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The Associated Press reports — A new Israeli law is trying to fight the spread of eating disorders by banning underweight models from local advertising and requiring publications to disclose when they use altered images to make women and men appear thinner.
The law, passed late Monday, appears to be the first attempt by any government to use legislation to take on a fashion industry accused of abetting eating disorders by idealizing extreme thinness. Read the full story.
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Great! Now maybe they should ban anyone who looks attractive (because it'll make ugly people feel bad about themselves), anyone with muscle tone (because it'll make couch potatoes feel bad about themselves), or anyone who looks like are desirable to be around (because it'll make introverts feel bad about themselves). What a joke!
It isn't about having everyone "feel good about themselves" - it's about using sickly women (and men) thinking that that's "attractive." The only ones who feel bad about themselves are the models, otherwise they wouldn't be starving themselves or sticking their fingers down their throats after eating a carrot stick thinking that'll get them approval. There's nothing attractive about a bag of bones with pasty skin strutting down a walkway or posing on a cover of a "fashion" magazine.
It's not about looking good or bad. It's about people imitating something bad to look better. If they put healthy looking people in their ads, and people imitate to look better, that is a good thing.
you are an idiot sudz28...Marilyn Monroe was a size 14. I just think it suprising that we, who are supposed to be ahead of the 'curve' developmentally speaking haven't done this ourselves. The media doesn't reflect reality of what the average person looks like and I doubt that you [sudz28] would ever be consider in an ad because of your looks. Frankly, I would rather see more NORMAL people in movies and ads for a change... I am sick of all the medically enhanced freaks and bobbleheads.
You have got to be kidding me. Take some pretty girl and then make her lose so much weight that she is a skeleton with skin draped over it - butt ugly.
So many of these models are 20 to 30 lbs underweight. This is the first positve move they have made in a long time. Also this is not the first time this has happened. I believe Paris did the same thing about 2 or 3 years ago.
Mjollnira you are correct regarding M Monroe. Skinny is not attractive, thin is better. I use to be skinny, approximately 20 lbs underweight. It is not a healthy place to be. Now I am 10 lbs over weight and I love it.
Sudz28----------Lose the suds and get real. It is not about pretty or attractive ----It is about serious health issues.
I am sure you find binge eating and vomiting lovely to look at, watching a model smoke-sniff-inject heroin or cocaine or meth in order to stay artificially thin and curb natural hunger and overdoses are particularly attractive to you too I guess. Let us not forget those with diabetes some are born with it other acquire it from abusing their bodies in either case improper use of insulin can and does cause unnatural thinness as does the use of insulin when one does not need it.
You are obviously such a wonderful guy that I pity any woman who unwittingly falls for you and God forbid you have a daughter.
Do you have a daughter? Have you ever had an eating disorder? Well I have had an eating disorder and it is very disturbing to watch little girls as young as 7 obsessing over their weight trying to be stick thin like what they see on tv. Just because you have curves doesn't mean your ugly, it means your healthy.
Sudz,some models use laxatives to make themselves skinnier,and A LOT of them have eating disorders too.Is that what's attractive these days? Pooping and puking yourself skinny? Is this something you would recommend to your own loved ones? This has nothing to do with making anyone feel better about themselves,it's about keeping people healthy.It is not healthy to starve yourself,puke up what little you do eat,or to take enough ex-lax that you can't go more than a few feet away from the toilet.I hope you never have a daughter.
well guys I cant say I am a beauty queen judge but most of the girls on the runway today are starving themselves to much to stay in that shape
I had a niece who had a desire to be a model and at 5'2" 100 lbs she was told she was to fat and to loose some weight which she did and ended up in doctor care for almost two months just to get her body back to where she could eat
to me a natural body that looks healthy looks good regardless if it is a bit overweight,but not obese
Right on target sudz. When government takes freedom of choice away, they have taken our freedom. It's all done with good intentions, tell you what to eat, tell you what to drink, tell you where to take a dump, little by little they will change you from a free human being into a revolutionary, then put the army against you and wonder why.
