speaking of anorexia...

April 10, 2000 5:23 PM

speaking of anorexia... "ministers are so concerned about the obsession of teenage girls with being thin that they are considering regulations aimed specifically at the fashion industry. the department of trade and industry is looking to draft regulations that would be designed to halt the "use and abuse" of those suffering from eating disorders and could force modelling agencies to use people with normal body shapes."
posted by palegirl (6 comments total)

The assumption with this sort of thingis always that

#1 women are too stupid to do anything but follow what the magazines show and tell us, and

#2 anorexia is less a disease than a physical manifestation of sociatal standards.

The majority of anorexics report sexual abuse occuring before the age of 12. There are many theories that link anorexia to sexual abuse. If the government really wants to do something to help women, maybe they could put their energies towards keeping children safe from sexual predators, instead of wasting our time regulating the clothing industry.
posted by sperare at 5:35 PM on April 10, 2000

Thats silly. I do not think thin models or the fashion industry should get the blame for someones illness.
posted by FAB4GIRL at 6:18 PM on April 10, 2000

Au contraire, mon petit chouchou. I suggest you give this site a try before you say that models have nothing to do with this phenomenon.
posted by veruca at 2:09 AM on April 11, 2000

I have to agree, my sister was quite severely anorexic about 10 years ago, the psychiatrist reckoned a lot of it had to do with the fact that she was tall and slim as a child and was told that when she 'lost some puppy fat' she might make it as a model.
My sister isn't a stupid person, but at an age where her body was changing from that of a girl to that of a woman, her role models became women who looked like the girl she was leaving behind.
So I have to disagree, my sister was never abused, sexually or otherwise to my knowledge. She was confused and misled by images of people she could never look like.
posted by Markb at 4:05 AM on April 11, 2000

This is why I am a libertarian. Liberals who complain about "heroin chic" and "the waif look" are like "conservatives" who try to get certain artwork or literature banned because it's "satanic" or "indecent". Each side is simply trying to cram their ideas of morality down the throats of everyone else.

Censorship is just plain wrong.

People should take responsibility for their own actions. The fashion industry is just trying to sell clothes. They aren't responsible for anyone's eating disorder (Just like Tupac is not responsible for crime in the "urban ghetto").
posted by andy at 3:52 PM on April 11, 2000

I remember a while back an article which pointed out that the female models used in advertising when the point is to attract the attention of men are noticeably different than the female models used to attract the attention of women. The article referred to them respectively as "pinup models" and "fashion models", and among other differences the pinup models were significantly heavier (particularly in certain areas). Pinup models were by never by any stretch of the imagination emaciated or unreasonably thin, though they were just as much abnormal. (Both represent ideals, and few women -- or men either -- achieve the ideal.)

The phenomenon is real, but it's a non-trivial question whether the fashion/advertising industry makes these differences or merely recognizes and utilizes them. Perhaps they are merely adapting to what women already find attractive in themselves and other women.

There's a serious possibility of post hoc fallacy here.

The fact that there's a rise in the number of cases of eating disorders, and a parallel rise in the use of emaciated models, shows correlation but does not demonstrate causation.

posted by Steven Den Beste at 6:22 PM on April 11, 2000