French lawmakers on Thursday adopted a bill
forcing ultra-thin models to furnish a doctor’s certificate confirming they
are healthy and magazines that Photoshop their silhouette to tag the images
as
“touched up”.
The bill stipulates that models must obtain a medical certificate stating
that their health, “assessed in particular in terms of body mass index, is
compatible with the practise of the (modelling) profession”.
Breaches of the law will be punishable by up to six months imprisonment
and
a fine of 75,000 euros (82,000
US dollars
).
The lawmakers also voted that images of models that are altered to “make
the silhouette narrower or wider” should be labelled “touched up.”
An earlier draft of the bill had caused howls of protest in the fashion
industry by proposing that a minimum body mass index (a measure of body fat
based on height and weight) be imposed for models.
In the end parliamentarians agreed to let doctors make the call on
whether
a model is too thin, taking into account a range of criteria, including age,
gender and body shape.
An earlier version of the bill also made it an offence punishable by up
to
a year in jail to encourage excessive thinness, a measure aimed at “pro-ana”
websites that are seen extolling and promoting anorexia or bulimia.
That proposal too was excised from the text adopted by the National
Assembly or lower house of parliament on Thursday.
In France, an estimated 30,000 to 40,000 people — almost all of them
adolescents — suffer from anorexia nervosa, an eating disorder with a high
mortality rate.
(AFP)