I agree that girls with a little meat looks lots better but that's my choice and theirs. What was the movie where the government made fit people carry weights around?
I agree, overweight people all have a chip on their sholder and we are all are supposed to think that fat is normal just because most americans are overweight. They need to stop eating crap and need to get to a gym and stop being so lazy. If overweight people are so attractive why aren't they the models? They aren't the models because it's unattractive and unhealthy, period.
It's time to rethink our involvement with Israel. This is not the mark of a sane country.
sudz, dave, clear, & wonder--you are ignorant fools. Sorry, no other way to say it. Go read a few articles on body image distortion, eating disorders, & weight management issues & spare us your drivel. sud & dave, your "logic" would be funny for how inane it is--if that kind of thinking wasn't causing alot of people pain. And wasn't so unbelievably stupid. Wow--people like you manage to function in the world?
wonder, you're on a whole other bender--government control? Ever hear of something called rigid black/white thinking? You provide a nice example. The issue of government responsibility or "control" is not black and white and is always a matter of balance. There's not one line you can draw that works for everyone. There has to be a balance achieved that works for the majority and is always being re-evaluated. Unless you're a complete anarchist, that is, which is fine, but it means you don't want ANYTHING the govt. does for you--including police and fire protection, trash pickup, water purification and supply, road building, food safety, emergency response, etc. That's one of the reasons the tea party peeps and their "platform" are all blow--it's not that they want less govt. control, they want DIFFERENT govt. control. The kind that makes THEM happy. Like treating women like 2nd class citizens. But I digress.
My 9-year old isn't "choosing" to look at herself in the mirror and see 'fat.' She's a sponge, as are all children, and she's soaking up the messages that she sees in ads and other forms of media. She sees bone-thin females on the front of magazines and implicitly absorbs that this is how females look, especially the pretty ones who get to be on magazine covers. Then she looks in the mirror and sees a difference, and she wants to look "right" and pretty too. She understands visually that this means losing weight. Some girls start restricting their food intake even that young.
These children grow into adults, the ones who get help, and struggle with this their entire lives. It never goes away. And of course this affects boys as well. I don't have a problem with the govt. putting some restrictions on this industry around this issue.
Does that mean I want govt. to 'tell you what to eat or drink' or that the govt. that restricts images of underweight models would do that??? OF COURSE NOT. It's not ALL or NOTHING. Quit your fear-mongering.
@sudz28, it is so not about making people feel bad about themselves, it is about the impossible ideals that are rammed down all our throats, and we should all just make the best of what we are given instead of constantly being told that if we are not size 0 ans lollipop headed with huge breasts then we are not of any intrinsic value. Pity you don't see that.
Except what's weird is we men don't really care...so long as you're not butt ugly and you pay attention to us. The "impossible ideals" that are supposedly rammed down our throats is all from women. How many times do you hear women commenting, good or bad, on another woman's clothing? All the time. How many times do you hear men commenting about what other men OR women are wearing. RARELY.
@Sally - ok.. so you have a point as far as anorexia goes, but perhaps governments should focus more on promoting exercise, but then again maybe they should stay out of our lives altogether...
Hi @Dalkng, over here in the Uk we have the "change for life" campaign, not sure who it is targeted at as I personally know that fruit and veg are what you should eat (and I do as it happens), and also that you should do exercise, but unfortunately not everyone does, some need a serious kick from whoever (very sad but true). And over here is matters not what the government does, because they are damned if they do and damned if they don't.....
wow it has nothing to do with that all. I just guessing that you are putting us 'heavier people' as ugly and skinny as attractive . honestly you don't see the real picture and are just for self-image. they don't plan on putting like someone who is 300 pounds on a billboard. they said underweight, which usually is bones sticking out and other signs of malnutrition, not unattractive. the models will still be model size. so yeah they are going to a few more pounds if they need it. they are going to look like humans that way and not rejected dolls.
