Too Jewish, or How Jewish?

[Mediocrates]

http://www.israel21c.org/bin/en.jsp?...=Articles^l873


Only in Israel I suppose:

Proposed Israeli law would prevent models from being underweight
By Harry Rubenstein January 02, 2005

One of Israel's top fashion photographers has seen enough skinny bodies, and he's determined to do something about it.

In an age when young women are starving themselves in the name of beauty, Adi Barkan, well-known Israeli fashion photographer and owner of the Barkan Modeling Agency in Tel Aviv, together with Knesset member Inbal Gavrieli, have decided to fight the trend.

They've introduced a bill to the Knesset requiring that models undergo health examinations, and have their BMI (body mass index) checked before entering the modeling profession. It's apparently the first bill of its kind in the world.

Beyond the glamour and glitz of the modeling industry lies a darker side. All around the world, scores of young women longing to be the next top model starve themselves, believing that they need to be unnaturally skinny in order to succeed in this world.

While the American modeling industry is grappling with this problem, Barkan hopes, through his campaign, to stem the rise of profession-related illnesses and deal a blow to the 'skinny' culture that permeates the Israeli fashion world.

"Up until now, anorexia and bulimia have been the modeling world's dirty little secret," Barkan told ISRAEL21c. "We in this industry have perpetuated and even glorified eating disorders by celebrating thinness and packaging malnutrition in such an attractive way, that young women everywhere aspire to have 'the look.' It is time that this industry comes clean about this dangerous problem and shows the world that beauty and high fashion do not equal starvation."

The paradox is that Barkan himself used to strictly follow the 'skinnier the better' school of modeling photography.

"Obviously I'm part of it," he told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency recently. "But those were the days when Calvin Klein extended the contract of super-skinny model Kate Moss and everyone was following the so-called heroin-chic style."

The proposed law would require all potential models to submit to a nutritional test with a licensed nutritionist or dietician. Agencies would be forbidden to represent a model without a copy of the test results. Subsequently, the agency would not be allowed to continue representing the model unless she submits to the test every six months. Any agency that does not comply will be fined accordingly and all forms will be monitored by the Health Ministry.

Barkan has been working on this initiative for over two years and has managed to garner the support of many of Israel's top CEOs, persuading them to sign a contract agreeing not to hire models with a BMI of less than 19. Barkan has received commitments from Strauss-Elite, one of Israel's largest food industries; Castro fashion house; Bank Hapoalim; Partner cell phones and others.

He's also contacted dozens of fashion houses in Israel asking them to join him in the anti-anorexia campaign and sign affidavits pledging that they won't use models below a certain weight. The Israeli Health Ministry has given its blessing to the campaign, as have school principals who have asked Barkan to speak to their students to pass on the message that the days of 'thin is beautiful' are over.

According to statistics provided by the Health Ministry, seven percent of all adolescent girls in Israel display signs of an eating disorder. Based on interviews that Barkan has conducted with thousands of young aspiring models and the assistance of a certified nutritionist, he believes that 13.7 percent of these young girls are suffering from an eating disorder.

In advance of the first reading of the bill in the Knesset, a large scale television campaign, produced pro bono by the Tel Aviv-based advertising agency Reuveni Pridan, will be launched. It features a public service commercial focusing on body image and eating disorders.

The commercial will portray four adolescent models in succession - each one thinner than the last. A voice-over introduces each model, stating that none of them is happy with her weight, and that each one wants to be as thin as the next girl. The fourth young woman shown, also thinking she's 'too fat,' is visibly wasting away from anorexia.

Israel's major television channels have each donated over a million dollars in air time to broadcast the commercial beginning in mid-February. The public service slogan is called 'Nothing is Worth This.'

Its goal is to increase awareness among parents and adolescents, demonstrate how to recognize the symptoms and how to help those who have eating disorders. Barkan said that an additional purpose is to raise awareness among young girls that there is a distinction between looking good and being obsessive about one's weight.

Participating in the commercial is Shiran Shaul, an 18-year-old model from Haifa, discovered on the street by Barkan. She supports the bill wholeheartedly.

"I don't mind that I'll have to go to a dietician every six months. If I am eating the way I should be eating, then there shouldn't be any problems," she told ISRAEL21c.

Shaul doesn't suffer from an eating disorder but is participating in the campaign because she believes in showing other girls that they don't have to be anorexic if they want to be a model. Shaul hopes that the campaign will reach beyond the border of Israel.

"I think it will be difficult, but there is potential. With hard work, I think that there is a chance. We need to bring people to the point of realizing that this is the right thing to do."

Unfortunately, the production of the commercial, which was to be filmed last week, had to be postponed due to the hospitalization of one of the participants who is currently being treated for anorexia.

"We need to hold a mirror up to these teenage girls so that they can see the damage they are doing to themselves," said Knesset member Gavrieli. "That mirror starts with this television campaign, but continues with positive body images reflected in magazines, on billboards and on runways.

"The welcome initiative relates to the world of modeling, but we hope it will assist us in reaching all society. The law's aim is to create a new image of beauty - an image that includes beauty and health in one word."

[KettleWhistle]

Ridiculous. Chunkies need to just shut up and get on a treadmill.

[Mediocrates]

Or take heroin.


there's nothing wrong with Zaftig.

[KettleWhistle]

There are better ways. But the BMIs are above what they should be for women and below what they need to be for men.

Either way, chunky is ugly, and 99 percent of women can lose some 20-50 pounds. They shouldn't be blaming the society for their own laziness.

