Israel has taken a stand against the pressures of the fashion industry. They passed a law that all models have to have a body mass index of 18.5 or more to be legally hired. Male and female models must have doctor’s consent stating they are not underweight with a BMI of at least 18.5. The law also bans people that are visibly too thin to model and the use of photo manipulation to make models appear thinner. They are working to reinvent the definition and ideals of beauty to something realistic and healthy. Anorexia and bulimia are extremely serious and dangerous diseases.
The laws Israel has placed on models and the fashion industry to adhere to are a major step toward improvement and expecting more from our society. The fashion industry demands a perfection that doesn’t exist and as a result, a dangerous ideal for beauty and thinness has developed in the modeling industry. Two anorexic South American models died in 2006 and as a result, India and Italy also banned underweight models from the catwalk. Our hats are off to India, Italy, and Israel for taking a stand.