France has passed will vote next week on a new bill that makes it a crime to promote extreme thinness. Breaking the law is punishable with actual jail time. If the bill is passed, it will be the first anti-anorexia law in the world. Although several fashion houses and magazines have created their own standards to promote a more healthy body weight, never before has it been potentially legislated by a government.
The world’s first use of the law to tackle eating disorders is broadly aimed at the media and fashion world, but especially at the websites and blogs of the so-called pro-ana movement. While many are support groups, others promote starvation as a “life-style choice”, with girls and young women posting their wasting images as “thinspiration” for others. Social networking sites such as Facebook and MySpace have come under pressure in Britain and other countries recently to ban their pro-ana entries.
Last month a website that originated in France caused an outcry for encouraging children as young as 9 to embrace plastic surgery and extreme dieting in the search for the perfect figure. The Miss Bimbo site invites users to create a virtual doll, keep it “waif thin” with diet pills and buy it breast implants and facelifts. The website attracted 1.2 million players in France.
[From the Times Online]
Breaking the proposed law could result in fines as high as $48,000 and up to a two year prison sentence for members of the fashion world that “provoke a person to seek excessive thinness by encouraging prolonged restriction of nourishment” if it risks damaging a person’s health or could cause death. The sentence is raised to $70,000 and three years in jail if someone dies.
Some experts and fashion leaders oppose the Bill, which is expected to be passed by Parliament within months. “You do not solve this kind of problem with the law but with understanding,” Jean-Paul Gaultier, the designer, said. Didier Grumbach, head of the French Couture Federation, said it was not up to the state to legislate on beauty and aesthetic criteria.
[From the Times Online]
This is an interesting idea, though it seems like there are still a lot of holes in the law bill. For instance, let’s say Teenage Girl A dies from anorexia. Like most teenagers, she read a lot of fashion magazines which have very thin models. She also occasionally visited pro-ana websites. Who is responsible? And how can the government nail down WHICH magazines? And who at that magazine is the criminal? What about websites – is every pro-ana website Teenage Girl A ever visited responsible for her death? Is the responsible party the person who owns the website, or their ISP? It seems like an interesting start, but judges will probably need to figure out exactly how to define “excessive thinness,” and how to hold people accountable.
The header photo is from Italian fashion line Nolita. They used a picture of an anorexic woman on leaflets they handed out during Italy’s fashion week that say “No Anorexia.” This image was banned in France.
Update by Celebitchy: Thanks to Bellatrix for letting us know that this law has not yet passed yet, and is only a proposed bill. She writes:
“The law has not been voted yet. It is still just a law proposition. It will be voted next week on Tuesday (April 15).
I thought you’d might like a check about that, so here’s a link to an online version the “Le Monde” newspaper” [link is in French]
“The law proposition has been made by Valérie Boyer, a UMP (the party of the French president) politician. Needless to say that “la gauche” (the left wing) is united against this law as it does not treat anorexia as an illness and will not solve it.” [E-mail from Bellatrix]
NO, don’t jail the model–jail or fine the assholes/companies who told her this was what is required for her to work. And don’t make everyone else (society) pay for her treatment–better yet, whoever is responsible for her aesthetic should pay for her treatment and all her future health problems related to her starvation. Either way, the burden of the cost for treatment is NOT my responsibility. I don’t understand why some portion of society screams and cries to “tolerate” this shit anyway. It is NOT tolerable.
Since when is starving young women, who are at the peak of laying down a solid foundation for their growth and development through proper nutrition, a good idea? The stores of mineral and nutrients you build as a teenager and young woman are CRITICAL to fetal health and development later on. I think the people responsible for promoting this aesthetic should be shot outright.
Better yet, if the fashion industry so infatuated with women that have the bodies of boys, then they should just fucking use young boys and dress them up in drag. I am sure few would notice the difference. The whole fashion industry smacks of pedophilia and twisted sexualization of young girls. It is just sickening.
The whole industry is messed up. How many times have we heard models and/or actresses say they were told by someone (managerial) to lose weight before they’d be hired?!
