France Closer To Adopting Body Image Bill

Law Would Make It Illegal For Media To Encourage Extreme Thinness

(AP)  France's lower house of parliament adopted a groundbreaking bill Tuesday that would make it illegal for anyone - including fashion magazines, advertisers and Web sites - to incite extreme thinness.

The bill goes to the Senate in coming weeks, after being approved in the National Assembly.

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

The bill was the latest and strongest of measures proposed after the 2006 anorexia-linked death of a Brazilian model prompted efforts throughout the international fashion industry to address the health repercussions of using ultra-thin models.

Doctors and psychologists treating patients with anorexia nervosa - a disorder characterized by an abnormal fear of becoming overweight - welcomed the government's efforts to fight self-inflicted starvation, but insisted that its link with media images remains hazy.

French lawmakers and fashion industry members signed a nonbinding charter last week on promoting healthier body images. In 2007, Spain banned from catwalks models whose body mass-to-height ratio is below 18.

However, conservative lawmaker Valery Boyer, who authored the French bill, said such measures did not go far enough.

Her bill mainly focuses on so-called "pro-anorexic" Web sites that, for instance, give advice on how to eat an apple a day - and nothing else.

But Boyer insisted in her speech to lawmakers that the legislation could shine a spotlight on some dubious facets of the fashion industry.

In a telephone interview, Boyer said the legislation, if passed, would enable a judge to sanction those responsible for a magazine photo of a model whose "thinness altered her health. That is the objective of this text," she said, without specifying who in particular might be prosecuted.

"We have noticed," she said, "that the socio-cultural and media environment seems to favor the emergence of troubled nutritional behavior, and that is why I think it necessary to act."

The bill would make it illegal to "provoke a person to seek excessive weight loss by encouraging prolonged nutritional deprivation that would have the effect of exposing them to risk of death or directly compromise health."

The bill would give judges the power to imprison offenders for up to two years and impose fines of up to euro30,000 (about US$47,000). Punishment would increase to three years in prison and euro45,000 ($71,000) in cases where a victim dies of an eating disorder.

Socialist lawmaker Catherine Coutelle said the bill was introduced to lawmakers too quickly - less than two weeks ago, on April 3rd - for thorough discussion before Tuesday's vote.

Opponents also said the bill is too vague in defining "extreme thinness" and describing who might be punished for promoting it.

French Health Minister Roselyne Bachelot said France could push for a similar, Europe-wide measure when it takes over the rotating EU presidency in July.

Boyer said she was focusing on women's health, though the bill applies to models of both sexes. Most of the 30,000 to 40,000 people with anorexia in France are women, according to the Health Ministry.

Didier Grumbach, president of the influential French Federation of Couture, strongly disapproved of legislating body weight.

"Never will we accept in our profession that a judge decides if a young girl is skinny or not skinny," he said. "That doesn't exist in the world, and it will certainly not exist in France."

Marleen S. Williams, a psychology professor at Brigham Young University in Utah who researches the media's effect on anorexic women, said it was nearly impossible to prove that the media causes eating disorders.

Williams said studies show fewer eating disorders in "cultures that value full-bodied women." Yet with the new French legal initiative, she fears, "you're putting your finger in one hole in the dike, but there are other holes, and it's much more complex than that."

[procateur]

What about hygene and body hair, Frenchies!!!

what do you mean by your ignorant comment?
the french are the most conscious about hygiene and image body, think about all the hygiene products (and yeah they actually use them, it''s almost unconceivable medically to not, get a fuucking clue or i guess you must be illiterate)
as for the hair myth, seriously have you ever met a hariy french woman? again if you cant prove your facts you''re the coward!another typical moron american in the land of MCCrokshit. As the French say ''you are what you eat'' = you are full of ***.

[ubrew12]

The French must be feeling a bit guilty for starting the whole fashion trend toward boney-ness in women. It actually IS disgusting how low fashion will stoop to sell clothing.

Now, if America could only pass a law outlawing extreme ''flag draping'', I think this might take us somewhere.

[glock4me]

What about hygene and body hair, Frenchies!!!

[incog-nito]

In other news, a bill was introduced in Congress that would ban the promotion or incitement of extreme fatness in the U.S.

The bill never made it to a vote.

[darnedsocks]

Wow! Great job, French legislators!

I don''t know about the French - but who does! The model needs to go to Darfore(?) for recovery.

[lochlan-2009]

Now France is getting rediculous on their legislation. It must be a quirk in the system of government evolution.

[robertkjjj]

MyOpinion1 , you can chase the lardos all day; it''s your problem if you''re a freak. 90% of we men fall into the "we prefer swimsuit models" category, and all marketing research backs me up.

[jackie0428]

I''ve seen literally over a thousand fashion shows and have never EVER seen a model like the one in this photo. That photo represents the exceptional and the extreme. As usual, CBS stoops to National Enquirer-style sensationalism to make it''s lame point.

[taylor2124]

Who cares about people too skinny? It''s those freeking FAT people I want outlawed. Get them out of my sight before I vomit!