Marylynn Monroe was a size 14 and so was Jane Mansfield. They are still considered icons of beauty to this day. I had an eating disorder and I have beat it! Real woman have curves!!! Great point of view!
That's an outright LIE!!!
see here:
from the article:
We should never again hear anyone declare that Marilyn Monroe was a size 12, a size 14 or any other stand-in for full-figured, zaftig or plump. Fifteen thousand people have now seen dramatic evidence to the contrary. Monroe was, in fact, teeny-tiny.
The 15,000 were the visitors who turned out over eight days to oooh and aaah at the preview exhibit for the June 18 auction of Debbie Reynolds’s extraordinary collection of Hollywood costumes, props and other memorabilia.
...
Take the question of Marilyn Monroe’s size.
That White Dress
The auction’s top-ticket item was Monroe’s famous white halter dress from “The Seven Year Itch,” the one that billowed up as the subway passed. It sold for almost $5.66 million (including the buyer’s premium) to an unknown phone bidder. Sharing a rotating mirrored platform with Hedy Lamarr’s peacock gown from “Samson and Delilah” and Kim Novak’s rhinestone- fringed show dress from “Jeanne Eagels,” Monroe’s costume was displayed on a mannequin that had been carved down from a standard size 2 to accommodate the tiny waist. Even then, the zipper could not entirely close.
But that’s just one dress. Perhaps the star was having a skinny day. To check, you could look across the room and see that Monroe’s red-sequined show dress from “Gentlemen Prefer Blondes” was at least as petite, as were the saloon costume from “River of No Return” and the tropical “Heat Wave” outfit from “There’s No Business Like Show Business.”
Half a Person
In fact, the average waist measurement of the four Monroe dresses was a mere 22 inches, according to Lisa Urban, the Hollywood consultant who dressed the mannequins and took measurements for me. Even Monroe’s bust was a modest 34 inches.
That’s not an anecdote. That’s data.
The other actresses’ costumes provided further context. “It’s like half a person,” marveled a visitor at the sight of Claudette Colbert’s gold-lame “Cleopatra” gown (waist 18 inches). “That waist is the size of my thigh,” said a tall, slim man, looking at Carole Lombard’s dress from “No Man of Her Own” (a slight exaggeration -- it was 21 inches). Approaching Katharine Hepburn’s “Mary of Scotland” costumes, a plump woman declared with a mixture of envy and disgust, “Another skinny one.”
The pattern she noticed was real. At my request, Urban took waist measurements on garments worn by 16 different stars, from Mary Pickford in 1929 (20 inches) to Barbra Streisand in 1969 (24 inches). The thickest waist she found was Mae West’s 26 inches in “Myra Breckinridge,” when the actress was 77 years old.
I don't think banning images of thin models is the governments business, however mandating full public disclosure on altered pictures is brilliant! It's just like letting smokers know exactly what they are inhaling and they can make their own decision.
If they are kids (minors) any government has the duty to force physical exams on them before the government gives them working papers, and being underweight is a physical issue. But no government has any right banning images unless they are prurient images or child porn is involved. Nanny state in Israel? Who'da known?
I think it causes a problem that is much more widespread and prevalent in women...depression. Just from the women I've known in my life, inluding my mother, my sisters, my girlfriends, my acquaitances, my wife, my daughters...I can't think of one of them that wasn't overly pre-occupied with their weight at one time or another. And it hits them every single day without relenting. They get up in the morning, don't like what they see in the mirror, don't like the way their clothes fit, and then go out in the world and have their selfconscinceness reinforced over and over again, in magazines, on TV, movies, on-line, etc. etc. It depresses the daylights out of them constantly, to some degree, and in alot of women to a large degree.
you are completely right its sad
...by other women. Why do women care so much about other women? Men don't give s&*$.
This is nonsense. Those models look healthy not gaunt.
Some look so mean. Give 'em a banana split and they'll all smile! Or maybe they're cold?
The mean is just part of the model look. That is supposed to be cool.
