France makes law to fight eating disorder

France's fondness for inventing odd laws to change human behaviour entered new territory today. A criminal offence is to be created to punish the act of promoting excessive thinness. Those found guilty will face up to three years in jail and 45,000 euros fine.   

This is not a laughing matter. The offence is defined in a government-backed bill that has just been tabled as part of the campaign to combat anorexia nervosa. The first use of prosecutors to tackle eating disorders is broadly aimed at the media and fashion world, but especially at the websites and blogs of the so-called pro-ana movement.

While many of these are support groups, others promote starvation as a "life-style choice", with girls and young women posting their wasting images as "thinspiration" for others. Take a look at the Wikipedia entry and you get the point. It reads as though it has been written by a pro-ana convert.

Social sites such as Facebook and Myspace have recently resisted pressure in Britain and other nations to purge their pro-ana entries. You can see that it must be hard for them to distinguish between dangerous propaganda (soon to be illegal in France) and networking among troubled or just curious people.

The new offence is defined as "provoking a person to seek excessive thinness by encouraging prolonged restriction of nourishment" to the point of risking of death or damage to health. The maximum penalties are applied if the person dies.

Some experts and fashion leaders oppose the bill, which is expected to be passed by Parliament within months. "You do not solve this kind of problem with the law but with understanding," Jean-Paul Gaultier, the designer, told the press today. Didier Grumbach, head of the French Couture Federation, backed a new voluntary code, which was also released today, but he said that it was not up to the state to legislate on beauty and aesthetic criteria,

The law, modelled on the offence of abetting suicide, was tabled by Valérie Boyer, an MP from President Sarkozy's Union for a Popular Movement. Roselyne Bachelot, the Health Minister, gave it the government's blessing at the release of  the code for the media, advertising and fashion industry on  "promoting healthy body images" and fighting anorexia.

"The pro-ana movements which spread their messages of death on the web must be the target for special attention,"  Bachelot said as she presented Boyer's draft bill along with the voluntary charter. Up to 40,000 people suffer from anorexia in France, the great majority of them girls and young women. Laurence Chirac, the 48-year-old elder daughter of  the last president, has been incapacitated for two decades with the disease. The daughter of Patrick Poivre d'Arvor, the country's star television newsman, died of anorexia.

Bachelot [in picture] said that the "waif-like, diaphanous, transparent bodies on the walls of our towns, in our magazines and on our computer screens are exerting their power of harmful fascination on our society." Anorexia is one of the most lethal of mental disorders, killing 20 percent of long-term sufferers, she said. 

Boyer, who has two healthy teenage daughters, said that the new offence was necessary because "it was not possible to deal with the pro-ana sites under the law against provoking suicide or promoting cults." She added: "We do not know who is hiding behind these sites, but there is real mental manipulation." Her law was also aimed at magazines, she said.

The obvious catch is how you prove this offence. What is excessive thinness (une maigreur excessive)? This will probably be left to judges to define but it might be measured as a body mass index, said Boyer. BMI rules have been set by some model agencies and fashion houses since 2006 when the Madrid fashion show imposed a minimum index of 18 for catwalk models.  This apparently translates as a minimum weight of 56 kilos (123 pounds/8.8 UK stone) for a height of 1.75 metres (5 feet 9 ins).

France last year banned a deliberately shocking Italian fashion advertisement featuring Isabelle Caro, a French model-actress who has written a book on her continuing battle with the disease [that's a different picture of her at the top of this post].

The voluntary code, which was drawn up by a panel led by two eminent psychiatrists, commits the fashion, media and advertising world to raising acceptance of varied body shapes. "We undertake the promotion of diversity in the representation of the body, avoiding all stereotypes which could favour potentially dangerous canons of beauty," said the signatories.

Marcel Rufo, a famous child psychiatrist who headed the panel, said that he fully backed the use of the criminal law in fighting anorexia. The disease remains a mystery but everything had to be done to prevent vulnerable girls being encouraged to starve, he said. Among other new rules, magazines should be forced to mention the fact that 60 percent of their pictures are electronically retouched, he said. "Fashion does not make people anorexic but it can push vulnerable teenagers towards it."