This is a bad bad trend. Jaybird, you are right; this law is all show and no substance. It is a shot over the bows to remind people to keep their heads down
Demonising models, or ‘extremely thin’ people is not the way to change hearts and minds. And who is to say what is too thin anyway?
Beaurocrats have taken over the world and they have no sense of irony – Miss Bimbo was only ever mean’t to be tongue in cheek
What does this say to naturally thin people? You are not acceptable in our society because of the way you look?
This trend is happening at the other end of the spectrum also.
Discrimination against fat people is the norm in western society, just one example is the price of outsized clothing. Airlines are agitating to charge extra to the overweight – not merely for extra space but weight also and a ‘fat tax’ on junk food is only a matter of time
Body facism is Wrong Wrong Wrong
What a nasty picture ! Ewwwww!!! Disgusting! This woman’s picture is really hard on the eyeballs.
And it looks like she has some kind of fungus growing on her butt. Is that a side effect of anorexia?
Ummm Xiaecho, fat people get charged more for their clothes because it takes more cloth to make a larger garment, they’re charged more on airlines because they take up more space. That’s called economics, and if they don’t like it, they can put down the fucking twinkie.
There is a difference between ‘naturally thin’ or ‘naturally thick’ and ‘fatass’ or ‘anorexic’. ‘Body Facism’? I like that. It’s funny how people can tell me I have to pay an extra dollar twenty-five on every pack of cigarettes I buy because my smoking ‘contributes to higher medical costs’ but these fucking behemoths who feed their kids fried cheese 3 meals a day and have a half dozen heart attacks before 40 don’t have to pay a fucking dime.
Wake up people, it’s not a ‘life choice’ it’s fucking unhealthy! Don’t get me wrong, I don’t like the idea of taxing anyone for their choices in such matters, but as long as I have to pay extra for my smokes, pony up the cash fatass.
xiaoecho, I totally agree with you. As a naturally very thin person I do not appreciate when a plus size person criticize my size and using words such skinny bitch ect and only referring to plus size women as ‘real women’, the same way that I do not appreciate when other people criticize a plus size person.
Anorexia is a real mental problem and it can be more fatal than obesity, and it should be treated as such but I do not think society does so. I can ensure you from my own experience as a naturally thin person and from friends who suffered from anorexia, it is so much more difficult to gain weight then trying to loose it.
In the end of the day, it is society and women in general that put the pressure in each other and until we stop criticizing one another then this problem will only get worse.
Websites that promote anorexia should and and apparently will be held accountable. Tobacco companies were held accountable for promoting smoking since it leads to death for most smokers, unless they quit, and anorexia obviously leads to death if left untreated. So, yeah, the promotion of anorexia as a life choice should be banned. Drug addiction is not considered a simple life choice and the abusers left alone – they’re sent to rehab, prison, and generally looked down on. The prosecution of those who promote an obviously life threatening condition whose only reward is to gain superficial success and satisfy a neurotic and dangerous mental problem is not something I object to.
That picture made me gag a little.
I’m not very familiar with France’s constitution, or if the French have an inherent right to free speech, but it would seem this is a major violation of one’s freedom of expression.
What the fuck is growing out her crack? Ugh! YUCKY! Tell me why her feet are black too….she just a mess and I am going to go and eat a double bacon burger!
That pose makes her look fat!
In contrast to some of the other posts, I think there is TOO MUCH DAMN “TOLERANCE” in this world. Yes, there is,in fact,a point where too thin is a health hazard and can end in death…not to mention the negative impact and permanent damage young girls starving their bodies has on bone and brain development. Yes there is a point where obese is a health risk that leads to a multitude of associated co-morbidities. For many of the too thin and too fat it is a LIFESTYLE CHOICE–CHOICE!!-not genetics as apologists would have us believe in the case of obesity. The research DOES NOT support the idea of genetically predisposed fat people. It is shitty eating and sheer laziness. I personally do not have a problem penalizing obese people insurance wise or for other services. When their LIFESTYLE CHOICE becomes a burden on society, they should be penalized. Same for smokers. I surely do not expect to have to pay for someone else’s lifestyle choices with the inherent known risks.
