Le dernier cri: Too skinny?

The French Parliament recently passed a bill that bans the promotion of anorexia online. The law will make it illegal for anyone to promote extreme thinness. While I am normally behind almost anything that the French do or say, this one has left me completely confused. \nSure, the French are thin. When I was there this past summer, it took me eight weeks to find a pair of jeans that fit me, and even then they were a pair of Citizens of Humanity jeans that are sold in the United States. I felt like a fatty for nine weeks, even though I was walking everywhere, losing weight, and am actually average-sized in the States. I don’t have big any complaints or insecurities about my body.\nSo, what I am trying to say is that the French are already pretty skinny. And when I heard about this new law, it made me wonder how the authorities plan to enforce this law, and what is considered “too skinny” in France.\nIt also made me wonder what kind of impact this will have on the fashion world. Anyone who is remotely interested in fashion knows that Paris is the center of it all, so what is Karl Lagerfeld going to do if he can’t send the ultra-skinny models down his Chanel Haute Couture runways? \nThis law reminded me of the law passed not too long ago, right before the spring fashion shows in 2006 in Madrid, Spain. The law, which came about after the death of anorexic model Ana Carolina Reston, banned any model with a body mass index of less than 18 from participating in runway shows. Body mass index, or BMI, is a measure of a person’s weight based on her height. A BMI of 18-25 is considered healthy and normal for women between the heights of 4 feet 11 inches and 6 feet 6 inches tall.\nBanning models from runways for being too skinny is something that I can understand. Images from runway shows are prevalent, and simply out there for everyone to see. While some argue that the fashion world is used as a scapegoat for problems with anorexia and bulimia, it is easy to understand that, when a woman who is impossibly thin is being sent down the runway as the epitome of beauty by an influential designer, our perception of what is beautiful might become skewed. \nIf passed, the law would be the strictest bill of its kind, according to news.yahoo.com. The potential effects of the bill are still unknown, but the fashion world will definitely be affected. My guess is that some French models with bodies that some in the fashion industry consider to be “perfect” will start to get a bit larger. The designers will start complaining that their creativity is being limited and their artistic visions are being compromised. And while this might be true, designers should also think about just how much they want to endanger the health of their models and fans to further their creative visions.