Some critics of the measures say that the government is acting after the event because the big fashion and cosmetics firms have already changed their ways and stopped employing the sickly stick-figured models that were in favour a few years ago. That's not very convincing. You only have to open a fashion magazine or look at the posters around Paris to see that very thin is still very in. Whether the police should get involved is another matter.   

Comments

[Pierre Bernardi]

I fail to see anything French about using the law to change human behaviour. Isn't that included in the definition of the word?

The disease is dramatic ; it should not be considered separately from bulimia.

[dot king]

It's dangerous too, to lay all the blame on fashion designers. If designers make haute couture for the catwalks or glossy magazines, they are creating works of art from beautiful materials which they display on fashion models. On that level, for me, it's just another art exhibition - no-one's really expected to wear the designs, even if we're led to think they "inspire" what we'll wear next season.
Let's imagine for a moment that all the top creators and designers, throughout the fashion world, alter their criteria and create their catwalk clothes for models with some flesh on their bones. Will anorexia go away?
I believe that the equation is the other way round; that the girls have a problem with their self-image which they link to their "fatness" which is how they see themselves. I think they then CHOOSE their ideal image from amongst the thinnest people around, ie (often) fashion models and aim for that image as a self-image.

So what is a fashion model? The French word is "mannequin", a word which suggests something of an automaton, a dummy (I don't write that in the pejorative sense). There is nothing natural about a model on a catwalk. They are taught to walk unnaturally, to wear a facial expression which the creator thinks expresses his or her mood or influence, and make-up and extravagant hairstyles, the lighting, finish the whole dehumanising effect. They are an exhibition, not a lifestyle. For the time they appear, they ARE someone else's creation, not real.

I think it needs to be known how many mannequins AREN'T anorexic before dramatic conclusions are drawn.
Of course this is the side of the problem that will get all the publicity, in the same way that it was put around that AIDS was a GAY disease, or passed only between drug addicts sharing syringes. The rest of us could feel safe - viruous even.
We know better now and we should apply some logical thinking before laying blame on one sector of activity/society/culture.
Of course, no girl suffering from anorexia should be on a catwalk, she shouldn't be working at all, she should be getting treatment.

Professor Marcel Rufo's essay "La Vie en Désordre - Voyage en Adolescence" is excellent and clear on anorexia and other teenage disorders. I read it quite recently and don't recall fashion models being cited as CAUSING anorexia.

Anorexia is an illness of which the causes are psychological and introspective. Like many problems, the solution isn't necessarily "out there".

For magazines to put a "health warning" that all the models' photos have been retouched is laughable, that surely can't have been thought up by anyone other than a political adviser justifying a salary.
So many women are totally preoccupied with their appearance that it's a little botox here, un petit lifting there, emergency lyposuction (vintage Ab Fab :)), that it won't make a bit of difference - "so she's been retouched, I can still want to look like that can't I?" Grotesque.

Was a time when women were encouraged to live in their own bodies and accept them - but even if that were achieved - anorexia wouldn't go away.

[Ros]

"The daughter of Patrick Poivre d'Arvor, the country's star television newsman, died of anorexia." She didn't die of it - she commited suicide which isn't quite the same thing - if you are well looked after, I should say it's impossible to DIE of it but what a terrible illness to go through, always being spied on by some family member.
One could say that France is thus becoming a "nanny" state as uk but on the other hand it may not be a bad idea to FRIGHTEN these pro-ana websites & even more so the fashion leaders etc.I have a good guess that no one will ever be prosecuted -
This designer who remarks "You do not solve this kind of problem with the law but with understanding," doesn't say WHO should do the understanding, that is the question -certainly not him.
I just can't make up my mind if it's good or bad & am looking forward to hearing other opinions.

[Ros]

I wrote my Post before I'd read DOT KING'S - of course she's right saying "Anorexia is an illness of which the causes are psychological and introspective. " More often than not it begins with a mother-daughter conflict but to me the mannequin's anorexia is not quite the same. They obviously feel an enormous pressure and quite simply want to keep their jobs & once en route they can't stop.

[Rocket]

France is an authoritarian state has always been an authoritarian state and always will be an authoritarian state. That of course because the French legislator as French Monarchs did, has a low opinion of the French people themselves whom he/she feels are not able to wipe their own asses.

