Israel sets ‘model’ behavior in industry

Jewish moms have told their kids to eat to be healthy for millennia and the Jewish State is taking it to a new level.

Facing the current horror of anorexia and the media’s trumpeting of emaciated models, the Knesset has adopted legislation to combat this scourge.

The Knesset passed a new law forbidding the use of underweight models in advertising, and photos that have been retouched must state that as well.

This new law is an attempt to change the perception of beauty in Israel away from idealizing skinniness and anorexia that has a devastating effect on young people struggling to emulate the images of bony models and end up developing eating disorders. The sponsors of the bill, Kadima MK Rachel Adatto and Likud MK Danny Danon, called this a “revolution” in the perception of beauty in Israel, shattering “the ideal of anorexic beauty” that is an “impossible illusion.” Danon stated that “this will help eradicate eating disorders” in Israel. “This law will send a message to teenagers that being thin is acceptable, but slimness has its limits and there is such a thing as being too thin,” said Adatto.

Under the new law, models in Israel must have a body mass index (BMI) of 18.5 or higher to be in Israeli ads. BMI is an indicator of body fatness based on a person’s height and weight. Photos submitted for advertisements are required to come with a letter from a health professional issued within the last three months indicating that the model is in good health, according to the new law. A female with a height of five foot six inches and weighing 115 pounds has a BMI of 18.6.

Adi Barkan, an Israeli fashion photographer and model agent, initiated the idea for the law. He noted that over 30 years he has seen women becoming skinnier and sicker in an attempt to conform to some industry-idealized myth of thinness. “They look like dead girls,” he said.

Adatto said that only five percent of women had a BMI that naturally fell below 18.5. “On the one hand, maybe we’ll hurt a few models,” Adatto said. “On the other hand, we’ll save a lot of children.”

“Other countries have passed similar legislation,” said Dr. Michael J. Salamon, senior psychologist and director of ADC Psychological Services in Hewlett. “It is too early to know if it will have a serious long term impact but it should be viewed as a part of the approach necessary to counter the unrealistic pressure placed on young women to view themselves as ugly or unhealthy if they are above a size"0." Legislation may remove some of the pictures that suggest that ultra thin is the way to be, and that is good, but parents and schools must also be a part of the process of educating for a healthy physical and emotional self-image.”