France says ‘non’ to ultra-skinny models

Reuters/AFPParis France will ban excessively thin fashion models and expose modelling agents and the fashion houses that hire them to possible fines and even jail, under a new law passed yesterday.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.“Anyone whose body mass index ... is below a certain level will not be able to work as a model,” according to the amendment of a bill voted by the lawmakers.“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 labour,” the legislation says.The lawmaker behind the bill previously said models would have to present a medical certificate showing a BMI of at least 18, about 55kg (121lb) for a height of 1.75m (5’ 9”), before being hired for a job and for a few weeks afterwards.The law, voted through the lower house of parliament by Hollande’s Socialist majority despite opposition by conservative parliamentarians, envisages imprisonment of up to six months and a fine of €75,000 ($82,000) for any agency contravening it.A second measure means that any website inciting a reader to “seek excessive thinness by encouraging eating restrictions for a prolonged period of time, resulting in risk of mortality or damage to health” will face up to a year in prison and fines of up to €100,000.“The prospect of such a punishment will have the effect of regulating the entire sector,” said Olivier Veran, the deputy proposing the amendment, who said that similar measures had been taken in Spain, Italy and Israel.But France’s National Union of Modelling Agencies, or SYNAM, slammed the move for “lumping together anorexia and thinness”.It noted that some models were naturally very slim and could argue they were being discriminated against by the measure.“When you look at the criteria behind anorexia, you can’t look only at the body mass index when other criteria are also involved: psychological, a history of hair loss, dental problems,” the head of SYNAM, Isabelle Saint-Felix, complained to AFP.“It’s important that the models are healthy,” she said, “but it’s a little simplistic to think there won’t be any more anorexics if we get rid of very thin models.”The union warned the competitiveness of French modelling could be undermined by the proposed laws.Saint-Felix said nine out of 10 models used in French fashion shows and magazines were foreign.France’s ruling Socialists, however, appear determined to bring legislative oversight to the sector. Health Minister Marisol Touraine had previously said that young models should “eat well and look after their health”.“This is an important message to young women who see these models as an aesthetic example,” added the minister.Elite and IMG, two big modelling agencies present in France, both declined to comment on the moves.Some 30,000-40,000 people in France suffer from anorexia, most of them teenagers, health experts estimate.In 2010, Isabelle Caro, an anorexic 28-year-old former French fashion model, died after posing for a photographic campaign to raise awareness about the illness.