The Weight Debate

Here in the UK, the furore over size zero models continues unabated. Pressure is building on fashion designers and model agencies to use larger women at shows and photographic shoots amid claims that images of skinny models are contributing to eating disorders.

In due course, the law will be changing too. A UK task force is being set up to discuss the introduction of moves to restrict the use of very thin models, and to limit the production of clothes which are designed to fit only women of that shape. Fashion industry personnel will be trained how to spot signs that models have eating disorders, and model agency staff and photographers would be required to learn how to detect physical and emotional symptoms of anorexia and bulimia, such as the model becoming very secretive about what she eats, undergoing fluctuations in her weight, seeing her hair turn dull and lifeless, and knowing the calorie contents of food but eating little.

The British Fashion Council is rebelling against this, and has refused to ban models whose body mass index is less than 18.5%. Alexandra Shulman (editor of Vogue) has pointed out that this would be discriminating against models, akin to saying you can’t shoot black or white models, and would probably lead to cases of litigation by models who would be banned from working under the new regulations. However, if the above proposals are introduced as law, the British Fashion industry will have very little say about the matter.

No-one is denying that anorexia and bulimia are terrible mental disorders, which are types of Body Dysmorphic Disorder. But to say that the fashion industry is causing these, because young girls aspire to be fashion models, is just finding a single scapegoat for an incredibly complex issue. These illnesses have many causes, and to blame it on clothes designers is just plain ignorant.

Fashion designers make clothes to one particular size because of cost. They need a uniform size, so that many models can wear the same garment at many different shows. Fashion shows and fashion photographs are there to show their clothes in the best possible light, and to make us dream of them and want to own them. They are selling a fantasy. The fact is that the majority of people do not look like this. The average dress size for a woman in the UK is a size 16, US size 18. Because of portrayal in the media, women equate success, power and beauty with being thin. The “If only I could lose weight, I would be happy because I’d look like that glamorous model” argument. Hence the hated of the fashion industry. Or so the argument goes.

But why blame those who make fantasies? Can’t you give women some credit for being able to tell the difference between fantasy and reality? Why does this have to lead to victimising thin women because of their shape?

In this age of ever-expanding waistlines and obesity, thin people are seen as abnormal, unhealthy freaks. Skinny models and thin women in general are being increasingly discriminated against, criticised and labelled unhealthy because they do not fit the social norm.

Whilst I was in hospital, I had at least ten comments from jealous hospital staff regarding my size. Samples include, from nurses, “You need to put on weight”, “I don’t suppose you want any dinner, you obviously don’t eat much”, “You could stand to gain a few pounds”, and finally, from a male doctor “I need to listen to your chest. Please take off all your clothes” (kind of complimentary, but I’m sure he wouldn’t have asked if I’d been a size 16!)

This prejudice made me pretty angry at the time, and I am still incandescent with rage two weeks later. Who the f*** are you to judge me by my appearance? What gives you the RIGHT to make snap judgements on me, and then to think it is O.K. to say so aloud? Since when has being so rude about thin women become socially acceptable?

Just because I am thin, doesn’t mean I starve myself, and it doesn’t mean I am unhealthy. If I had turned round to one of the nurses and said “You’re fat, you need to lose weight because you’re obviously eating too much”, I’d have been reported for insolence and chucked out of the hospital.

For the record, I am currently a UK size 8, which is a US size 4. In my life, I have been from one end of the weight spectrum to another, from a UK size 20 (when I was a tubby teenager) to a UK size 4-6 (US size 0) last year. I have always loved my food, I have never had an eating disorder, and I am healthier now than I have ever been. I don’t starve myself, contrary to what most people think, and I eat a lot more than Richard does (but only weigh half as much). My BMI is currently 18, which means I’d better beware of any aspirations to become a mature fashion model in the future.

In the world of nude modelling, and indeed in life generally, it seems perfectly obvious to me that all women are beautiful, regardless of their weight. All models are individuals who each have a unique inner beauty, no matter their size or shape. Believe me, I know. I am disabled, scarred, disfigured, saggy, scrawny, you name it, and photographers can make me look stunning, so I know what I am talking about when I say that weight is irrelevant in nude modelling.

For the fashion industry, this is not the case, of course, because models are effectively clothes horses, and have to be the same size. But for society to discriminate against all thin models is just plain stupid. And to solely blame the fashion industry for anorexia is equally so. What are we going to have next? Photographers wielding BMI callipers and scales to check a model’s weight before each photoshoot?

The important issue is not a model’s vital statistics, but her health, both physical and mental.

And to all those women who crave to be a size zero, do you have ANY IDEA just how hard it is to find everyday clothes that fit?




Lynx, in a more-glamour-than-fashiony pose. But we’re not very good at fashion yet.