Scott F…what a nasty piece of work you are
I agree with Scott F. You wanna make shitty health decisions diet wise, smoking wise or addiction wise, then pay the damn price YOUR SELF. Don’t make the rest of us pay for YOUR crappy decisions. And ya, I think it is about time to up the ante and say “enough of this shit”. If it means making laws and jailing/fining people then so be it. Not everything is acceptable or tolerable in society. It’s time for some people to grow up and take responsibility for their decisions. Screw the apologists–they drag everyone down to the lowest common denominator.
So, I take it you’re in favour of jailing the model in this ad for her ‘crappy decisions’ Queeny?
Xiaecho – I wasn’t referring to this story, I was referring to your assertion that fat people are somehow penalized unfairly. Ask any doctor, NO genetic link has ever been found for obesity. The reason all the people in one family tend to be fat is because you’re very likely all eating the same shitty foods!
Do I think this model should be jailed? Hell no! Do I think the French should have passed this law? No! I know you don’t know much about American politics (much like I know very little about most European politics), but I’m a Libertarian, not a Democrat or a Republican. Our philosophy on the whole is for the government to stay the hell out of everyone’s lives. Smaller government, legalizing ‘soft’ drugs, loosening trade laws, ect.
My point is that it’s hypocritical bullshit that I am punished for choosing to smoke while OBESITY and NOT smoking is the primary cause of heart-related problems, which are the leading cause of hospital stays and deaths in this country.
I don’t expect anyone to come along and pay for my chemo if I get lung cancer, I pay for my own insurance. Fat people need to stop expecting special treatment, because they’re making a life choice that’s just as stupid as mine is.
Scott F…..like you, I am all for personal responsibility
What I abhor is the notion that a person is unacceptable if their physical being, that is their body, does not conform to some sort of vague ideal
This is what I mean by body facism.
Fat people, even very fat people can be perfectly healthy, and being thin is no guarantee of health.
Yes, people have to take personal responsibility for their HEALTH and beyond that they are entitled to be any size they want without discrimination.
This sort of physical conformity and stereotyping was a goal of the Nazi’s in pursuit of their master race
I agree with Scott F. and Queeny…with one small addition. Queeny, your smoking raises my insurance premiums because insurance is a shared risk program. The more people in the plan get sick, the more the insurance goes up.
Jesse, I don’t know where you got the idea that I smoke. I don’t. And there is no way in hell you should be penalized because the other idiots in your insurance program have KNOWINGLY CHOSEN slow death as their lifestyle. If anything, they should be paying higher premiums because they are a risk and you should be rewarded by paying lower premiums. Maybe you need to launch a complaint to your insurance company or drop them.
All this bleeding heart crap over people who choose their addictions needs to stop. It is nothing more than rewarding people for shitty choices and is making a society composed of spineless cry babies.
Queeny – I don’t understand? You seem to be contradicting yourself
…in your post at 10:44 you say ‘…Don’t make us pay for YOUR crappy decisions…’ which implies a personal responsibility on the person for their health
but at 12:37 you say ‘…whoever is responsible for her aesthetic should pay for her treatment….’ which implies that others are responsible for her illness
Which is it? You can’t have it both ways
I think we can have it both ways. Cigarette companies have been held accountable and sued. People who continue with full knowledge of their actions should also be held accountable and penalized. If an employer pressures a model to reduce her weight to a point that it compromises her health and well-being, the employer should be sued and held accountable. When the model does this knowing the consequences of her weight loss to her health, she is also accountable (but how many young women, children really if they are in their teens, really understand this??) Maybe models should sign waivers in the presence of thier lawyer that they won’t hold their employers accountable for consequences of starvation. At any rate, I still think it sickening that the fashion industry holds starvation of women as a standard of aesthetic.