[Don]

The French would do well to read their own brilliant Frederic Bastiat who wrote "The Law" (1848). The sections of this short book they should read are entitled:
[désolé - ces setions sont en anglais. Je n'ai pas l'edition française)
"Legistlators Desire to Mold Mankind", "Legislators Told How to Manage Men", "A Temporary Dictatorship", "Philanthropic Tyranny" and "The Socialists Want Dictatorship", "The Socialist Want to Play God", "Dictatorial Arrogance", "Socialists Want Forced Conformity", "The Error of the Socialist Writers", "The Desire to Rule Over Others" and finally, "The Indirect Approach to Despotism".

Socialism is very seductive. It appears to want only good for mankind. History teaches us (Hitler's National Socialist Party; the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, Mao's China etc.) that socialism can all too easily become despotic - which causes more pain in the end then it was suppose to alleviate. Socialism promises the free lunch but people end up giving away their personal freedom. The 20th Century is littered with socialist countries that supposedly started with good intentions. There is no substitute for personal responsbility. I suppose this has to be learned (painfully) every generation.

[peter kinsley www.peterkinsley.com]

About time! I have a niece who was at London University and being groomed as top model when the illness struck and she became a living skeleton, and it was four years before she began to recover. my own belief is that it is psychological; brainwashing at an early age. If a young girl constantly hears her parents talk about slimming and the danger of putting on weight and "bread is fattening and this is fattening and that is fattening", one day she stops eating.

[Robert Marchenoir]

Laws against thinness. Laws against obesity. Please advise.

[Francois D]

I am not shocked by this project of law, if it prevents from advertising drifts or perverse sites. On the other hand, I don't have much illusion about politicians even if Mrs. Bachelot, the Minister for Health was pharmacist. I think that polticians have first the concern of marking their passage, and in the field of Health, particularly in France, not to forget such topic or such other to avoid later reproaches.
I don't throw the stone: this affection is so difficult and serious...
Since few years, there is a law to prevent obesity in young population prohibiting sweeted drinks's sales in school yards.
Epidemic obesity seems, since one or two years falling a little bit. One says that this law was a little helpful for that.

What is important is not a simple law but all the politic around.

I understand that somes fear that one enters in the Body Mass Index dictatorship.

[Marguerite.]

C'est bien de faire une loi pour empecher que des sites comme pro-ana continuent a sevir.
Mais je ne pense pas que les jeunes filles qui sont anorexiques le soient parce que les magazines presentent des mannequins tres minces. L'anorexie mentale est une maladie tres grave et tres dificile a guerir. Les psychiatres disent que c'est le refus de devenir une femme, induit par un mauvais rapport avec la mere...? Ca remonte a bien avant qu'on admire les mannequins !
Je trouve que l'obligation d'etre "belle" , dictee par les magazines feminins est encore plus contraignante que celle d'etre mince.
Mince, on peut le devenir -sans forcement aller jusqu'a la maigreur- mais si on est nee moche...

[Caricouture]

What a ridiculous law! Well intentioned perhaps but still ridiculous. This sort of law and discussion merely fuel the morbid glamour with which some people view the disease - look up "wannarexic" on Wikipedia while you're at it.

There is no doubt that anorexia is a very serious illness that should not be taken lightly. However it's talked about as if someone on every street is starving themselves to death as we speak - 40,000 anorexics in a country of 60,000,000 means 1 in 1500 people has the disorder, an incidence of 0.06%.

Recent American research has shown that as many as 7% of teenage boys have taken illegal steroids to build muscle mass. Are we going to ban the Olympics and Men's Health next just because some people take things too far for their own good?

Research has also shown that the incidence rate of anorexia has remained largely unchanged since the first reported cases were documented in the 19th century, long before fashion magazines were invented!

[dot king]

ROS, MARGUERITE, nous pouvons peut-être considérer la question d'un autre angle - l'angle opposé en fait. Je n'ai ni chiffres ni statistiques, mais il est possible également que les filles susceptibles de devenir anorexiques sont attirées par une carrière de mannequin.
Toutes les filles anorexiques ne sont pas des mannequins, et tous les mannequins ne sont pas des filles anorexiques.
Je vous recommande la lecture du Pr Rufo sur le sujet - il est très lisible, fascinant plutôt.
Ce n'est pas toujours une simple question de la relation mère-fille.

