French Skinny Ban - H 2015
AP ImagesSuper-thin models have been hitting the runways for years, but the French government is finally taking a stand against it.
Reuters reports that France has banned ultra skinny models from walking fashion shows under a new law that passed on Friday. Modeling agencies and fashion houses that hire these models will face possible fines up to €75,000 ($82,000) and even up to six months in prison.
“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 labor,” reads the legislation.
The new legislation requires that models will need to present medical certificates showing a healthy BMI before being hired for a job (that number is 18 if you’re 5’7”), and furthermore, any photoshopped images that alter a model’s appearance for commercial purposes must state that the photo has been manipulated.
Websites that encourage their readers to “seek excessive thinness by encouraging eating restrictions for a prolonged period of time, resulting in risk of mortality or damage to health” also face the possibility of being fined up to 100,000 euros and a year in prison.
France isn’t the only country to enact such laws against anorexia, as Italy, Israel and Spain have passed similar statues in recent years. Thus far, the U.S. has not enacted similar legislation.
