Jonathan Adler and Radley Balko (The Agitator) point to this story, from England:
Steve Bloomfield, a spokesman for the Eating Disorders Association, said: “We do think legislation [too ban the use of supposedly underweight models] is needed.
“This is about protecting the young women and men who work in the fashion industry, as well as those who are at risk of an eating disorder and can be influenced by the pictures that they see.
“The fashion industry is there to make money and there is no legislation to protect models. It basically exploits people who are underweight and forces others to follow suit.”
The Madrid initiative followed the death of 22-year-old Luisel Ramos during a fashion show in Uruguay last month. The emaciated model died of a heart attack moments after stepping off the catwalk — a result of having eaten nothing but green leaves, washed down with Diet Coke, for three months….
Sarah Watkinson, managing director of the outsize modelling agency 12 Plus UK, agrees that legislation is needed to protect the health of models — and those aspiring to emulate their favourite catwalk stars….
“… It is vital for schoolgirls who might aspire to look like these models to have a range of size 10, 12 and 14 women to look towards, instead of comparing themselves with women who look starved….
This put me in mind of Judge Kozinski, quoting Boris Yeltsin:
There are places where, until recently, “everything which [was] not permitted [was] forbidden…. [W]hatever [was] permitted [was] mandatory…. Citizens were shackled in their actions by the universal passion for banning things.” Yeltsin Addresses RSFSR Congress of People’s Deputies, BBC Summary of World Broadcasts, Apr. 1, 1991, available in LEXIS, Nexis Library, OMNI file. Fortunately, the United States is not such a place, and we plan to keep it that way.
Let’s hope there are enough Britons who share these views.