Make them eat cake: model legislation.

AuthorBrown, Elizabeth Nolan
PositionFrance bans hiring models with low BMI - Citings - Brief article

France is embracing a novel way to discourage eating disorders: Throw people in prison for employing skinny models. Under legislation passed in April, runway models and people who appear in advertisements must maintain a minimum body mass index (BMI) of 18. People who hire models under this threshold could face six months in prison and a [euro]75,000 fine.

French officials have described the law--which will require workers to prove their weight not just at the time of a job but also for weeks afterward--as a ban on "anorexic models." But bmi (a body fat estimate based on weight and height) is a shaky basis for determining individual health. Though a BMI above 18 and below 25 is considered normal, the difference...

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