http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/02/01/skinny ... index.html

N.Y. considers banning ultrathin fashion models
• New York City Council member proposes 18.5 BMI floor for models
• State lawmaker proposes weight standards for young fashion models
• World Health Organization says normal body mass index is 18.5-24.9
• Brazilian model who died in November had BMI of 13.4

NEW YORK (CNN) -- A New York City Council member Thursday proposed pushing sponsors to ban abnormally thin models from walking New York Fashion Week's runways.

Council member Gail Brewer wants fashion houses to ban any model with a body mass index of less than 18.5 -- the cutoff for the World Health Organization's definition of "normal."

Brewer said she wants models to be educated on nutrition and designers to encourage healthful lifestyles.

"We want the designers to offer some clothes that are a little bit more robust," she also told CNN, "and we certainly don't want people under the age of 16 to be modeling."

Madrid Fashion Week set a BMI limit of 18 in September, and Italian designers in December agreed to health and age guidelines for runway models, The Associated Press reported.

On Wednesday, Assemblyman Jose Rivera of the Bronx introduced a resolution in the state legislature to generate standards to protect the health of teenage models and entertainers, AP reported.

The Council of Fashion Designers of America issued recommendations in January to help bulimia, anorexia and other health problems among models.

Brazilian model Ana Carolina Reston died in November at age 21. She was 5 feet 8 inches tall and weighed just 88 pounds, for a BMI of 13.4.

WHO defines normal BMI as 18.5 to 24.9.

"Being exposed to an environment with a lot of emphasis on thinness can put someone with a predisposition to eating disorders in a very high-risk situation," Dr. Sharon Alger-Mayer, an associate professor of medicine at Albany Medical Center, told AP.
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I really hope this goes through. It'll follow in the same footsteps as Madrid, except smarter. Smarter because they won't emphasize on weight alone. With the exception of bodybuilders, measuring BMI is an effective and simple method of rating ones physical composition. If the government has to step in to things like this, so be it. It's important because everyone looks at the media as to the ideal image. Thoughts?

Just what we need, more government regulations on what you can do with your own body. This is a terrible idea.

I knew I would get this response sooner or later.

I'm sorry, but I feel this country doesn't have much discipline. Americans are very lazy.

Do you think we'll change on our own? No way. That's why I'm for government regulation.

If I had to rank the health problems facing Americans, "too thin" would be WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY down the list.

Banning models from entering a contest is just too much control for the government. They should just offer help and support to people with weight issues (over/under).

Well achieving looks go hand in hand with diet and excercise, right? Diet and excercise reduces the risk of obesity, heart disease, etc. I assume those are the things that would be at the top of the list?

You do know obesity is the #1 preventable cause of death since 2005, right? Smoking comes in 2nd place.

That's what I'm saying ... if you're going to ban stuff, do it in this order:

1) Being big and fat.
2) Smoking
3) Drinking
4) Being an asshole
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67) Being stupid
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1000) Being too thin.

i think it is sad that the gov't had to step in and force this...the industry should have made these types of standards a long time ago...like when twiggy was THE hot model (60's, she is the woman at the gas station in the blues brothers movie).

it just makes sense to 1) make sure your product is realistic for your target audience and 2) that the models you use to sell this product can be easily identifed with by the average american consumer.

lastly, a BMI of 13 is appalling, i can't imagine how a person could look anything but gastly at that weight, and i can't imagine anyone putting someone like that on the runway. last summer i hit an all time low with a BMI of 16 and i was too embarrassed to wear a bathing suit. how can people so conscious of looks be so blind to how bad a really skinny person looks? the whole thing is just too bizarre. and now with gov't intervention, it can only get more bizarre, because with gov't regualtions comes loopholes.

Go outside and look at the people. They're all massive. Obviously people are copying the plus sized models. It's time we banned plus sized models from all shows

I'm glad the government is focusing on vital issues.