Ummm… Queeny, not sure what country you’re in, but most American insurance plans already penalize you for smoking. I pay extra every month, and I should, because my choices make it more likely I’ll need to use my insurance for some treatment some day.
I will say that out of everyone in my family, including a mother and grandmother who’ve smoked since 13 or so, a father who’s chewed tobacco since he was around 15, and four out of seven of my siblings, and the majority of my extended family on both sides, we haven’t had a single case of cancer or related heart disease. It’s nice to have good genes.
I smoked all through my years in the Marine Corps, and regularly ran more than eight miles with full kit at a pace very few non-smokers could have kept up with. It all depends on how much you smoke, and the level of physical activity you regularly undergo.
What I’ve yet to see every though, is a person over 300 lbs or so that could make it half way to the fridge without breaking into flop sweats. Seriously, where are all these fat people that are still in shape?
The idea that I already pay far more for my insurance premiums, PLUS more than half of the price of my cigarettes is made up of state and federal tax to make up for my ‘burden on society’. If you’ll pardon the expression, I’m being fucked from both ends! Fat people on the other hand aren’t charged more on goods that make them fat, or are they charged more for their health coverage – despite the fact their choices seem far more dangerous health-wise than mine are. Just look at the rate of diabetes among Americans and tell me I’m full of shit.
Also, you might want to drop the Nazi reference, as it doesn’t apply. The Nazi’s were all about eugenics, and as I pointed out, there is no fat gene. If promoting good health and fitness is a crime against humanity, you’d better start by arresting our President’s Council on Physical Fitness. Is Schwarzenegger still in charge of that one?
like Scott F, I lean towards the Libertarian party on many issues, but i do have slightly different views than he.
i am not against under age smoking and drinking bans, that includes govt laws prohibiting the sales of, AND ADVERTISING TO minors.
For me, I have very close experience with weight issues – my mother, for the first 40 year of her life was so thin that “heroin chic” would describe her. hyperactive thyroid. In her 40s a switch flipped. I remember one month that she gained 30 lbs WITH DIETING. hello HYPOactive thyroid. she is probably about 200 lbs at 5’5″. technically obese, but I would just say very overweight.
there, at this point, is a mental aspect in addition to the physical in trying to lose the weight yes, but it so did not get there by pounding down the big macs.
i dont want to pay for other people’s stupid lifestyle choices and support health insurance premiums to encourage heathly choices, but realize that that its going to be so hard t o really do it fairly.
as for these anorexic models – well….no…they dont choose the look to put out there, but they DO choose that life and if they go along with the game, then yes, they are part of the circle.
the bigger culprits are the designers who design for stick figures.
even bigger culprits? magazine and advertisers who allow the designers to buy space from them with these sick girls (notice its not the guys!)
the BIGGEST culprit? the ones most at fault? the3 consumer. me. you. all of us. we buy the magazines and buy the clothes and dont boycott the advertisers and designers.
we buy the trashy magazines. we spend money at the stores that carry these clothes and items the stick figures sell.
we point out every ounce a celeb gains and call them names.
when WE as a society take a step back and say, “ENOUGH” and backup those words with actions, THEN and only then will it stop.
man…i dont post often, but when I do, its a book.
sorry!
Queeny, ..I absolutely agree with you….sometimes people make ‘crappy decisions’ without being aware they are doing so.
And you’re right about the fashion industry, and the entertainment industry for that matter but the trouble is, it has ever been so. I love old Hollywood movies and believe me if you take the time to notice, the women were just as skeletal then as they are today
It’s a complex issue but trying to legislate what can only ever be a subjective notion is pointless
marilyn monroe would be a size 10 today which would have qualified her for a “plus size” model.
I dont think so. I think thin, but still healthy for the most part
Scott F…you just don’t get it. Ah well, I tried twice. You’re so full of bile and sarcasm that I can’t be bothered
‘…..the BIGGEST culprit? the ones most at fault? the3 consumer. me. you. all of us. we buy the magazines and buy the clothes and dont boycott the advertisers and designers.
we buy the trashy magazines. we spend money at the stores that carry these clothes and items the stick figures sell.
we point out every ounce a celeb gains and call them names……’
Thank you Pokey
As a French speaking, I’m appalled.
