The Catwalk to Prison

Yeah, I definitely don't go for punishing the women when it's the companies and designers pushing for the ultra thin body type. I also don't go for using BMI as the standard when it can be such an inaccurate form of measurement.

The sentiment is laudable; the execution is shameful.


Classic humans.

Yet when a "normal" model walks down the runway, the designer is DARING! UNIQUE! GUTSY! FORWARD-THINKING! etc.

If the goal is to protect the health of models, which I think should be at least one of the goals, then punishing the model and not the agency seems a good way to establish a, "do it, but don't get caught," sort of paradigm.

I understand the message and the reason behind the message, but yeah...punishing the model is stupid.

And how about we just accept models of all body types? Some are teeny and tiny and short, some are curvy, some are CURVY...

I can understand not allowing models to participate if they are too small. Models are turned down for being too big or too short all the time. But why should they be punished?

Punishing the models is ridiculous. They usually face a lot of pressure, and I don't see what punishing them will accomplish. If the models are the ones facing the consequences, there really isn't much motivation for the bigwigs to change anything. It also has the disturbing implication of punishing someone for their body or a potential health problem. Nobody should have to maintain a certain weight to avoid punishment, especially since that is not going to be possible for everyone.

Fining magazines, fashion shows, and other bodies that use underweight models might make sense. Going after the models themselves doesn't, and puts far too much responsibility on the wrong people.

I feel like something is left out of the story, as it says it'll have measures to ban designers and labels, but only talks about the measures used to control the models.

I'm not sure how I feel about the latter. I think there should definitely be punishment for the former, and I'm not convinced there isn't. The models, I dunno. I get the no, but it feels a little like (I'm not equating the issues) how those wanting to criminalize abortion kind of always try to enact punishments for the medical professionals and never the women seeking abortions, calling them 'victims,' which only serves, imo, to deny their agency and such. I get there are underage, underweight models who are at least bordering on victims in this kind of thing, and it's different, but that's my hesitation with 'but don't punish the women!'

Alpha Echo said:

I understand the message and the reason behind the message, but yeah...punishing the model is stupid.

And how about we just accept models of all body types? Some are teeny and tiny and short, some are curvy, some are CURVY...

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Some of the teeny tiny ones only have that body type because they're starving the hell out of themselves, which has been made obvious, though it's always denied, when they've dropped dead from the effects of eating disorders.

cornflake said:

Some of the teeny tiny ones only have that body type because they're starving the hell out of themselves, which has been made obvious, though it's always denied, when they've dropped dead from the effects of eating disorders.

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An eating disorder is a health problem. Why would you punish someone for having a health problem? Not only is it unfair, it's also counterproductive to treating eating disorders. Also, there are lots of people who have eating disorders, so how does it make sense to only punish them if they are hired as models?

Celia Cyanide said:

An eating disorder is a health problem. Why would you punish someone for having a health problem? Not only is it unfair, it's also counterproductive to treating eating disorders. Also, there are lots of people who have eating disorders, so how does it make sense to only punish them if they are hired as models?

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I think there are several things here.

An eating disorder is a mental health problem, yes.

Just because someone is starving themselves to be thin doesn't necessarily mean the person has an eating disorder. Same as a wrestler trying to make weight, a model trying to stay 'thin,' might engage in habits that people with eating disorders also do, without herself actually having a disorder.

Also, addiction is also a mental health problem, and we punish people for, basically, having that.

cornflake said:

I think there are several things here.

An eating disorder is a mental health problem, yes.

Just because someone is starving themselves to be thin doesn't necessarily mean the person has an eating disorder. Same as a wrestler trying to make weight, a model trying to stay 'thin,' might engage in habits that people with eating disorders also do, without herself actually having a disorder.

Also, addiction is also a mental health problem, and we punish people for, basically, having that.

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But we don't punish addicts only when they're working as models. Not eating because you have an eating disorder, or for any other reason, isn't illegal.

Celia Cyanide said:

But we don't punish addicts only when they're working as models. Not eating because you have an eating disorder, or for any other reason, isn't illegal.

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Presumably there would be some statute making working as a model while under X BMI, hiring a model under X BMI, etc., against the law. That's kind of the point of the thing.

Possessing X amount of heroin, that only addicts or users would be carrying, is illegal.

Having an eating disorder isn't illegal. Being an addict isn't illegal.

In places this would presumably be a law that presumably could indict models as well as those hiring them, modeling under a certain weight for your height would be.

The article now says it's been updated:

Correction 1 April 2015: This page has been amended to clarify that it is the employers, rather than the models, who could be penalised

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I know some legitimately/naturally really skinny models would be excluded, but they could always try to eat a lot and lift weights to get more meat on their bones to make it as a model. God knows that's safer than the opposite.

BTW, I personally think a natural 18 BMI can be absolutely lovely.

Scarily, though, I modeled right out of high school for extra money. Yes, it's scary on its own but the thing was that I had an undiagnosed disease that had caused me to lose tons of weight (lots of muscle, mainly, so scary there). My BMI was 14.3 at the time! But the pictures looked good. It completely freaks me out that the pictures could look good when I was really so very ill.

cornflake said:

Presumably there would be some statute making working as a model while under X BMI, hiring a model under X BMI, etc., against the law. That's kind of the point of the thing.

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Yes, I understand the OP just fine. My point is that making that against the law doesn't really make sense. I think it's fair to say that if you aren't the right size, you can't model. I don't think you should be arrested because you tried.

Celia Cyanide said:

Yes, I understand the OP just fine. My point is that making that against the law doesn't really make sense. I think it's fair to say that if you aren't the right size, you can't model. I don't think you should be arrested because you tried.

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Note post #16.