Free Speech Vs Anorexia
A French move to outlaw websites and blogs that encourage young girls to become dangerously thin is stirring much debate among fashion gurus, health experts and politicians.
The groundbreaking bill adopted by the National Assembly this week would make it a crime punishable by up to three years in jail to “incite” anorexia or extreme thinness on websites, magazines and in advertisements.
The measure targets pro-anorexia websites that surfaced in the United States in the 1990s and have made their way to France, offering tips to girls who starve themselves in a self-destructive quest for beauty. Incidentally, aneroxia affects between 30,000 and 40,000 women in France.
Displaying photos of stick-thin model Kate Moss and actress Nicole Richie, the sites lay down the 10 commandments of the “pro-ana” movement: 1. You are not beautiful unless you are thin. 2. Being thin is more important than being healthy…. And finally 10. Being thin and not eating show real willpower and success. [Via]
I wonder whether shutting down websites, could be the key to reverse this trend – one that led to Uruguayan model Luisel Ramos, 22, collapsing and dying on a catwalk during a fashion show in Montevideo in 2006, or in November 2006 led to the death of 21-year-old Brazilian supermodel Ana Carolina Reston, who weighed less than 40 kilos for her tall 1.7 metre frame.
Something like this would perhaps need a strong anti-aneroxia campaign, along with a people driven movement which discourages it. Such a movement if community driven, could negate the necessity of government control over the web.
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