NationStates Jolt Archive

Is it possible to jail someone for "encouraging" anorexia? How would you prove it? Would you jail the editor of a fashion magazine for publishing pics of skinny models?

Here's your link:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/10/wfra110.xml

Anyone encouraging dangerous thinness and excessive dieting could be jailed under a draft law aimed at tackling the growing problem of anorexia in France.

The proposal would punish "incitement to excessive thinness" in magazines, on websites and in other media. Up to 40,000 people, the vast majority women, suffer from anorexia in France - an illness that strikes most frequently in adolescence.

The figure, while still far lower than Britain's, challenges the notion that France remains immune to eating disorders experienced by other Western nations.

The draft law, to be debated next week, proposes up to three years in jail and a £36,000 fine if the incitement provoked the death of an anorexia sufferer. Incitement alone would carry two years in jail.

What is the definition of "excessive thinness" ?

Aren't there more pressing problems in France?

Are they going to make Melissa Theuriau gain weight?

snipsnipsnipsnipsnip ...Melissa Theuriau...
*drools*
...gain weight?
Aw man. :(

it seems ridiculous but i suppose it would have to be egregious in order to make a case.

Is it possible to jail someone for "encouraging" anorexia? How would you prove it? Would you jail the editor of a fashion magazine for publishing pics of skinny models?

Here's your link:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2008/04/10/wfra110.xml



What is the definition of "excessive thinness" ?

Aren't there more pressing problems in France?

Are they going to make Melissa Theuriau gain weight?

Say what?:eek: Jail time for annorexia encouragement? What in the name of... I'm baffled. Aren't there any other problems or laws to pass in France that are truly pressing?:confused: Sheesh.

Aren't there more pressing problems in France?



I would say that this is a hugely pressing problem.


I dont agree with how they are going about it however.

Does anyone else find it at least slightly amusing that France faces the pressing problem of anorexia, while the U.S. and Canada face the pressing problem of obesity?

Does anyone else find it at least slightly amusing that France faces the pressing problem of anorexia, while the U.S. and Canada face the pressing problem of obesity?

In France, you don't eat food. Food eats you!
http://icanhascheezburger.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/funny-picture-pardonay-mwah-cat.jpg

Does anyone else find it at least slightly amusing that France faces the pressing problem of anorexia, while the U.S. and Canada face the pressing problem of obesity?

Younger generations in America, especially teens, are facing anorexia in the states, because they are constantly being tol how fat they are.

Does anyone else find it at least slightly amusing that France faces the pressing problem of anorexia, while the U.S. and Canada face the pressing problem of obesity?

Anorexia isn't exactly unknown on this side of the pond, either.

Does anyone else find it at least slightly amusing that France faces the pressing problem of anorexia, while the U.S. and Canada face the pressing problem of obesity?

Both problem exist. The passing of this law does not ignore that some people are obese, it just acknowledges that some are anorexic.

I think the way I feel about this law is "Should it be illegal to encourage obesity?" And I can't quite decide myself.

How are we differentiating anorexia incitement from pictures of attractive people again?

Gee, I'm popular. Or something…

Yeah, I know both anorexia and obesity are problems here (North America). But something tells me 64.5% of people aren't dangerously underweight here.

Whereas I have never, in all my travels, seen an overweight French person. Anecdotal evidence FTW!

How are we differentiating anorexia incitement from pictures of attractive people again?

pretty pictures are pretty pictures, anorexia is an eating disorder.

Gee, I'm popular. Or something…

Yeah, I know both anorexia and obesity are problems here (North America). But something tells me 64.5% of people aren't dangerously underweight here.

Whereas I have never, in all my travels, seen an overweight French person. Anecdotal evidence FTW!

there are only 40,000 anorexics in france, according to the OP

I suspect "incitement to excessive thinness" is not meant to include things like "pictures of thin people" so much as "pictures of thin people followed by advice on the best way to hide your purging from your parents" - and I really don't have a problem with discouraging the latter, even if I'm not entirely certain criminalization is the best way to go about it.

there are only 40,000 anorexics in france, according to the OP

So it does. Well then nevermind.
I doubt that number actually, as it's only 0.06% of the population. Well gee, it says that anorexia's prevalence in France is less than in Britain, too. I didn't actually, you know, read the article.