Now its time to ban football commercials. I see these men with impossible bodies and huge salaries to boot. It makes me want to feel sorry for myself so we need to ban sports and advertisements with athletic men because it makes the rest of us paunchy losers look bad. wah wah!
I don't even notice the adds anyway. I'm like the guy in the picture walking past the ad poster, not even turning my head. Besides, I prefer the beauty of women with a tad bit more meat on the bone and a profession anyway. Most "supermodels" are skinny to the point of unhealthy, but they work in a monolithic industry with blinders. It seems that it is other women who are the ones that are sucked in by the advertising.
Charles doesn't get it.
I have a much better idea, why don't they stop killing innocent Palestinians? The models are that way because they want to or have to, either way is their prerogative, the Palestininians are not that lucky, the only option for them is if to die today or tomorrow and that coming from the people who gave the world the Ten Commandments is blaspheme. Heil zionist Hitler!
How about the "innocent" Palestinians quit sending rockets into Israel with no purpose other than to kill innocent civilians.
Hell no,
How about those "innocent Palestinians" stop blowing up buses of innocent Israelis school children, or murdering innocent athletes at the Olympics, or murdering crippled passengers in wheelchairs on cruise ships, or stop dropping rockets and mortar shells on Israelisschools, hospitals, Daycare centers, etc. The "Palestinians" are nothing but a bunch of murderous thugs and deserve nothing less than theirown "Final Solution". If you remember you history, the "Palestinians" were offered their own "STATE" by UN when Israel was created in 1948, but they turned down the offer, saying they would create their own state once they had exterminated "the Jewish plaque". So who started the cycle of violence again?? Oh, yeah! The Palestinians and the Muslim Arab countries.
There really isn't any such thing as a "Palestinian" anyway. They are all citizens of other Arabs countries. Yassar Arafat was Egyptian, as were his parents and Grandparents. He only went to "Palestine" after Israel was created by UN in 1948, to (in His own words), "wipe the Jewish plague from the face of the earth, and complete the great and noble quest of the Nazis". That was when the term "Palestinian" came into use. For all the Muslim ARABS, that WILLINGLYleft the newly created state of Israel, because they refused to live under the government of "Dirty ZIONIST JEWS". But; were then rejected by their "Arab Brother" of the surrounding Arab countries and herded into "Refugee camps". This is opposed to the 50,000 to 75,000 Jews that had been living relatively peacefully in those same "Arab Countries" that were SLAUGHTERED by those "Peaceful Muslims" after the UN created the state of Israel.
Talking about bringing a knife to a gun fight, but seriously, these pea brains can't seem to realize that all the weapons the Palestinians have are rocks, and lots of cojones and "missiles" that look like operated by a pin ball machine. The ratio, if these mental midgets know the meaning of the word, is like 1000 to .0001%. Then if that is the new slant on the truth, then the nazis were also justified in did what they did. How come the Muslims can't do the same and get away with it? Because as I said it from the beginning the Jews own the world including the media, ergo, is not difficult to see the sign also: Collapsed by the community: Too damn close for comfort and as it always the case, including here, the truth is the first casualty. Now as for the new "Dick Cheney" of this forum, htdjpf, trying to re-write history to please his owners, well, that won't work with me. Let me give you this from ancient history: "O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine? Or how about this other jewel of the truth:
In Earliest History, It Was Cannan’s Land and I hope what Canaan means in The Bible, I hope. It was where Christ worked His first miracle and His time hadn't come yet and for those who don't believe in the power of His Mother, He obeyed Her. You can have your opinion, but not your own facts, history. You must be a "Dick" groupie, all slogans and zero truth, zero substance, but that is your problem, not mine.
Hell,
I don't make up facts or history, just because the TRUTH doesn't match up with your biased little delusion. Palestine was NEVER a country, just the name given to the area by the ancient Greeks, Romans, Persians, Egyptians, etc. that have conquered and controlled the area throughout history. I guess you missed the news reports about that "Humanitarian Aid" ship that the Israelis intercepted a few months ago that was loaded with Chinese manufactured rockets, mortar rounds, arms and other ammunition from Syria and Iran that was bound for the Hamas controlled Palestinian Authority in Gaza.
