thin models were banned from the catwalk In Madrid last year. Do we need to legislate on the body image we are being presented with by fashion?
In the case of this regulation in Madrid, my heart actually went out to the models, and I’ll tell you why. They have essentially been working for their entire careers in an industry that has told them how they are supposed to look (which typically means they need to be extremely skinny), and they have complied with that because that is the only way they are able to work. The standards set may or may not be reasonable or right, but in order to get work as a model, you need to be able to fit into the idea that designers have for their product. However, when the ban came along in Madrid, these same girls, many of which had altered themselves to fit the standards of fashion, were told that they were not able to work BECAUSE they had complied with these standards. I think that whatever standard is set should be set as a constant, so that at least the people involved do not wind up conforming only to find that all of a sudden it means they’re out of a job. If the industry can agree to set a
