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Should we ban "underweight" models from the runway? Of course we should. Why would we not want to hide those skinny and yet oddly attractive girls(and young men too) away from the admiring eyes of our impressionable youth?

While we are at it, we should ban from the runways those who are too tan; not naturally pigmented, mind you, but tan from too much time in the sun. After all, too much sun tanning causes skin cancer and irreversible skin damage. We should not promote sun damaged skin as the epitome of beauty, because this is harmful to our society. A standard of maximum allowed tanning should be established for runway models and we should pass a law.

Breast implants likewise ought to be banned on the runway. Without even visiting the issue of implant safety, there is the issue of surgical risk and anesthesia. Excessive piercings and tattoos? Risk of infection. Ban them.

By now my hyperbole should begin to become evident.

Yes, it is true that some fashion models have eating disorders; and others just look like they do. We ask ourselves, do we naturally enjoy to seeing slender models, or do we like the thin models because fashion designers say we should? But this is not the question before us.

Whether our desire to see ultra thin models in clothes is market driven, or it is fed to us by the fashion industry, is beside the point. We must realize that to apply a single standard of mandatory "health" to a group of people in order for them to be employed is problematic. This is just as true in the fashion industry as it would be in any other.

Can you imagine what would happen if we required teachers to maintain a certain weight, not too thin, not too fat, in order to qualify for a teaching job? They are role models for our youth, are they not? Shouldn't we make sure that they represent a standard of optimal health? But the suggested is preposterous. The outcry of injustice would be deafening, as it should be.

So, why do we not want to stand up for the skinny model's right to work? That is hard to say. Maybe we are made uncomfortable by the fact that fashion models by definition do not look like the rest of us. Most of us cannot grow five inches taller; we cannot will our cheekbones to be more prominent or our lips to be nice and pouty. That extreme sort of beauty is unachievable for the vast majority of us, and we are envious.

Perhaps, for the greater good, we should ban envy.

Learn more about this author, Ysabel J. Doran.
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