I'm against this only because these few famous ultra thin models are probably the only thing keeping the very very few articles of clothing in my size in stores. What everyone seems to ignore in this debate is that not every rail-thin model is that way because she's a raging annorexic. It's a shame that some girls do resort to that because they want to be models so badly. Some women just aren't naturally born that way. It's just like how one man can lift weights and get huge w/ little help, whereas another has to take steroids for the same effect. Everyone is different. But instead of focusing on that, let's just blame the thin people for being thin!!

And I'm not especially one of them. I'm not 5'8 and a size 00 - I'm a small size because I'm SMALL everywhere.

Companies under this weird pressure to shun the ultra-thin image are making their clothes bigger, either by making their smallest size clothes larger, or by making larger sizes and eliminating the smaller sizes all together. In high school I could get a size 1 just about anywhere. I couldn't even look at a 0, and a 00 zero was a joke.
A few years ago, without losing any weight, the 1's were suddenly too big. So I had to buy 0's, which are harder to find. I subscribed to 3 catalogs, and there were still about 3 or 4 stores locally where I could find them.
Then, about last year or so, 0's started getting bigger. Those catalogs dropped the size almost all together, and added sizes 16, 18 and 20. There's 1 store now where I can find 00s, and that's about it.

Since highschool, I've filled out - I've gained about an inch or so around my hips, 1/2 inch around my waist. But I've DROPPED 2 pants sizes. WTF?


The problem is NOT rail thin models. Or the companies that choose to use them. By being thin and basically curveless, the clothes hang better and look better. Get over it.
Some people DO look that way. It's weird to villify them, instead of parents who don't teach their daughters proper self esteem.

This obviously isn't the absolute most important issue facing NYC or America right now, but it is an issue worth addressing. And for the folks making comments about, "yeah there goes the gov't sticking their head in where they shouldn't be", this situation is really no different than gov't applying regulations or standards to any other industry. So spare me the "over reaching arm of gov't" song and dance.

FWIW, they aren't outlawing skinny people from the run ways. They are attempting to mandate that a healthy body mass index is maintained. You can google body mass index if you want to better understand why its not the same as just saying "too skinny" or "too fat".

K, it's like this - my BMI is usually around 17. Not as thin as the girl that died, but still under 'healthy'. I do side work as a model occasionally. If laws like this pass, I could lose jobs over it.
Thing is - I eat quite normally. I don't starve myself, I eat fast food a few times a month, and I hardly exercise. It's not fair to apply blanket standards to something that can naturally vary sooo much. People aren't robots.

I watched that stupid Janis Dickinson show and one of the models proclaimed proudly that she hadn't eaten in 3 weeks or something. So I think the "naturally rail thin" models are few and far between.

If that is the case in your personal situation, then I'm assuming there would be no reason why a statement of your health, regardless of your overall BMI, by a licensed physician, wouldn't be acceptable to present to anyone who had a question about whether or not you could legally be hired if this proposal gets passed into law. When its all said and done, its a labor issue, so all the normal rules and exemptions apply. If medically speaking, a 18.5 BMI isn't where you personally have to be to be healthy, you should be able to still work. Maybe I'm oversimplifying this, but like I say, I just look at it as a labor issue, and I don't think you can be discriminated against if your own personal physical makeup doesn't fit the letter of the law. Don't know if that makes any sense or not.......

Translation: "Fat girls are tired of looking at thin models, and being jealous and wondering why they are so fat as they lay in bed with their bag of Doritos, so we figure it would be best if we try and have some "robust" (read: pleasantly plump) models out there to help the self esteem of fatties across America."

I've heard my sister go thru this same exact thing, making the same exact complaints as you. And its very true.
It is as if in an effort to make being overweight more acceptable, they are also trying to make it seem like such a negative to be smaller.

Models sizes have been regulated since forever; just in the other direction. If you were over a certain size, you were out. so I don't see this being any worse, and there is a health benefit for some here. There are some naturally thin models, alot aren't! And we're talking about a Nationally televised fashion show here, so the implications are greater