What kind of law is this? Where’s our freedom of speech and of education (after all, seeing such a picture makes most people have an even more negative idea about anorexia and understand that it is a true illness than admiring it)?
We are doomed with Sarkozy as president. Doomed.
Hurray for the bling bling attitude and that’s it.
ALSO : the law has NOT been voted yet. The vote takes place on April the 15th.
It is still only a law proposition!
Needless to say that “la gauche” (the left wing) is against it. It does not treat anorexia as real problem. It simply creates a positive buzz around the president who needs to get a better image since he has been on the downside these last few months.
“Miss Bimbo” most obviously is NOT a role model – it’s just cheap satire.
But fashion models are role models for young girls, they are paid ridicilously high wages mainly for being thin (which is the one characteristic they all have in common) and their thinness is definded as beauty.
I’m not saying all models ought to gain weight, but some of the skeletons parading the catwalks ought to be banished.
Letting extremely thin and unhealthy girls work as models sends the message: This is good, this is beautiful.
And that’s terrible.
xiaoecho, queeny and others make good, valid and compassionate points here. Scott F, you also make some reasonable points, but the validity of anything you say is completely negated by the rage and anger that comes through in almost every comment you make on this site. Your need to lecture, rant, point out the glaring inaccuracies (as you see them) in other posters’ thought processes is incredibly draining and off-putting and prevents any reasonable points you make from being taken seriously.
Just a reminder, this is a light-hearted gossip site. Don’t you have like-minded buddies that you can unload all your anger on, instead of coming on here as if it’s your own personal platform to convert everyone to your way of thinking? You’re really pissing me off.
This is ridiculous! What a stupid proposal. I doubt the French will pass it. Sarkozy is an ass. This won’t solve anorexia. And some people are naturally THAT skinny.
As for the obesity problem in North America, sorry xiaoecho, but it IS a HUGE PROBLEM.
Overweight people are NOT the ideal. We should not normalize fat.
“Oh, real women are all size 12 and above!” That makes me sick.
Where were all the fat people back when people would walk places, use more public transit, live a more physical lifestyle, and actually cook their own meals with food that wasn’t canned/processed/frozen/genetically modified/pumped full of hormones/etc? Hmm? Where were they before fast food became the norm? They were few and far between.
Get real fat people! Start cooking healthy meals (stay away from the crap mentioned above, fast food, over-eating). Start living a way more active lifestyle!
Of course, the poverty problem does contribute to this problem because crap is cheaper. BUT i’d say most people who are overweight are making BAD CHOICES and need to change their lifestyle for the better.
this is just more evidence of patriarchal society wanting more control over women’s bodies. Anorexia is often a response to the surveillance and ideology of patriarchy, the one thing women can control. this law is completely ironic and will probably add to the very problem it is trying to get rid of. when women truly have equality and control over their own bodies, anorexia won’t exist. there is a reason why this is a condition primarily found in western democracies with neoliberal ideals that masks patriarchy.
Let me make a comment on the model in the photo: This ad was specifically shot as an ANTI-ANOREXIC POSTER, people. I read an article with an interview from her, and she wanted to aid the fight against anorexia, so thought this was the best way — to show how ugly it really is.
And her ass is probably either pixielated or has a stickon crotch to cover up a little.
Most of you have forgotten one key element here. Anorexia is a mental illness of sorts. There is no cause and media influences are negligible. These girls have a warped idea of their own bodies. Though many anorexia/bulimia sufferers are thinner than Holocaust victims they see themselves as overweight and imperfect.
Anorexia is not just for models, dancers, or actresses. It is a compulsion driven by a desire for control that they lack in other facets of their lives. Banning skinny models, vilifying thin people and promoting “thick” as healthy is not going to change the issues in the heads of these women.
