by Debby Peebles

Created on: February 13, 2008   Last Updated: August 15, 2011

Yes, I absolutely believe that underweight models should be banned from runway fashion shows; not just the runway but also from magazines, television commercials, movies, everywhere in the media.

I think that the fashion industry should have strict rules, that insist that every model must have a Body Mass Index of at least 20. Otherwise the young women will not be employed or ever become a model. We all know that the message they are sending to woman all over the world and not just teenagers, (though they are the most at risk group for developing an eating disorder) is wrong and it is not glamourous or healthy to be stick thin. But the issue that concerns me the most is the industry that imposes this starvation, emaciation regime on young and vulnerable woman.

And what are their parents thinking? To let their young daughters be exploited in this bizarre and almost, inhumane way. More importantly, where are their parents?
Now if I had a dog tied up in my front yard and he was severely underweight, it wouldn't be long before some concerned passer-by or nosy neighbor reported me to the SPCA. I would most likely have my dog taken from me, I would have to pay a fine and a vet's bill to rehabilitate and restore my starving pet back to health. No doubt I would have to undergo some sort of dog care program to prove that I was capable of looking after my pet.

Amazingly or stupidly, it is not a crime to have young girls starve themselves so that their emaciated images are plastered all over billboards, magazines, our television screens and on the walls of teenager's bedrooms throughout the world.
Does this mean that dogs are more important?

Ironically, the very media that promotes underweight teenagers also shows us candid and heart breaking photos of children emaciated and starving in third World countries.This is called poverty and starvation. Modelling is not?

There are numerous aid foundations set up to distribute food, clothing and money to these skinny little children who are not unlike the "supermodels" of our day, the difference being that the supermodels have much nicer clothes and get driven around in limousines. The little children in third world countries dress in rags and have to walk barefooted to the local aid stations to recieve small portion of food.
Possibly the same amount of food a model eats in one day!

So will underweight models be banned from public appearances? Probably not. Will they be made to eat and gain weight? No. But perhaps the next time a model throws her meal into a rubbish bin, perhaps she could spare a thought for the genuinely starving child in Africa and maybe pledge her uneaten, weekly food bill to that child's village.

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