French bill seeks to make inciting thinness illegal

THE French parliament’s lower house adopted a ground-breaking bill yesterday that would make it illegal for anyone — including fashion magazines, advertisers and websites — to publicly incite extreme thinness.

The National Assembly approved the bill in a series of votes yesterday, after the legislation won unanimous support from the ruling conservative UMP party. It goes to the Senate in the coming weeks.

Fashion industry experts said, if passed, the law would be the strongest of its kind anywhere. Leaders in French couture are opposed to the idea of legal boundaries on beauty standards.