I think every girl can admit to daydreaming about a world where skinny girls weren’t “in,” but what if that actually happened?
In the 1950’s when Marilyn Monroe was the major sex symbol, girls with curves were to die for. There were even ads for products that would help skinny girls become “curvy.”
In a world where obesity is increasing at an extreme rate and models resort to narcotics for maintining bone-thin frames, young women are developing eating disorders left and right. Israeli fashion photographer, Adi Barkan hopes to change the modeling industry as we know it.
Starting with his home country, Barkan initiated the legislation to regulate fashion model’s body weight by creating the “Photoshop Law,” stating that fashion and commercial models should have a body-mass index of at least 18.5 or one that is within the the range of what is considered healthy and companies are not allowed to alter any photos of their feautured models.
For those unfamiliar with the body mass index, it is a number that uses height and weight to determine whether someone is underweight, healthy, or overweight. Most models in the fashion industry are well beneath a healthy BMI, which has caused an extreme rise in eating disorders among young women. The model featured above has a BMI around 18.8.
Models will now have to produce a medical report, three months before participating in any photoshoot, commercial, etc.
The law was passed on January 1st, 2013, and there are already people who oppose it because they feel it is restrictive and unnecessary. But hopefully this law will have an impact that can eventually affect the modeling industry worldwide. Only time will tell how effective it will wind up to be.
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