ROCKET - you made it clear on the "naked Carla" thread that you don't like skinny women, but you still complain when France legislates to fatten them up. Just ain't no pleasing some folks. :)

[Léopold Schonbach]

Merci Marguerite pour votre post plein de sensibilité. Thanks to Dot King as well.

As for a few other posts, they are but another proof of the great power of the Internet to allow one's axe to be ground in public at low cost and under a sobriquet; in this League top prize goes to Rocket who overdid himself. There used to be a time when such statements were consigned to the inner side of toilet doors. Now, thanks to Timothy Berners-Lee and his comrades, the whole world can be privy to such considerate thinking.

[Azloon/Rob Furlong]

we've been told, on this blog and elsewhere, that french women are seldom overweight because of a supposed superior life style and and moderate eating habits.

there was even a best-selling book in the u.s. last year about the beauty of french women and their life style/eating habits.

now finding out that a fair number of these women are starving themselves is a bit disillusioning.

france certainly isn't the only country that has an epidemic of anorexia and bulimia.

but it is certainly the first to attack the problem head-on as it certainly is now with this proposed legislation.

normally, i would be skeptical and critical of such intervention into private behavior.

but i suspect that i feel sympathy because this matter may be one of child abuse and not an attempt to control adult behavior.

it probably won't work as imagined, but it does send a message to young women that their attractiveness and worth as female human beings is not connected to a body image that is unsustainable and deadly.

it's been a downhill slide since Twiggy.

[Hope]

We are made to feel guilty about eating with the "Don't snack all day long" campaign. There was talk about banning junk food ads durning children's TV but they also need to ban the slimming products ads (presumably put there for the overweight mums...)

[Edward Johns]

There are very few pharmacies in France that do not have large advertisements for slimming products; evidently "medications" aimed at slimming are also available in the fashion / celebrity fields.
Strangely, there appears to be no attempt at restricting these areas of the self-harming promotion business.

[peter kinsley www.peterkinsley.com]

Twiggy (Mrs. Mike Whitney, nee Lesley Hornby) is still going strong. In fact, amazingly, she is appearing in the Marks and Spencer adverts, along with three or four young women, and matching them in beauty and bounce! And she did it all on fish fingers. The "fashion" for skinny people was started by Anthony Perkins when he did a Greek dance in a film about the oedipus complex, taken up by the homosexuals and the thin blue jeans have been the fashion ever since.

[Gareth]

This is absolutely chilling and yet nobody has addressed the real reason why we are seeing more and more of these incredible and invasive laws. This is another vague, despotic law made by female politicians, that is supposedly addressed at combating a real (yet very small) problem, yet which is actually the result of the base sexual jealousies of the female lawmakers. German law makers (almost entirely female) recently attempted to outlaw teenagers from even kissing each other under the guise of 'sexual predator' laws.

This law is so vague and potentially broad that it could in future be used to ban all media representation of any females who are not a)fat b) middle-aged c) feminists.

Very, very scary. Unfortunately, this will go on until people realise that to criticize feminism and the abuses of feminism is not, in itself, mysogynistic or sexist. We are creating a Europe that is a feminised version of an Islamic state under sharia law.

[Ros]

EDWARD JOHNS: I quite agree about what you say about the French pharmacies (same in London I may add- just have a walk around Boots)
"Strangely, there appears to be no attempt at restricting these areas of the self-harming promotion business", I'm afraid it's just a question of the pharmacists making more money on selling cosmetics & slimming products than on prescription medecines. However, if you go to a "pharmacie sérieuse" & ask the pharmacist to explain the composition of these products, I think they would dissuade you if necessary & look into any interactions which may be caused by the medecines you are already taking - but perhaps that's just wishful thinking?
DOT: I never said that "Ce n'est pas toujours une simple question de la relation mère-fille", I said "more often than not" - anyhow, I have known personally two cases like that - both their parents tried out various wild (to my mind) psychiatric treatments but when both of these girls (between 20 & 25) left home and had a child - the anorexia disappeared by itself without medical treatment.

