Earlier this month, news broke that France passed a law to punish modeling agencies who employed models under a certain BMI. Many people saw it as a way to have more healthy standards for models on the runway. But, as a recent article in the Observer has pointed out, agencies are using weights to skirt the laws.
“I did Fashion Week in Spain after they enforced a similar law and agencies found a loophole. They gave us Spanx underwear to stuff with weighted sandbags so the thinnest of girls had a ‘healthy’ weight on the scales. I even saw them put weights in their hair,” says the model who went by Lauren.
The model went on to say that some girls are just naturally thin and BMI does not exactly reflect health. So what would she suggest to have more healthy standards for models in the industry? “It is shortsighted to think that simply forcing models to be a certain BMI will change the fashion industry. I think a better solution is to raise the age limit for models to 18. Many ultra-thin models are simply still going through puberty, and allowing their bodies to form before their career would be beneficial to all.”
These laws are simply absurd. They demonize naturally thin girls. Everyone knows it’s unhealthy to be overweight too, but is there also a law to limit maximum BMI for plus-size models? Does government really think this is being useful when it’s unwilling to protect us from global warming, electronic surveillance, income disparity, police brutality, military autonomy, and any number of other real problems it should be much more concerned with?
Of Course they will do that.
Oh sure raise the age limit even further. Let’s discriminate on that.
How about stop judging for once. If the market calls for thin models that’s what happens. Health is their own responsibility…