And some of you need to calm the hell down, btw. There is no excuse for talking shit to people just because you disagree with their opinions. If you can’t defend your position logically and calmly than maybe your position isn’t all that well thought out.
headache, you show some valid research and stats that proves anorexia was just as prevalent among young women 2-3 generations ago when advertizing malnourished models as a desirable norm for women wasn’t around, and then we can have a discussion about it. I seriously doubt you will find much that shows eight and nine year old girls going on severe diets to lose weight. As for the norm for women in the 1950’s, I think “voluptuous” is a more appropriate word. They had breasts and butts and were not these lean man-bodies with tits like in the swim suit issues. Marylin Monroe, Jane Mansfield and others would most likely be considered overweight by today’s fashion standards. I appreciated the comment by bros. I would point out that women participate in their own victimizaion and have more power than they realize. Whether women choose “freely” in the truest sense of the word is a whole other issue. When you offer a group of people millions of dollars to essentially prostitute themselves out with few other legitimate opportunities to earn that sort of money, few would say “no”. So I liken the fashion industry and the porn industry to a sort of monetary and sexual slavery. There really is no real “choice” when there are very few other alternatives for women to make that sort of money. You look at all the opportunities that men have to make gobs of money without being sexually exploited.
As for the so-called “freedom of speech” issue…there is no such thing. It is defensible in some instances, say in porn…yet if we had an equivalent that just targeted blacks as a class and not women, it would be intolerable and labelled “racist”. So it would seem, as a society we have come to an agreement that certain racial slurs levied by whites against blacks is unacceptable, yet snuff films would be defended in the name of free speech. I guess some classes of people (blacks) are worthy of more protection and respect than others (women and children as a group). Pedophiles are also trying to argue that their freedom of speech is being violated…maybe our apologists will see to it that they are also protected?
Scott F. You have no arguement from me. I am in full agreement obese people should be absolutely penalized for their choices unless a valid medical reason (thyroid) is provided…
France is socialist- what do you expect? Their philosophy is that the government is there to take care of everyone- even people who came upon their bad circumstances by their own foolish choices. There is no self- accountability in a socialist government. It’s all about the greater good, by any means necessary, no matter how ridiculous.
So, Msat, it’s ridiculous to demand/enforce healthier images/standards for women?
Why is there like a fungus on her butt?
One problem is, why are so many young women drawn to the modeling industry? Why aren’t we encouraging young women to go into viable careers where they can actually have a real future? Most models don’t earn enough money to live on – that is a fact. Its only supermodels who make the big money.
bros – I completely agree with you! It reeks of the beauty myth that Naomi Wolf wrote about, used as a political weapon to keep so-called liberated women from threatening the patriarchy. Before anyone accuses me of being some extreme feminist, honestly, read Wolf first — it makes so much sense.
Queeny, that’s a ridiculous argument asking for past research in diagnosing issues such as anorexia which were not even recognized as illnesses in generations where autistic children were dismissed as slow, stubborn or simply locked away.
There are plenty of illnesses and issues in our culture that have always been there but simply not understood, acknowledged or accepted by the medical community. After all, back in the “glorious era of voluptuous women” homosexuality was considered a mental illness.
And btw, Marilyn may have wore a size 16 back in the day but dress sizes are different now than they were then.
http://www.snopes.com/movies/actors/mmdress.asp Look at the nude play boys pics of her and tell me that’s an overweight girl by anyone’s standards.
Marilyn and Jane Russell were not the only big name stars that you can use them to be representative of an entire era. Elizabeth Taylor, Audrey Heburn, Joan Rontaine, Bette Davis, Grace Kelly, Rita Hayworth. These women all came in a variety of sizes.
And even the so called voluptuous girls were normal women with average bodies shoved to hell and back into girdles and conical bras. Look at the under garments of the day and tell me they didn’t use those to cinch in a girl’s waist to next to nothing then pad her ass and her tits to create the hourglass that was favored then. You really think those waists were natural?
