In the post about Chloe Marshall (the size-16 British beauty contestant), I touched on the notion that positive articles/images about women who are anything other than stick thin are often accused of “glamorizing obesity.” I exclaimed:

One kind word about loving even a “normal” body and that’s glamorizing? Then what do you call the media treatment of thinness? Idolizing thinness? Deifying thinness? Canonizing thinness? I don’t think we have a word in our vocabulary.

Apparently someone in France heard me.

French lawmakers try to outlaw skinny propaganda

By DEVORAH LAUTER

PARIS (AP) — In image-conscious France, it may soon be a crime to glamorize the ultra-thin. A new French bill cracks down on Web sites that advise anorexics on how to starve — and could be used to hit fashion industry heavyweights, too.

The groundbreaking bill, adopted Tuesday by Parliament’s lower house, recommends fines of up to $71,000 and three-year prison sentences for offenders who encourage “extreme thinness.” It goes to the Senate in the coming weeks… (Click here for the rest of the article).

According to the article, the fashion industry is not the only target of this legislation. The law is also aimed at pro-anorexia websites that teach readers how to become anorexic.

While I agree with the intention behind this legislation, I really have problems with this approach:

  1. Who decides what “too thin” is? How is this decision made? It is just as unfair to penalize the naturally thin, or even “underweight,” model as it is to penalize the naturally larger, or even “overweight,” model.
  2. If depictions of underweight bodies are outlawed, how quickly will depictions of overweight bodies be outlawed?
  3. No way is this really going to happen anyway. Even if French government “outlaws” ultra-skinny in France, how do they control the images and ideas generated beyond their national boundaries?

The Curvy Life advocates size inclusion and body acceptance, no matter the size. Further, I believe that health and fitness should be the goal, not the attainment of any particular weight or size. Sedentary lifestyle and poor diet harm our bodies. It is a myth that somehow an observer can look at a person’s outward appearance and judge that person’s health, or lack thereof (this would render most medical testing unnecessary).

Banning one type of image or another is not the answer. Allowing for a diversity of images and a broad definition of beauty is a better solution.

And, while I shouldn’t be amazed by this consequence of the discussion, I am: in places where I have read general comments about this article, the responses have been full of fat loathing (See the comments at ajc.com for an example). So, somehow, fat is always the villain, no matter how body image is discussed.

Finally, I’ve got to include a link to Matthew Krell’s article Fat-Bottomed Girls, Make the World Go Round at StreetProphets.com. He provides some nice commentary on French attitudes toward free speech, but you’ve got to appreciate his shout out to the curvy girls. (As for the video in the post, I can’t decide if I’m amused or just disturbed.)