/ 22 July 2005

Israel may outlaw anorexic models

Adi Barkan, an Israeli photographer and model agent, became acutely aware of the pervasiveness of anorexia when he interviewed 12 000 females, aged 13 to 24, in a televised search for Israel’s next supermodel. He estimated that between 35% and 40% of these aspiring models were anorexic. This realisation, combined with repeated encounters with the illness, persuaded him to launch a crusade to combat it within his industry.

A committee of the Israeli Parliament, the Knesset, will decide whether to proceed with a Bill to compel model agencies to monitor the health and body mass index (BMI) — the ratio of height to weight — of models. Models would have to undergo regular medical tests to ensure their BMI is 19 or above. The most serious anorexics can have a BMI as low as seven.

If the Knesset passes the Bill, Barkan hopes the effect will be twofold. First, agencies will be forced to confront a problem they have long ignored and, second, only ”healthy” models will be seen on television, in magazines and on billboards.

Barkan worked as a fashion photographer for 15 years before starting a model agency in Israel seven years ago. ”You don’t think about the private lives of the models, you just take the pictures and that’s it. It was only when I had my own agency that I began to see things from a different perspective.”

He admits that anorexia can have a multitude of causes but is convinced that the fashion industry can have a major effect on it. ”If consumers of model services refuse to employ unhealthy women, that will remove part of the motivation to reduce their weight.” — Â