[dot king]

RE Twiggy: Important not to confuse naturally slim or even thin people who eat normally with people who are suffering from an illness.
Anorexia is a mental illness with "spectacular" physical results, the thinness of malnutrition.

Part of the "nature" of adolescents is to push the limits, to take control. Each has his/her own definition.
Drug experimentation, overdosing, driving too fast, and this often under drug and alcohol influences, are ways of pushing the limits, as is going to a rave and standing head-banging right by the enormous speakers.
Things which we now see as more dangerous than everything we did at that age - whatever it was.
Anorexia is also a way of imposing control over your own body and your environment, including the people around you. It is as much the path to self-destruction as is a deliberate suicide attempt.
In its extremes, adolescent behaviour is often a sign of a desire for something unhealthy, dangerous, or a refusal of authority.
Pushing the limits, taking control.
Like an alcoholic hiding bottles, an anorexic will use all sorts of ploys to avoid eating, not to face the problem.

Twiggy isn't, wasn't anorexic, she was tall and thin.
No scapegoating, please!

[dot king]

"DOT: I never said that "Ce n'est pas toujours une simple question de la relation mère-fille", I said "more often than not" (Ros)

Sorry, Ros, it wasn't in the spirit of a contradiction, what you say is of course quite correct - it was additional info - and of course in the "transformation" from Anglais to Français, the "toujours" got added. I think we're seeing things from the same point of view.
Interesting that the two young women you've known got better by themselves and that it was the essentially decentring effect of maternity that seemed to make the difference.
It's all very interesting.
An open-minded approach that allows for individual reasons and reactions is necessary, but I fear the focus will be on the fashion industry as the thin girls are highly visible, and it's easier to make that relationship rather than accept the possibility of other more complex explanations.

[Terry]

As Charles notes, from a lawyer's perspective, the idea of proving or defending against the elements of this crime are too subjective.

What if France passes a law against the opposite? Advertisments etc that promote obesity. Or products (cheese, McDOnald's, pomp frites or $7 cokes) that cause obesity with excessive use.

[Ros]

DOT KING: "it's easier to make that relationship rather than accept the possibility of other more complex explanations." Of course, and (unfortunately) you're absolutely right!

[Gareth]

Terry : France will not pass a law against the promotion of obesity beause the motivation behind this has little to do with child welfare. In fact this law itself will most likely result in the further promotion of obesity when obesity is already a far greater health problem amongst young people than anorexia is.

[john o'doe]

A trivial, disgracefully off-subject language puzzle:
If, in French, 'catho' means 'catholique', 'ado' means 'adolescent', 'facho' means 'fachiste' and 'anar' means 'anarchiste' then why oh why does 'ana' mean 'anorexique' ?

[rocket]

Dot

"ROCKET - you made it clear on the "naked Carla" thread that you don't like skinny women, but you still complain when France legislates to fatten them up. Just ain't no pleasing some folks. :)"

I said

The only stacked person in that couple is Sarkozy himself

http://www.metro.co.uk/news/news/article.html?in_article_id=127456

I never said I didn't like skinny women. I believe I said something to the effect that I didn't think her body was anything special(see above). Now if she has attributes such as this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RnXLw93A0Gc

Then so much the better for the President of The République!

In the future please don't misstate my remarks

[peter kinsley www.peterkinsley.com]

I have known girls' lives ruined at Oxford and Cambridge by anorexia, and it can often lead to schizophrenia. Anything that can help to eliminate it is worth a try.
DOT: My mention of Lesley Hornby ("Twiggy") was to pinpoint when skinny became fasionable, as with Anthony Perkins in that film.
The other point about her is that she disproves the saying in France that no man looks at a woman over 40. She will be 60 next year, and is stil a top model in London, and she looks great.

[Azloon/Rob Furlong]

Rocket --

re channel ad

i first thought that the model, applying a huge oval of bright red lipstick in the vicinity of her mouth, was going to continue smearing it all over her face and chest in some sort of parody of a beauty ad.

i think getting vertical in front of a mirror might have helped. then horizontal.

at least she wasn't applying the lipstick during sex, or as in u.s. depictions of sexual boredom, doing her nails.

no signs of anorexia here.

