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France: Skinny models to need doctor's certificate

AFP
AFP - [email protected]
France: Skinny models to need doctor's certificate
Photo: AFP

From now on ultra-thin models in France will need a doctor's certificate proving they are healthy before they are allowed to take part in fashion shows. If not they risk being hit with a huge fine.

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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 ($82,000).

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.

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