For some, the words model and skinny are practically synonymous — bone-thin and sinewy beings who march down the runway to the beat of the same drum.

The French, whose style and elegance seem to always be at the forefront of fashion, are once again challenging one of fashion’s darker sides: the glorification of super skinny models.

The French Parliament is debating a bill that would effectively set a minimum weight requirement for women and girls who want to work as models. The legislation would ban excessively thin people from working as fashion models, as well as potentially fine the modeling agencies or fashion houses that hire them and send their agents to jail.

If France passes this legislation, it is my hope that other countries will follow suit. France is one of the biggest fashion capitals of the world and has a lot of influence on the fashion industry. All over the world we see models who are too thin sauntering down runways and posing for photographs — something that clearly needs to be changed.

But looking at it realistically, even if France does pass this law, the problem can’t just be fixed with one country’s legislation. France will only be the fourth country to adopt the practice, so the change may not be seen immediately.

With its fashion and luxury industries that are worth billions of dollars, uber-stylish France would join Italy, Spain and Israel, which all adopted laws prohibiting models who are too skinny from walking catwalks or posing in advertising campaigns in 2013.

The law would enforce regular weight checks and violators could have to pay up to $83,000 for breaches, and could spend as many six months in prison. Models would have to present a medical certificate showing a body mass index of at least 18, which suggests that models at a height of 5-feet-7-inches should weigh about 120 pounds, before they can be hired for a job. The model must also remain above the weight limit for a few weeks after being hired.

The bill’s amendments also propose penalties for anything made public that could be seen as encouraging extreme thinness, notably pro-anorexia websites that glamorize unhealthy lifestyles.

The battle over the appearance and health of fashion models is hardly anything new. It didn’t really reach the limelight until 2006, after model Ana Reston, who weighed 88 pounds, died in São Paulo, and Luisel Ramos of Uruguay died of heart failure during a fashion show. Their deaths set off a wave of designers and agencies trying to use healthier-looking models and an establishment of voluntary standards in the industry around the world.

Again in 2007, Isabelle Caro, an anorexic 28-year-old former French fashion model, died after posing for a photographic campaign to raise awareness about the illness. Olivier Véran, a neurologist and a member of the National Assembly, told The New York Times that an estimated 30–40,000 people in France suffer from anorexia, most of them teenagers.

So far the fashion industry has opposed regulation of the issue, although a number of designers have spoken out in favor of using “healthy models” and promoting healthful lifestyles. But even with all the supporters of healthier looking models, we haven’t seen very many changes in the appearance of the industry.

Fashion can be partially to blame for this phenomenon, but it can only be partially the solution. We need to see healthier models in the industry, but the glamorization of these bodies needs to stop as well.

Alexis McDonell is a junior magazine journalism major. Her column appears weekly in Pulp. You can email her at admcdone@syr.edu.

Published on March 29, 2015 at 9:47 pm