Promotion of anorexia to be outlawed in France

FRANCE:   French MPs yesterday approved a ground-breaking law against the promotion of anorexia, making it illegal to publicly incite excessive thinness.

The Bill - which would bar any form of media from promoting extreme thinness, encouraging severe weight-loss or methods for self-starvation - is the furthest any parliament has gone against anorexia and its public portrayal.

The law is specifically aimed at what French MPs called pro-anorexia "propaganda" websites. These sites often support anorexia as a lifestyle choice rather than a medical disorder.

The blogs and forums, which have developed in the US since 2000 and grown in France over the past two years, often include message boards frequented by teenage girls and young women. They carry advice on how to get through the pain of extreme hunger or how to hide extreme weight-loss from parents or doctors.

The law, which will go before the French senate next month, allows judges to imprison and fine offenders up to €30,000 if found guilty of inciting others to seek to become dangerously thin by depriving themselves of food to an "excessive" degree. If a victim dies, the offender risks three years in prison and a €45,000 fine.

Last week French MPs, fashion industry leaders and advertisers signed a voluntary charter on promoting healthier body images.

Spain banned ultra-thin models from catwalks in 2007. - ( Guardian service )

© 2008 The Irish Times

This article appears in the print edition of the Irish Times