The Philistines, from which the English term Palestine is derived, that settled this area around 500 BC, were of Mediterranean origin and likely of Greek area, NOT Arabs. They did not speak Arabic. They had no connection, ethnic, linguistic or historical with Arabia or Arabs. The name "Falastin" that Arabs today use for "Palestine" is not an Arabic name. It is the Arab pronunciation of the Greco-Roman "Palastina"; which is derived from the Plesheth, (root palash) was a general term meaning rolling or migratory.
You were collapsed because you are a TROLL, spouting hate, slurs and falsehoods that added nothing to the topic under discussion. Your visceral reaction only highlights you emotional immaturity.
Man, are you stupid? Palestine is mentioned in every map of the region then, so how can you deny it that Palestine ev er existed? You not only lack brains, but to make matters worse, you are also stubborn. There is a study that claimed that people with racism in their DNA are idiots and this is not me saying it, it was "scientists." Case dismissed. 50 years in jail for being stupid and stubborn.
Are these advertisements supposed to be kosher, also???
Are they going to ban women that are over-weight too ? Who determines what is under-weight ? All of the models appear to be healthy. Slender ? Sure. But abnormally so, no.
They need to put real people in these ads. Cover up a pimple, fine, but they should be shown as they really are. There are plenty of women out there with natural beauty.
My wife tells me emaciated women (usually minors) are used as models, etc. because the industry is run by homosexual men who hate normal women. We are viewing these folks' bizarre 'taste' and at the expense of these kids, no less.
Not all homosexual men hate normal women but the ones in the fashion industry do.
Tom,
Your wife is correct, plus remember that those Homosexual men's "sexual ideal" is the body of a pre-pubescent 12 or 13 year-old boy. So, they try to make their female models look like that "ideal". They design cloths to "fit" that "ideal" or to make women look ridiculous. This is to reinforce their bigotry of how "stupid" and "gullible" females are, and why would anyone ever be attracted to such a hideous creature. This also allows them to laugh at straight men by telling them what is attractive.
Every homosexual man I've ever known, did in some way "hate" women, whether it was envy, contempt, jealousy, or other.
There's a huge difference in being thin and being model-thin, just ask any woman who shops. Clothing that's designed for runway-model sized women do not translate into the majority of female consumers. The sizing of clothing has a lot to do with this image problem as well. When you start at a Zero, it's obvious that the only way to go is up and that is perceived as a negative thing.
I think its good to require a healthy weight on the models, too many young girls try to imitate and end up sickly and too skinny,and yes marilyn Monroe was a size 14 or so, but the fashion industry has changed the numbering system since then to make ppl feel better about themselves by making the numbers smaller,so by todays standards she was probably a size 8????
I'm sure nobody cares, since the "average" size of women has ballooned as the decades pass and being large is the norm now, but some people are naturally thin no matter what they eat. How do you think it makes them feel to have overweight, unhealthy people pointing at them and labeling them as "underweight" or "anorexic"? How about you let me decide what is the best size for me?
That being said, I definitely agree with requiring some sort of disclosure on ads that use photoshop. They're falsely advertising, or at the very least promoting unreal expectations from their products... It's like those truck commercials, where a truck is climbing a sand dune in a desert or a plane is landing its wheel in the truck's bed... There's always some sort of fine print at the bottom, right?
Evidently you never battled an eating disorder nor have a daughter that is 7 talking about going on a diet because she think she is getting fat. We do need to hold people responsible for promoting unhealthy behavior. Parents can talk till they are blue in the face that you are perfect just the way you are but the media is what little girls look at.
