The report submitted to the government to relaunch the nutritional policy recommends banning models with a BMI below 19 from scrolling as well as photo retouching.
To relaunch the French nutritional policy, it is not enough to look at the plate or the caddy of the French. It would also be essential to attack the diktat of thinness that has settled in our country for many years. Promoting the representation of a body image more in tune with reality is one of the objectives set by the report just submitted by Professors Serge Hercberg and Arnaud Basdevant to the Minister of Health, Marisol Touraine.
Prohibit photo retouching in the press
Among his 15 proposals, Professor Hercberg therefore recommends targeting women’s magazines, particularly those targeting young populations, and banning, to begin with, the very common practice of photo retouching today. In fact, it is currently impossible to leaf through this type of newspaper without finding photos of young women with extremely slender curves, sometimes even so modified thanks to computer software that their proportions are almost no longer humanly credible.
Models with BMIs below 19 off the catwalks
But Professor Hercberg does not intend to stop at the ban on photo retouching, he also proposes to the government to put in place regulatory measures prohibiting fashion shows to young women who have a Body Mass Index (BMI) lower than 19. That is to say that for a woman measuring 1.80 m, to have the right to parade, it would be necessary to weigh at least 62kg. Except currently, in this type of event, it is not uncommon to see models displaying more on the scale between 55 and 60 kg, with therefore a BMI between 17 and 18. For Serge Hercberg this measure would help to contribute to improve the criterion of body image diversity, especially among adolescent girls. These symbolic actions targeting the fashion world should be compared to another measure proposed in this text which would consist in banning advertising promoting diets.
Fight against discrimination against obese people
Finally, still with this idea of promoting the diversity of the body image, this report also highlights the importance of providing a legal framework for the protection of obese people. In his measure n ° 13, Professor Hercberg indeed proposes to fight against the discrimination of obese subjects through a legal framework ensuring the penalization of any form of stigmatization and guaranteeing the protection of obese people in material and professional terms and in media treatment of the image of obese people.
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