On Wednesday the Model Health Inquiry, a British panel made up of health and fashion experts, said that models under 16 should be banned from catwalk work. They feared these young girls were especially susceptible to being exploited sexually and developing eating disorders. They also recommended that older teenage models have more protection, including chaperones at shows. According to the panel, the trend in the fashion industry to use very young models is dangerous, since the girls are at such impressionable ages.

There was also strongly expressed concern that it is profoundly inappropriate that girls under 16 … should be portrayed as adult women,’ said Baroness Kingsmill, chairwoman of the panel.

“’The risk of sexualizing these children was high and designers could risk charges of sexual exploitation.’”

[From UK Reuters]

They also discussed the need to encourage healthy bodies in models, which could lead to healthier body images in the general public.

The panel rejected the idea of weighing models and banning those under a certain weight…It received mixed evidence on whether models should have tests to assess their body mass index, a measure of fat.”

[From UK Reuters]

I think they make an especially good point about young models being made to look like adults. There is something very sleazy and Lolita-like about it. Additionally, these girls are made to dress like they’re much older, but have these rail-thin, undeveloped bodies, and that is what the fashion world puts out there as the ideal. That’s completely unhealthy and unattainable for most adult women.

People talk about this “Size 0 Phenomenon” as though it’s something new, but it’s really been around since the early ‘90’s, when the whole “heroin chic” look was so popular with models. However it didn’t seem like it invaded the general culture like the current fad has, though one could argue it’s simply that we’re more aware of it now, due to the abundance of internet and media coverage. Where would models like Kate Moss be if super skinny models were prohibited fifteen years ago?

I think that, if implemented, these measures could only be a good thing. We need to encourage more moderation in our world. It’s not fair to tell every woman to be a size 2, nor should we all be size 22s. There are healthy balances all in the middle, that let us lead healthy, happy, normal lives where we don’t feel deprived but we aren’t sinfully indulgent either. I think that if we could see more images of women like this (after all, isn’t the average woman in the US a size 14?) it would take a lot of the pressure off women and dieting as a whole.

Picture note by Celebitchy: Header image is of 18 year-old Eliania Ramos, a model from Uraguay who died of a heart attack related to complications from anorexia in February, 2007. Her 22 year-old sister, also a model, died of the same cause just five months earlier.