Saturday 19 December 2015

French Models Must Provide A Doctors Note Saying They're Not Too Skinny


After years of speculation about France's impending ban on "super-skinny" models, lawmakers in the country have finally adopted a bill that makes medical certificates a must-have accessory in the fashion capitol of the world.

The new law, approved by French MPs on Thursday, mandates that all models must provide their employers with doctors notes confirming a healthy body weight before legally working in France.

Employers who fail to provide these health documents upon inspection can be punished for up to six months in jail and a whopping €75,000 (approximately $114,000 Cdn) fine.

Harsh as the punishment may seem, an estimated 30-000 - 40,000 people in France have been diagnosed with anorexia nervosa according to French legistlator Olivier Veran – many of them teenagers.

A previous (and perhaps more contentious) version of the bill France just adopted proposed that there should be a minimum Body Mass Index (BMI) for models. But, as critics pointed out at the time, a person's BMI is far from the only indicator of their general health. Cont.

Story from - CBC News
Image from - Sean Loyless - Flickr
cc 2.0

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