Image via flickr / Dr. Mike
Israel has banned underweight models as an innovative way to protect teens and aspiring models from eating disorders. The law, initiated by MK Rachel Adatto and approved by the Knesset (Israel’s legislative branch), aims to ban unhealthy bodies from the countries advertisements and runways. While this is not the first time the issue has come up, Israel has taken it a step further, to legislation, to prevent a certain kind of image from covering the magazine pages.
Unlike most other countries which rely on the industry to regulate itself, it is now mandatory that models provide a medical report outlining their BMI for three months prior to their photo shoot or runway walk on the Isreali market. Moreover, ad agencies must remain responsible in their selection of models as violations are a criminal offense, and violators (those who use unhealthy models) can be sued in court as promoters of abnormally thin body images.
In recent history, countries such as Italy and India banned underweight models after two anorexic models in Uruguay and Brazil died. With the CFDA’s model guidelines, Madrid’s Fashion Week banning models whose BMI was below 18, and Milan’s fashion week banning models with a BMI below 18.5, there is a pull towards ensuring that the industry deals only with healthy and fit models. Body consciousness remains an important part of the modeling industry and we look forward to seeing how Israel’s new law will affect the rest of the modelling world.
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Saša Mitrović is a blogger. Follow her on Twitter at @thrasheddoll
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