Anorexia is a fairly new hot button issue. Anorexia started receiving media attention around 2006, when the world witnessed death by anorexia for two models, one from Brazil and one from Uruguay. This sparked the unspoken rule within the fashion industry that they would begin using “healthier" looking models.

However, Anorexia continued to be an issue. In 2010, French model and actress, Isabelle Caro, died of anorexia. At one point, she weighed only 55 pounds.

It has been hard for the fashion industry to regulate the use of unhealthy models. Up until now, the fashion world has been very reluctant to propose any type of legislation banning the use of sick models.

How does an industry change its ways after its success with iconic models like Twiggy and Kate Moss, whose body mass indexes were only around 15 or 16?

Quick History/Math Lesson.

A person's body mass index (BMI) is a combination of the mass (weight) of an individual and their height. This index was created by a man named Adolphe Quetelet between 1830 and 1850, during the development of “social physics." A person's BMI is their body mass divided by the square of their height. This equation, or chart, is used to determine what body weight is healthy for the height of a person. It can help determine if you are overweight, underweight, or average. This is the BMI chart that was distributed by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. According to NHI, a BMI of <18.5 is underweight, 18.5-24.9 is normal, 25-29.9 is overweight and anything above 30 is obese.

Using the body mass index chart, the French Parliament is debating legislation that would make it illegal for modeling agencies and fashion houses to use models who are deemed "too thin." If the legislation passes, it will be punishable by as much as a $83,000 fine and jail time for anyone who uses a model whose BMI is below the set standard. Countries such as Israel have already banned underweight and underage models. Spain and Italy have similar legislation to the one France is trying to pass, but a lot less intense. As for now, France is only relying on voluntary pacts within the fashion industry.

If this law passes, you better believe the fashion industry will be up in arms.

Marie Rose Moro, a child psychiatrist and director of Maison de Solenn, a residential facility that treats young people with eating and metal disorders, weighed in on the controversy.

Dr. Moro claims that seeing models that are 2 pounds heavier is not going to change the way Western youth views their own body image. She referred to this era as a "tyranny of thinness."

Dr. Marcel Ruffo, a psychiatrist with a clinic in Marseille for adolescents with anorexia, weighs in with another opinion.

“Parents, the public authorities, deputies in the National Assembly want to find a cause, something to blame," he states.

Isn't that the truth! When we see fault in ourselves or in the people we love, we all, ALL, look for someone to blame. Or something. In the wake of a generation of excessive body image consciousness, where young people are willing to take extreme measures to look the way they believe they are supposed to, we need someone to blame. That someone is the fashion industry, media, and Photoshop.

Anorexia is real. Bulimia is real. Hopefully, France is on to something. People all over the world have always looked to France for the latest trends and fashion advice.

France, please set this new trend. Please make glorified ultra-thinness an intolerable standard.

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Information from New York Times article, French Parliment Debates Weight Standards for Fashion Models by Alissa J. Rubin.