Oh and let’s not forget that though Marilyn’s curves were embraced, her naturally darker hair, wider chin and every thing else they cut up, shaved off and pulled back with plastic surgery was not.
Women were judged just as harshly if not more so for their looks and weight in the 40’s and 50’s as they were now so stop acting as if it were some greater time and we’ve all become evil consumers.
As least now, our stars are not white washed into being the perfect American dream or forced into finding work overseas because they happened to become pregnant out of wedlock. Or should an ethnically diverse actress find herself with some modicum of fame, she is no longer segregated from the rest of the cast, her scenes written so they can be edited out in southern theaters or relegated to playing maids and native girls.
i’m kinda with scott on this one. that aside, a couple nitpicky things.
a) marilyn monroe was a size 10 in the 50s. (size 10 with boobs). i’m a size 10-12 in sewing sizes (stdized in the 50s) and i wear a 4-6 in ready-made. she wasn’t THAT big, and i’m sick of that nostalgic myth. it’s the clothes that have changed, not the women wearing them.
b) anorexia does occur, although with less regularity in culture where “thinness” is not the cultural ideal (subSaharan Africa). it is, however, not usually described as a desire to be thin so much as a persistent “lack of appetite” past the point when a body desperately needs nutrition.
c) there seems to have been between some people (xiao, scott, i’m lookin at you) a bit of miscommunication on the difference between voluptous/big and obese. you can be plus size and be healthy. in fact some studies shoe people 5-10 pounds overweight may have healthier hearts from carrying the extra load. but obesity is not a style choice, it’s a life choice, and it is a killer. massively fat is not just not ideal, it is legitimately a problem. stop defending it, stop rationalizing it, obesity is almost as unhealthy as (and far more prevalent than) anorexia.
Scott F, your original comment made me laugh. And hey…stop smoking. It’s so hard your body. I like your posts and want you to live for a while.
Also, as much as anorexia is a mental problem, it’s not like anorexics were born with this innate desire to be thin. They were born with an innate desire to be perfect. That’s where the mental issue comes in, because they can’t see what they really look like (body dysmorphia) and they have an obsessive, unhealthy drive to “fix” themselves.
So us saying that thin is perfect and that fat means you have no self-control or willpower, is what turns the disorder into anorexia. As opposed to 200 years ago when that was not the notion, I doubt this disorder manifested itself in the same way.
MSat : France is NOT socialist. The socialist party lost against the right wing party UMP. This law is being proposed by the right wing, not the left wing (the left wing among which the PAS – the Socialist Party -, the PCF – the French Communist Party-, the Green Party , etc. are against this law as it does not treat anorexia truly : as a mental disease).
As for those wondering what is happening on her lower back : I don’t think it is a fungus.
It is most probably a skin reaction to her illness. I’ve had an anorexic friend and when she was at her lowest point (and close to death), she had parcels of skin that would peel off, change of colour. You can also see that her feet are turning blue : anorexic people are always cold and the hands and feet are the first parts of the body that are being naturally cut off by your organism in order to spare essential body warmth and keep your brain and heart going. These horrible things happen to your body (as well as losing your hair, having very fragile nails, etc.).
I wish people would show some respect for the woman who posed for NoLiTa. She’s courageous to show off her features like that since they show how terrible the body becomes once you’re anorexic.
Bellatrix – I watched the documentary and the interview with this woman about 5/6 months ago when it first hit the news (in UK) and I, for one, was incredibly moved by her and her courage in putting herself in the spotlight to make such an important point. It was very touching.
I also recommend taking personal responsibility for your choices. But for everyone out there willing to charge more for smokers, overeaters, anorexics etc….
What about people with a greater number of sexual partners, mountain climbers, sky divers or others that take great personal risk for fun, people who love to speed on the highway or use their cell phones and put on makeup or eat while driving….
The list is endless.
Usually, I only lurk around blogs, but this post made me have to say something. Great job bro!
I conceive you have remarked some very interesting points , regards for the post.
Are they forced to take the course? Never heard of someone being forced to study ethics or religion. Something new for me then. Thanks