France has sent shock waves through the global fashion industry by passing a surprise law making it a crime to employ excessively skinny women or to encourage anorexia. Before France, Countries like Israel, Italy and Spain have taken similar action.
Under the new law, anyone running modeling agency found employing models below a Body Mass Index of at least 18 will have to face maximum six-month of prison and a €75,000 fine. Magazines will have to tell the readers when they have altered a picture to make a model look thinner – or less anorexic, otherwise they will be imposed a fine of €37,500 or up to 30 per cent of the sums spent on advertising.
Also any website inciting a reader to seek excessive thinness by encouraging eating restrictions for a prolonged period of time will face up to a year in prison and fines of up to 100,000 euros.
Concerns about anorexia in the modeling industry gained widespread attention in 2010 with the death of French model Isabelle Caroat the age of 28. An estimated up to 40,000 people have anorexia in France, 90 percent of them women.