You're right, I've been 100-105 lbs my entire life yet I can eat a 10oz steak and potatoes without throwing it up afterwards. My point was that the solution to the problem is not building some sort of prejudice against "skinny" people by bashing everyone who doesn't weigh 200lbs. There are people who just are skinny, without having an eating disorder. Often times eating disorders aren't even a result of actually thinking you're fat--instead there is a deeper psychological need for control, lack of self worth due to some traumatic life event, etc. The problem is that there is no universally agreed upon image of "healthy" or "unhealthy", so this will always be an issue. I don't want my child to idolize someone who's obese or think that's okay any more than someone who's overweight wants their child to idolize someone who starves themselves...
I think its good to require a healthy weight on the models, too many young girls try to imitate and end up sickly and too skinny,and yes marilyn Monroe was a size 14 or so, but the fashion industry has changed the numbering system since then to make ppl feel better about themselves by making the numbers smaller,so by todays standards she was probably a size 8????
Exactly, and size 0 is what used to be a size 4 or 5. Problem is if the women is 5'9", and size 0 (today), she looks like a concentration camp survivor. The term "Heroin Chic" ring any bell with people?? That was because the "models looked like Heroin addicts, which in many cases they were in the 1970s and 80s, The 80s gave way to coke, and I don't mean the kind from Atlanta.
Better yet, do away with the "numbering" system that seems to only apply in women's clothing and switch to factual measurements like men's clothing (size 32", 34", 36", etc.)!!!!
That will be the next thing our liberal government will want to do. Ban thin and healthy, and mandate obese and unhealthy. Then Obozo will get on the teleprompter and brag about his change.
Marilyn Monroe is the definition of a true model, and true beauty. Not these skeletons.
Let the public decide - No, I mean let me decide. All fat females need to be sent to a remote island.
chuck you are a moron
All of you people that are taking this to the extreme and saying that "oh next they're going to be promoting obesity" must have the intelligence quotient of a gnat.
First of all - THIS ARTICLE WAS ABOUT ISRAEL - NOT THE US!!!!
And honestly, as far as the US is concerned - they're against BOTH extremes if you happen to pay attention to ANYTHING.
Sickofthebs: sizing has actually changed in the opposite direction. Her size 14 of then would most likely be between 16 and 18 now. Honestly tho...I don't get what is wrong with a size 14 or 16. It's not unhealthy, it's NOT unattractive.
Call me crazy but I don't even find the girls in the picture associated w/ this artical all that attractive. I may be in the minority (especially in this forum) but I prefer my ladies with a bit more meat on their bones.
Pretty much cramming stuff in girls' faces telling us that we're basically worth nothing in the eyes of society unless our bones are bulging from our skin is NOT doing ANYONE any favors, especially not the little girls. Yes, some women are naturally twiggy - but most models ARE NOT. Of all of the people I've encountered in my life, and there have been many, only 3-4 of them were NATURALLY sized 0-2. The rest of them admitted to unhealthy eating habits (including starvation/vomitting). Some of them said they smoke to curb eating. One of them used drugs (Rx and illegal). The ones that stuck to normal diets and good ol exercise we're between the 6-14 range. The latter females were abundantly better looking and overall seemed to feel better and enjoy life more.
I, myself, am no twig nor am I anywhere near it. I don't embrace either of the unhealthy extremes of weight...and all I can say is that it's NOT NORMAL for most women to be THAT small. It's just not. Should they post an extremely overweight person on a swimsuit billboard? Probably not. Should they continue to enforce this image of waifness? No.
It's funny tho - coz a lot of "plus-sized" photography is normally deemed "too risque" to be shown in public; yet they'll plaster Victoria's Secret angels in their panties looking all seductive all over the place. Double standards.
The girls in the picture are not underweight. They look fine to me. They need to check first to see if it is a disorder or if the girls are just skinny by nature. Some girls can eat everything and not gain a pound (I was once like that until I hit my 30's - 5'3 & 102-105 lbs). I think it's ok not to use extremely thin girls but just don't blame them all of having eating disorders.
@ soandso111,,,I agree with that idea, use measurement sizes like mens clothing,it would make things so much easier