In March of 2015, a new law passed in France that bans all extremely thin fashion models from the runways. The law was approved by the French parlament and it imposes that agencies or designers who would be found employing those kinds of models, would be forced to pay up to 75,000 € and get up to 6 months of jail time. The law refers to every fashion house or modeling agency that violates the law regardless of their name and relevance in the industry.
“The activity of model is banned for any person whose Body Mass Index (BMI) is lower than levels proposed by health authorities and decreed by the ministers of health and labor,” the bill states.
The law is not making everyone happy as it is known that thinner models are always much more prefered and used in the industry. The law is primarily intentioned to ban models who are unhealthy and who suffer from various eating disorders so they wouldn’t promote that kind of lifestyle to the masses.
The law is definitely too objective as there are models who are naturally thin and just because their BMI is under 18, it doesn’t automatically mean they’re unhealthy. As Gerald Marie, a chairman of Oui Management, said: ”We shouldn’t mix things up. There is anorexia and there are girls who are thin, very thin, naturally and you can make them eat all day and they would stay thin.” It is reasonable that modeling agents are especially unsatisfied with the law because it actually affects the well-being of their jobs.
With this earlier version of the bill, it is newly introduced on Thursday that with all this, all models will also need a doctors certificate which approves of their health condition and ability to work in the industry.
Lawmakers voted to include a section which mandates that all fashion magazines are obligated to label images that are photoshopped.
Napisala: Arianna Hubak