News

Two years ago, the fashion world was stunned by the death of a 5-foot-8-inch Brazilian model who, at 88 pounds, weighed no more than a child. Six months ago, an anorexic French model with protruding ribs and arms like sticks created a storm in Italy by posing nude for a publicity campaign against eating disorders.

The French government has decided those shocks were not enough to dissuade more young women from starving themselves in pursuit of an unhealthy idealized beauty. It wants to put those who promote anorexia in jail.

The National Assembly approved on Tuesday a government-sponsored proposal to make it a crime, punishable by up to three years in prison, to encourage “excessive thinness” and avoiding nutrition for prolonged periods.

Offenders would also face up to €30,000 in fines, with the toughest penalties set for incitement that results in a death or suicide. The Senate is to take up the government-sponsored bill next month.

The proposed law was aimed particularly at the growing number of Internet sites that defend anorexia and bulimia as lifestyle choices.

Some of those “pro-ana” sites, as they describe themselves, run competitions for the most weight lost in the shortest time. Most provide forums for anorexics to post messages of support for each other. A few offer advice on drugs, laxatives and extreme diets.

“These messages are messages of death,” said Health Minister Roselyn Bachelot. “Our country must be able to find and prosecute those responsible for these websites.”

She said she also wanted to require doctors to screen children for anorexia beginning at the age of 12. Her ministry estimated that 30,000 to 40,000 people in France, nearly all women, suffer from some sort of eating disorder.

One of the French blogs that cater to people who are anorexic said the proposed law would only stigmatize people who already feel isolated and in pain.

“We are a movement to help people,” said an article posted on the site, called My Life Pro Ana. “Girls suffering from anorexia or bulimia come here to support each other, and no one is asking anyone else to join us and fall into the same illness.”

The French law would be the first in Europe to address eating disorders by reaching beyond the world of fashion and advertising.

In Spain, fashion-show organizers have banned ultra-thin models from the catwalks and the government has shut down several websites that championed extreme weight loss. Industry groups in Italy and Britain, while opposing a similar exclusion, said they will require models to provide medical certificates proving they are in good health.

Last week, French fashion industry groups said they would sign a non-binding pledge to seek out models of different weights and sizes and encourage ordinary women to have a “healthy body image.” Fashion models here are already required to have their body mass tested regularly as a way to eliminate the most emaciated.

But it is not enough to simply show vulnerable young women that skinny is not beautiful, according to health experts.

“Anorexics don't choose to be anorexic, but they can choose to fight to extricate themselves from it,” said Philippe Jeammet, a Paris psychiatrist who has written several books on eating disorders in adolescents. His latest book, published this year, is called, For our Teenagers, Let's be Adults.

He said he supports a law targeting the media and Internet sites that “glorify destructive behaviour” and provide young people the support for such behaviour.

“My experience with teenagers, after 40 years of practice, is that they tend to find consolation, even a sense of finally existing, when they believe others are doing what they're doing,” Dr. Jeammet said.

“I think it's time for our society, which has benefited for so long from so much freedom, starts to think about limits,” he added.

The government's proposal was similar to laws already on the books that make it illegal to incite someone to commit suicide.

Several of the most famous families of France have gone public with their own problems with anorexic daughters.

Former president Jacques Chirac's eldest daughter, Laurence, has battled anorexia for many years. Her mother, Bernadette Chirac, fought to establish the first anorexia treatment centre in a Paris hospital some years ago. Mrs. Chirac complained that doctors did not recognize the condition, leaving parents facing “either extreme solitude or intense guilt.”

The problem was also highlighted in 1995 when the long-anorexic 19-year-old daughter of the best-known news anchor in France, Patrick Poivre d'Arvor, committed suicide.

Most of the left-wing opposition deputies abstained on the vote, with some calling it repressive. “Criminalizing behaviour has no place in public health policy,” said Jacqueline Fraysse, a Communist Party lawmaker.

Special to The Globe and Mail