[I am David]

Errr guys, annorexia is a health threat...and besides, we're not talking about chunky here, just not no muscle mass at all.

Oh and BTW, if 99% of girls lost 20-50 pounds, you'd have a huge amount of stick figure chicks walking around....not too attractive unless that's you're 'fetish'.

I don't know where you live, but around here and the 15 other places around the country/continent I've been, a very large percentage of the chicks have just about the right body mass/weight.

[KettleWhistle]

I'm no fan of Kate Moss--she had small breasts, bad proportions, and was a bit short. Of course, the CK photographers took care of all of that. But generally speaking, for young women, the slimmer the better, as long as their curves are fine. Even in L.A. majority of the pretty women could look far better if they dropped 10-15 pounds.

[Emunah]

I think it's a good idea, and not because I want "meddling" in people's business either. On the surface, I would be against it on those grounds, but then I thought it's like the labels they put on things to show that they have not been made with child labor or something. Like checking atheletes for steroids. How can a person be a model if you are competing with people who have an eating disorder and do drugs to make themselves look good.

I prefer my models, male and female, to be non-steroid, non-drug addicted, normal, real figure, non-airbrushed people. If it's not unreasonable to ask for that in our athletes (especially olympic athletes) then it should not be unreasonable to ask this from models. Young women are implicitely taught that this is what "beauty" is, in the same way that men strive for more muscle, women strive for impossible measurments. There should be a way, to support this in the free market. It should not be a "law", just a self-imposed inside the business doing. That keeps the government out of it.

[Roland]

women strive for impossible measurments.

"90-60-90" is spreading. From kid's age on.
... I mean EACH LEG!
I expect and demand all gov'ts to stop your "free market" from crossing the lines. It does it wherever lines are.
Let grown ups mess with their health as much as they like, but please leave the kids out of it!

[Mediocrates]

Two different things really. Yes many adults are overweight, or obese. Many children are obese too. But then at the same time we project this ideal that being attractive means being 90lbs and 17 years old forever. Not much of a middle ground there. It would seem to me that this proposed law is really more of a health issue for the workers in the industry like sex workers who get HIV tested, to give you a crude example. If the bonus is that people stop harping on this crack waif size zero ideal then that's good too.

[KettleWhistle]

It's 80lbs and 15 years old forever. And it's called "perfection." It is a good thing to demand it, and to not settle for anything lesser.

[Emunah]

You have kind of outlined my point. You are disgusted by the rising levels of obesity, and you find that to be unhealthy and acknowledge that it is now affecting children.

My point is that emaciated is also disgusting when you see what has to happen in order to maintain it. It is also spreading with a kind of schizophrenic pattern (some are starving themselves for perfection and some are becoming obese because they know they can never attain your idea of perfection). Children are also affected.

If it is "gross" to be overweight, then it is just as "gross" to be a bag of bones.

I'm not talking about skinny, I'm talking about 5' 10" and 110 lbs. I don't believe that the consumer side of the free market determines what is and is not sexy anymore than I believe you are wearing the current "fashion" because you LIKE it. You do things through a combination of what you like, and what the industry TELLS you to like. You will mirror the behavior of others, and marketers KNOW this. If you continually show, and describe, a certain product as "better" than another, especially if it's intangible, you will buy it if the marketing campaign is good. This is why so many people bought "intel" inside, even though they don't know what it means. It would be disengenuous to believe yourself free of the "messages" that barrage your senses with regard to fashion, hair cut, styling, and weight. Face it, Marilyn Monroe would NEVER make it today as she wore a size 12, not a size 1. That's something you have been told to like, not something intrinsically beautiful.

[Emunah]

It's 80lbs and 15 years old forever. And it's called "perfection." It is a good thing to demand it, and to not settle for anything lesser.

Yes and you would have loved the 3" Chinese women's feet too:

"how foot binding began, but it is agreed upon that it began in the royal palaces in the mid-10th century, during the late Tang dynasty and remained there until it began to spread to the lower classes in the 17th century. The theory that is agreed upon most about how the custom of foot binding began is the theory of Prince Li Yu and his young concubine, Precious Thing. It is said that she danced on a platform in the shape of a lotus flower; she danced so beautifully because she had small, 3 inch long, bound feet. Her dancing was an ancient form of ballet dancing now called en pointe, and was thought so beautiful and graceful that women began to bind their feet, as they thought she had, in order to achieve the beauty that they believed Precious Thing possessed. What the women who bound their feet did not know was that it would have been impossible for Precious Thing to have had bound feet and still have been able to dance. Women with bound feet could barely walk, much less dance, without wobbling and without assistance from another person. The custom spread so fast because women believed that they could “achieve higher standing through smaller feet” (Yung 194)"
http://www.ccds.charlotte.nc.us/Hist...ina/05/smithA/

[Mediocrates]

It's 80lbs and 15 years old forever. And it's called "perfection." It is a good thing to demand it, and to not settle for anything lesser.

In a Hilary Swank-ish hips of a teenage boy sort of way......I'm sure you're kidding

[goliath]

[QUOTE]

Yes and you would have loved the 3" Chinese women's feet too:
The custom spread so fast because women believed that they could “achieve higher standing through smaller feet” (Yung 194)"

In fact the women ( baby girl) did not really decided on this modification,but the relatives ,because this technique must be pratically operated from the birth.

[KettleWhistle]

As the old Jewish adage goes, we love the pretty ones, but marry and/or have children with the worthy ones.