A DEBATE IS raging in Paris over whether the fashion capital should ban models deemed ‘too thin’ from the catwalk.

Modelling agencies don’t want the current system to change but the country’s health minister has backed a new law that would stop them employing models whose Body Mass Index (BMI) falls below a certain level.

“I believe that models should eat well and look after their health. This is an important message to young women who see these models as an aesthetic example,” Touraine told French television.

The parliamentary amendment would force model agencies to provide a medical certificate for each model, proving that her BMI is above a healthy level (18) or face punishment of up to six months in prison and a €75,000 fine.

The National Union of Modelling Agencies (SYNAM) complained this would affect the competitiveness of French modelling.

However, some other countries — notably Spain, Italy, Belgium, Chile and Israel — have already passed laws on the issue.

A second amendment would outlaw sites “condoning anorexia” and make it a crime to “glamorise excessive thinness.”

Gerald Marie, head of a Paris model agency, said that while any legislation that reduces anorexia is a positive development, “we shouldn’t mix things up”.

“There is anorexia and there are girls who are thin, very thin, naturally and you can make them eat all day and they would stay thin,” he told AFP.

What do you think? Should models who are deemed ‘too thin’ be banned from the runways? 

With AFP