. (I have a few tales to tell in the future about small town French mayors I've had run ins with) but in this case, I do think state intervention is appropriate in this case.

    I don't think these models look good either, they look ill. And there is a very weird "vibe" surrounding the fashion industry. I shan't speculate further on that, but I reckon they'll be another "type" of scandal to come there...

    And as for the clothes I agree. Never understood why the likes of Vivienne Westwood were so popular. She looks odd and wears stuff that no one in the real world would actually wear.

  • I agree with Mark. The State should never regulate people's freedom to be as fat or thin as they like. What folk eat, what they think and believe in, etc is none of the bureaucrats' business.

    When I was young I was thin and that was just my genes. I could eat a whole cake and not put on an ounce. I would have been really miffed if I'd been told I couldn't work as a model because I was "too thin". I couldn't have become any fatter if I'd tried, and I did try, till I was blue in the face.

    The idea that emaciated looking people are beautiful seems to have begun with the Duchess of Windsor. "A woman can never be too rich or too thin."
    (There's a big difference between being thin and being half starved.)

    • Staff Notice

    It's not telling everyone overall how to live their lives LW, but protecting vulnerable models who are in, in my opinion, being subjected to a form of physical abuse.

    A 15 year old girl, and it usually is around that age... should not be pressurised into a severe diet. Not only would this impact their physical development, but their brains still grow into their 20's and it's the emotional impact of it too. If the models are under 18, I'd like to see sanctions on the parents too.

  • I think draconian legislation in this context might be a little too sledge hammer. There are underlying reasons and causes for this obsession with thinness and dieting and looks and legislating won't take that away as it will simply turn up in some other form. It's part of the craziness of urban culture. Too much peer pressure, too little work that uses the body, too much gym instead and fad diets and fear of growing old plus a veritable hysteria about dying that causes people to try and cram "experiences" into every second.

    Our urban civilizations have become mad. There is a fundamental narcissism in them that causes especially young people to become involved in fan subjects to the point that they lose contact with reality and computer games have gone a long way to turn this into a genuine problem for the future of civilizations like this. It won't be the first time it's happened. Each falls on account of its own hubris. Ours is just techno-oriented and the loss of religion, or spirituality, has made many lose direction as humans and with this goes a loss of identity and the connection with those who went before us as well as those who might come after us. It's all about now.

    In reality, it isn't. It's all about many other things. These are being neglected, so when a young person is told to be as thin as possible because this is "beauty" and that concept will make them accepted and admired, they follow because it takes away the dread of anonymity and rejection.

    So, in my humble opinion, something should be done about the way people are thinking and acting rather than about what they are or are not eating.

    To take another example, banning the burka will not do anything about the reason why people are wearing it. Banning alcohol didn't do anything for drunkenness. One needs to address the causes for extremist beliefs and behaviour or laws will simply be broken and extremism will strengthen instead of weaken. I suspect this is why religions haven't done much for human self-directed behaviour. They do this by laws and threats from their gods and the priesthood and elders. Remove fear of these and you often have chaos and power vacuums. On the other hand, if people were thinking about the rational thing to do or the sane way to solve problems, none of this unmitigated disorganisation would be necessary to keep them in line.

    But that is just my opinion and I know thousands might disagree. Perhaps most people need authority and control.

    This brings me to the concept of overpopulation. When you create hordes of ill-educated, underpaid worker ants, you will need the authority's pheromones to keep them in order. Swarms are not prides or packs. And therein may lie the secret to the failure of many of humanity's grand notions and beautiful civilizations that ended up in the dustbin after a glorious flight toward escape from the things humans fear - or desire.

  • It's not telling everyone overall how to live their lives LW, but protecting vulnerable models who are in, in my opinion, being subjected to a form of physical abuse.

    A 15 year old girl, and it usually is around that age... should not be pressurised into a severe diet. Not only would this impact their physical development, but their brains still grow into their 20's and it's the emotional impact of it too. If the models are under 18, I'd like to see sanctions on the parents too.

    I entirely agree. This strange idea that models who look like they've just been released from Bergen- Belsen are attractive is beyond me.

  • For the promoters, it means money and a furthering of their cult. For the models and their admirers, it is a psychologically manipulated belief system. Marriage made in heaven and no different from any of the other ghastly unions that have motivated humanity since core ideas became the weapon upon which to base aggrandizing motives.

  • I agree with you on the burqa ban and how they would even enforce that, is beyond me. But these model agencies are taking young women and men and making them ill by insisting they diet themselves into the grave. So, I agree with the French on this.

    i also agree in both cases

  • I agree the models are abusing their bodies trying to look like stick insects. I like real women built like Shania Twain, Ariana Grande, Britney Spears and Taylor Swift. all women with curves in the right places.------------------------------------------ It is obviously easy to be gross like Lizzo who is the complete fat arse that nobody in their right mind would put her up as an example of health and beauty.

    The Voice of Reason

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