[Terry]

yes, i know i spelled french fries wrong.

[dot king]

"Yeh. So what! I've seen guys in the locker room that have got more on top than she has.

Plus she's so skinny (sans thighs)that she looks like she just got released from a concentration camp.

To each his own but definitely not my kind of gal." ROCKET

Well, I just kind of inferred from the above that you didn't like skinny women - sorry if I misunderstood - in any case my comment on this thread was meant as a joke in answer to your: "France is an authoritarian state has always been an authoritarian state and always will be an authoritarian state".
Train of thought as follows: Erm, you don't like skinny women (so i'd thought) France is authoritarian and is legislating against skinniness - and you still aren't happy.
'Twas lighthearted . . .

[Tavi]

This just seems a cheap attack that will only harm those who are vulnerable.

Attacking ana communities is the worst solution to this problem. Is Sarkozy trying to criminalize the very people he claims to want to help? Is this law seriously suggesting that girls with ana who talk to each other on the internet and encourage each other to lose weight are going to be prosecuted for promoting their lifestyle?

Those who use pro-ana are already anorexic, so cracking down on these websites won't help much but will take support away from those who need them to be able to talk to people going through what they are, to not commit suicide.

And whatever happened to freedom of speech? Sorry, I forgot, Sarkozy...right...how silly of me to even mention it.

[rocket]

Azloon

"re channel ad"

Chanel - Like shaaa nelle

PS - Did you understand what she said. "Tu aimes ma bouche"

Dot.

Sorry if my posts made it seem as if didn't like skinny women.

Although IMHO Mme Sarkozy has a beautiful face, I reserve my comments on her body.

Terry said

"What if France passes a law against the opposite? Advertisments etc that promote obesity. Or products (cheese, McDOnald's, pomp frites or $7 cokes) that cause obesity with excessive use."

I am suspicious of governments that try to over regulate. This opens the door to all kinds of abuse and erroneous interpretation by the legislator and the justice system and police force.

PS- Terry with the rise in the Euro since your visit that coke must now be at over $8 LOL

[Mary Fernandez]

Rocket -

Wow - What an ad! I don't think you could show it before 9PM in the U.S. Still, she looked healthy.

Carla looked good clothed and got- up for her state visit, but that nude portrait was knock-kneed, boney and unflattering. If you compared that picture to the painting, it lacked all warmth, the odd stance, the black and white photography, the way she covered herself with her hands was more defensive than natural. It reminded me of a picture taken to preserve evidence of a crime more than than anything sensual (forget about erotic). It would give me the heebie jeebies to have it on my wall. Yuk!

So whatever I win with my lottery numbers would not have have been spent of that picture. I saved $92,000! I wonder if I can rent George Clooney and some that coffee he's selling.

[rocket]

Has anyone noticed that Carla Bruni is no longer in the Lancia Musa ad in France?

[dot king]

"Has anyone noticed that Carla Bruni is no longer in the Lancia Musa ad in France?" (Rocket)

This is probably because they are putting the car (american gas-guzzling limo - tee hee) into it's final resting place! Still her voice though in the background.

Ironic that the picture of Carla Bruni was bought by a chinese collector - I wonder if it'll be on his wall or in a bank vault . . .

[Gareth]

I propose a new law against : 'The exploitation and misuse of concern for the wellbeing of children and young people for the psychological and emotional benefit of adults'.

Given, as has been pointed out, that obesity is a far greater health risk amongst young people and this new French edict could actually hamper efforts to encourage children to eat more healthily (whilst doing little to solve a complex psychological disorder such as anorexia), there would be a clear case for prosecuting the individuals behind this.

What disturbs me especially in this report, and some of the comments below it, is the attempt to link even diet pills and slimming aids with the promotion of anorexia.

A clear motive exists regarding the psychological needs of the feminists involved - can you imagine if someone like John Prescott had introduced a law banning the promotion of obsessive dieting amongst young males? Or John Major banning images of muscular young men? They would simply be laughed at wouldn't they?

