Current Event: 4/17/08

French lawmakers adopt law making it illegal to promote extreme thinness

The French parliament’s lower house adopted a bill that would make it illegal for anyone, including fashion magazines, advertisers and Web sites, to publicly promote extreme thinness. The bill was proposed after the death of a Brazilian model due to anorexia and has also brought focus to websites that promote eating only an apple a day. French lawmakers and fashion industry members signed a nonbinding agreement last week promoting healthier body images.
Leaders from the French couture are opposed to the idea of legal boundaries on beauty standards. But a conservative lawmaker argued that encouraging anorexia or severe weight loss should be punishable in court.
Now judges have the power to imprison and fine offenders up to $47,000 if found guilty of “inciting others to deprive themselves of food” to an “excessive degree.” Judges could also sanction those responsible for a magazine photo of a model whose “excessive thinness altered his or her health.”
Also this is mainly focused on women’s health because the French health ministry says most of the 30,000 to 40,000 people with anorexia in France are women. This is significant because studies show fewer eating disorders in “cultures that value full-bodied women.”

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