California State Assembly member, Marc Levine, publicly announced his proposal that fashion models who want to work in California would need a doctor to attest they are not suffering from an eating disorder and they are of healthy weight.
Levine has introduced AB 2539. It would require the adoption of modeling industry health standards including periodic health check-ups, nutrition consultations, and appropriate medical testing as needed
The rationale of the bill is due to alarming statistics of the fashion models who are suffering from such disorder.
"The evidence of eating disorders in the modeling industry is alarming. AB 2539 will make sure that models are not enduring physical harm as a workplace prerequisite," said Assembly member Levine.
"As many as 40 percent of fashion models," Levine said. "These include anorexia nervosa, which leads sufferers to starve themselves; bulimia nervosa, which involves binge-eating followed by purges such as forced vomiting, consumption of laxatives or excessive exercise; and binge-eating disorder."
He added that the disorder is a societal problem as unhealthy models have become role models for young people. As California often leads the nation and the world, the bill will help assure that the children will see healthy images on magazines and fashion websites.
Under this bill, modeling agencies would have to be licensed by the California Labor Commissioner, and could be fined if they hire models who do not have a physician certifying that they are healthy.
The bill, if becomes law, directs the state's Department of Public Health and the Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board to adopt rules for the health of fashion models that would include periodic health checkups, nutrition consultations and medical testing.
Levine said the measure, which must pass numerous committees, both houses of the legislature and be signed by Democratic Governor Jerry Brown before it could take effect, would also help girls and women, who see impossibly thin models in magazines and aim to be like them.
AB 2539 will add the following requirements in California law:
- The Occupational Safety and Health Standards Board and the State Department of Public Health must adopt health standards for models
- Models are required to receive a physician's certificate that the model meets the above health standards
- Modeling agencies shall be licensed by the California Labor Commissioner
- Models shall be the employees of the modeling agency
- Modeling agencies are required to keep records and may be fined if they hire models who do not have a current physician's certificate
The effect of super skinny models on young girls is well documented. The National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders reports:
- 47% of girls in 5th-12th grade reported wanting to lose weight because of magazine pictures
- 69% of girls in 5th-12th grade reported that magazine pictures influenced their idea of a perfect body shape
- 42% of 1st-3rd grade girls want to be thinner
- 81% of 10 year olds are afraid of being fat
The bill proposed followed the efforts of the advocacy of several countries to fight anorexia nervosa and other eating disorders among models, who are relentlessly pressured to lose weight or lose work.
Israel enacted a similar measure in 2013, while other countries, like Italy and Spain, rely on voluntary codes of conduct to protect models.
