Article: France may make it illegal to promote extreme thinness

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Surely a law like this would not pass in obesity-prone US.

Cheers,

Arturo

France may make it illegal to promote extreme thinness

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/world/AP-France-Anorexia.html?_r=1 & oref=slogin

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Published: April 15, 2008

Filed at 12:08 p.m. ET

PARIS (AP) -- The French parliament's lower house adopted a groundbreaking bill

Tuesday that would make it illegal for anyone -- including fashion magazines,

advertisers and Web sites -- to publicly incite extreme thinness.

The National Assembly approved the bill in a series of votes Tuesday, after the

legislation won unanimous support from the ruling conservative UMP party. It

goes to the Senate in the coming weeks.

Fashion industry experts said that, if passed, the law would be the strongest of

its kind anywhere. Leaders in French couture 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 repercussions of using ultra-thin

models.

Conservative lawmaker Valery Boyer, author of the law, argued that encouraging

anorexia or severe weight loss should be punishable in court.

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 warned 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. Spain in 2007 banned ultra-thin models

from catwalks.

But Boyer said such measures did not go far enough.

Her bill has mainly brought focus to pro-anorexic Web sites that give advice on

how to eat an apple a day -- and nothing else.

But Boyer insisted in her speech to lawmakers Tuesday that the legislation was

much broader and could, in theory, be used against many facets of the fashion

industry.

It would give judges 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, Boyer said in a telephone interview before the

parliamentary session.

Judges could also sanction those responsible for a magazine photo of a model

whose ''excessive thinness ... altered her health,'' she said.

Boyer said she was focusing on women's health, though the bill applies to models

of both sexes. The French Health Ministry says most of the 30,000 to 40,000

people with anorexia in France are women.

Didier Grumbach, president of the influential French Federation of Couture, said

he was not aware how broad the proposed legislation was, and made no secret of

his strong disapproval of such a sweeping measure.

''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. , 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.

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.''