[dot king]

Gareth, it's generally known that obesity is a problem linked much more to poverty and lack of education than to greed, caused by eating the wrong kind of food, and that too often, rather than following what is called "une hygiène de vie" by which nutrionists mean three balanced meals each day (no need to go into details) and preferably the re-establishment of family meals at the table - and no telly whilst eating.

(I don't want to start an international diplomatic incident, but at the time New Orleans was all but destroyed by a hurricane, I couldn't help noticing that the majority of people we saw in the reports were enormously obese and of course were most often the poorest people, without insurance etc. This, in turn, should not be confused with, or even compared to, 3rd World poverty and malnutrition).

The French government might have to tackle poverty to fight the growing problem of obesity. I don't believe they are willing to take this on board.
It is at present targeting certain illnesses and throwing publicity and finance at them - high-profile illnesses such as Alzheimer's Disease, and now anorexia.
All illnesses should be treated equally, if you have Alzheimer's you should have appropriate care, ditto anorexia and any other illness you care to name.
Instead they are busy increasing the costs of health care for the patients, often elderly and poor, when there are simpler things they could do that would save money.

I don't know why anorexia should be singled out for a special law, it's a mystery, but it does preoccupy our thoughts and it gives those rich and futile haute couture people and their stick-insect models a bad name (read with ironic tone please - I'm not scapegoating them myself) and we can blame them for an illness which is not their fault, but which by association will be held to be their fault by almost anyone who gives it a moment's thought.
That's governments for you. Diversionary tactics.

[David Powell]

Rocket:"Has anyone noticed that Carla Bruni is no longer in the Lancia Musa ad in France?"
Try this http://www.lanciamusa.be/fr/splash.html

Belgium is obviously still running it.

One of the lesser problems of Anoxeria/Bulimia awareness of today is that parents are often unsure when to say to a daughter (and it is usually daughters not sons isn't it?) who eats a bit too much. There is always the fear that correction turns into nagging which might force the child into anorexia.

That God my days of parenting a young girl are over.

[Valentin]

I was reading Washington Post's article on the matter, and I couldn't help noticing its balance, seriousness, thoroughness, without presenting the issue as some (yet another!) French quirk, something ridiculous or unrealistic.
One should note that other European countries took steps in that direction, and also that nazi, hatred or extreme violence propaganda too is forbidden, everywhere in the western world. I'm curious to know whether those too would be some silly measures to change the inherently uncontrollable human behaviour.

[Valentin]

...And I also can't help noting the reaction of Jacqueline Fraysse, Communist Party lawmaker, opposing the measure: "It is more a display bill to ease people's consciences" "We will not support this dangerous approach."
Which shouldn't be surprising, given the tendency of a part of the european left, to frame any such regulation as a blow to "human rights" - just like the attempts to present pedophilia as an orientation, or a life-style choice, as a matter of civil rights and saying anti-pedophile laws were trying to change human behaviour.

The question is simple in principle: can we call it a right, or humanly natural, to promote behaviours that lead to grave psychological and physical injury, even death?
Oh well. I'm surprised no one saw this as a matter of free speech yet...

[Valentin]

hah reading the other posts, I see someone already mentioned free speech ! Nothing surprizes me anymore.

Also to those speaking about "law against anorexia". This is not a law against the illness itself or its causes, be they psychological, genetic or whatever, this has absolutely nothing to do.
To quote the very second sentence in the article:
"A criminal offence is to be created to punish the act of PROMOTING excessive thinness." (not the illness, or the fact of being thin).

Some comments were made regarding obesity. May those posters give at least ONE example of PROMOTION OF OBESITY ?? McDonalds and others promote their food's taste and quality, not the fact of being hyper fat. What a terrible, terrible collection d'amalgames, this thread.

[Peter Athey]

For any young ladies tempted by the 'anorexia look' - look at this clip (with the lyrics for those who have difficulty in understanding what the singers are saying) to see that men generally appreciate what Alexander McCall Smith calls 'traditionally built ladies' in his No 1 ladies detective agency books.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFF4Ldyh_6k

http://www.sing365.com/music/lyric.nsf/Big-Bottom-lyrics-Spinal-Tap/720EED439507704B48256DCE002F4A41