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Australian Government and a crack down on thin Models
Sharri Markson Courier Mail
October 05, 2008 12:00am
MAGAZINES will have to feature normal-sized models and confess when
photographs have been airbrushed under a national fashion industry code
of conduct.
Youth Minister Kate Ellis will tackle the fashion, media and advertising
industries over their portrayal of stick-thin women, which she says is
contributing to a generation of children – some as young as six –
suffering from eating disorders.
Should the Government tell magazines what to do? Have your say.
She has nominated body image as the first item on the agenda of the new
Office of Youth established by the Government last week.
"It's pretty clear that we have a problem if young people are literally
starving themselves to be thin," she told The Sunday Mail.
Ms Ellis said she wanted a national code of conduct to be finalised in
the new year after the success of a Victorian program introduced in
April.
She said advertisers and magazines would be encouraged to use fewer
skinny models and feature real women with healthy body sizes.
"It's about representing people of all different sizes and all different
looks and ensuring people know that it's OK not to (be skinny)," she
said.
Under the code, magazines and advertisements would be forced to disclose
whether a model's image had been digitally enhanced.
"We know so often that when we see images that people are aspiring to
look like, they have been altered and enhanced," she said.
"We need to have a transparent system where people realise the models in
those pictures don't look like that themselves and disclosing when
there's been altered or enhanced images."
Vogue editor Kirstie Clements said beautiful, young people belonged on
the escapist pages of a fashion magazine, not real women of different
sizes.
"It's about beautiful young girls creating beautiful fantasies, it
always has been it always will be," Ms Clements said.
However, Ms Ellis said Australians had responded well to advertising
campaigns that featured real women rather than stick-thin models, such
as the Dove campaign.
"On a national level, the code of conduct would be complemented by an
advertising campaign aimed at teenagers to promote positive body images,
along with support services and programs to help young people suffering
from eating disorders.
"The inclusion of body image in the school curriculum would teach
students that a healthy weight, not a Size 6, is attractive and teachers
would play a role in helping to build students' self-esteem."
The Australian code of conduct, along with other ideas, will be
discussed by Health Minister Nicola Roxon, Minister for the Status of
Women Tanya Plibersek and Communication Minister Stephen Conroy before
stakeholders are consulted in the new year.
18 year old model dead
Eliana "Elle" Ramos (c. 1988 –
February 13, 2007) was a Uruguayan fashion model.
Ramos was a well-known fashion model in Latin America and was signed to
Dotto Models, a renowned modeling agency in Argentina.
On February 13, 2007, Eliana Ramos was found dead at her grandparents'
home in Montevideo, Uruguay, at age 18. Preliminary examinations
indicated the cause of death as heart attack,[1] believed to be related
to malnutrition;[2] however, final test results will be released at a
later date.
Modeling friends confirmed that she had suffered for many months after
her sister Luisel Ramos, 22, died of heart failure, but rejected
speculations that an eating disorder could have played a role. Her
sister died shortly after stepping off a runway in August 2006 during a
fashion show at a Montevideo hotel. An autopsy resulted in the same
cause of death.
The deaths drew widespread media attention in Latin America, where the
fashion industry's treatment of young women has been the subject of
debate since anorexia was blamed for the deaths of model Ana Carolina
Reston and three other women in December.