Eating disorders - Airbrushing reality out of fashion

THE idea of image, of how we perceive the worth of things because of their visual presentation or impact, has won influence well beyond its significance.

In Ireland it causes about 80 deaths a year.

The entire idea of fashion is based on making the unnecessary essential. What was acceptable last year is the kiss of death today. A rational world would cast a very cold eye on this silliness but that so many of us have embraced it is an amazing victory for international business and their marketeers – and credit card lenders.

That so many of us fret that we can never be as beautiful as fashion icons is a victory of another sort. It is a victory that undermines most of us and destroys some of us. These bizarre beliefs are absorbed almost by osmosis and influence children at a startlingly young age. A study by Cambridge University revealed that half of Britain’s six-year-olds say they would like to be skinnier, while most 12-year-olds think they are too fat.

Department of Health figures suggest we would be foolish to imagine the situation is any better here. They estimate that up to 200,000 people may be affected by eating disorders, representing 80 deaths annually.

The fact that this figure represents the highest mortality rate of all psychiatric conditions puts the pressure brought to bear by the fashion and entertainment industries in a startling context.

In an effort to confront this Britain’s Royal College of Psychiatrists’ wants warning symbols on digitally altered photographs and for underweight models to be banned altogether. They want advertisers and publishers to use images of people with normal figures to encourage an acceptance of reality rather than an aspiration to look like some half-starved schoolgirl.

The college also called for warning symbols on pictures of people that have been airbrushed to remove blemishes or stretched to make models appear thinner.

These suggestions are eminently sensible and might go some way to challenging the tyranny of image and the damage it causes in western society.