Skin-and-bone models outlawed in France

HOW wonderful it would be if the law passed in France yesterday that bans excessively thin fashion models and exposes modelling agencies and the fashion houses that use them to fines or jail was to build into a worldwide trend.

For far too long the fashion industry has been a kind of freak show where impossibly skinny and obviously unhealthy women were presented as an ideal.

Rather, those unfortunate and exploited models seem a perfect combination of narcissism and vulnerability.

The intervention is just one in a series of moves to fight anorexia and follows similar bans in Italy, Spain, and Israel.

A second measure means that the owners of any website inciting a diet that puts users at the risk of ill-health or even death will face up to a year in prison and fines of up to €100,000.

The London School of Economics recently reported that Ireland, along with Italy and Austria, has one of the highest rates of anorexia in Europe.

The research also found that it is becoming increasingly apparent that standards of physical appearance are important and powerful motivators of human behaviour, especially regarding health and food.

Anorexia is regarded as a socially transmitted disorder and anything that might confront its root causes would be welcomed.

Maybe it is time too to be less blind and effusive about the celebrities who promote this skin-and-bone lifestyle as if was either healthy or attractive.

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