A groundbreaking bill, which will go to the French Senate in the coming weeks, may make it illegal for anyone, including fashion magazines and websites, to encourage women to be ultra thin.
Banning super skinny models
According to fashion industry experts, if passed, this new law would be the strongest of its kind in the world. Hot on the heels of the 2006 anorexia-linked death of a Brazilian model and in the wake of Spain's 2007 ban of ultra-thin models on the catwalk, it seeks to highlight the repercussions of promoting super skinny models and aims to hold the fashion industry and others responsible.
Giving judges the power
The new legislation would give judges the power to imprison and fine offenders up to $50,000 if found guilty of "inciting others to deprive themselves of food" to an "excessive" degree. Judges would also have the power to sanction people responsible for a magazine photo whose "excessive thinness" was thought to have "altered her health".
Fashion backlash
Understandably, leaders in French couture are opposed to the proposed ban and the idea that legal boundaries may be placed on beauty standards.
Didier Grumbach, president of the French Federation of Couture, said, "Never will we accept in our profession that a judge decides if a young girl is skinny or not skinny." Adding further fuel to the fire, he concluded, "That doesn't exist in the world and it will certainly not exist in France."
What the doctors say…
It comes as no great surprise that doctors and psychologists treating patients with anorexia nervosa have welcomed the government's efforts, but even they warn that the bill's link with media images is a hazy one.
Marleen S Williams, a psychology professor at Brigham Young University in Utah, USA, who has researched the media's effect on women suffering from anorexia, said she thought it was almost impossible to know for sure what sort of impact the media had on people who suffer from eating disorders.
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