Wow. Can people not think for themselves? If not, I'd be perfectly glad to think for everyone!*

* $7 per thought, with surchages of $2-15 for mathematical reasoning and life-changing decisions. Terms and restrictions apply. Subconscious thoughts not included. Kirav, its subordinates, affiliates, divisions, and personal fitness consultants are not responsible for the presence of impure thoughts. All rights reserved.

pretty pictures are pretty pictures, anorexia is an eating disorder.

Glad we got that cleared up. Now I'll ask my question again.

This law would make it illegal to "encourage" anorexia. The article says the law's meant to target magazines and other media that supposedly encourage the eating disorder. So I want to know... how are they going to decide what's a perfectly legitimate picture of a thin model and what constitutes a dangerous message to young girls that they're too fat and need to stop eating?

Glad we got that cleared up. Now I'll ask my question again.

This law would make it illegal to "encourage" anorexia. The article says the law's meant to target magazines and other media that supposedly encourage the eating disorder. So I want to know... how are they going to decide what's a perfectly legitimate picture of a thin model and what constitutes a dangerous message to young girls that they're too fat and need to stop eating?

they could go with the spanish theory and if a model is too thin ban her pictures.

i dont see that fashion pictures count unless the model is deathly thin. in which case the magazine or advertiser should smarten up anyway.

Wow. Can people not think for themselves? If not, I'd be perfectly glad to think for everyone!*

* $7 per thought, with surchages of $2-15 for mathematical reasoning and life-changing decisions. Terms and restrictions apply. Subconscious thoughts not included. Kirav, its subordinates, affiliates, divisions, and personal fitness consultants are not responsible for the presence of impure thoughts. All rights reserved.

lol

apparently not or people would not be so influenced by media to take up eating habits that arent good for them.

I don't even think the media has much to do with people being anorexic.

I think it does, but people often take it a step to far and make it seem like a toothpick-figure model sticks her arm out of the TV, grabs the throats of young women, and forces them to stop eating. The media doesn't even promote anorexia at all. It promotes being thin, and they choose to become thin in an extreme way.

Sure, some people envy the thin people portrayed in the media, and some go to great lengths. Should we change the system? Make commercials and dramedies use wider characters? No. If you want to sell a product, say toothpaste, you put thin people in the ad, because in our culture, thin is attractive. Attractive people + product= attractive product.

It's just how our culture defines beauty, and some people are not beautiful in the same ways as others.

Gee, I'm popular. Or something…

Yeah, I know both anorexia and obesity are problems here (North America). But something tells me 64.5% of people aren't dangerously underweight here.

Whereas I have never, in all my travels, seen an overweight French person. Anecdotal evidence FTW!

I think this is a bit of a false comparison, in that anorexia has roughly the same relationship to obesity as sex does with rape; by which I mean, to walk back something that seen in the wrong light could be patently offensive, there seems to be an intuitive relationship that in practice just isn't there. Rape isn't really about sex, and anorexia isn't really about weight.

Anorexia's origins, how one gets it, are all very poorly understood, but it's a compulsive neurological disorder that causes a person to feel, for lack of a better phrase, that starvation is a good thing. A starving person looks better and healthy to a person with anorexia than does a normal fit person. Norms and behaviors shift to reflect this worldview. Those who don't accept this worldview, indeed, those who are usually trying to save an anorexic's life, come to be seen as an enemy trying to force unhealthy patterns of lifestyle on a person.

This, I think, is really where this law comes into play, because there is a subculture of pro-anorexic lifestyle out there that has formed when people convinced that the world is trying to make them fat got access to computers and networked with other people who thought the same thing. The reinforcement these pro-ana lifestyle people really does undermine the efforts of people trying desperately to save the people they love. Now I think that the law has a difficult time here (this is a classic instance of difficult cases making what teeters dangerously on the edge of bad law), but the need for some effort to break up this pro-ana culture is real.

One word...France, lol....:p

they could go with the spanish theory and if a model is too thin ban her pictures.

i dont see that fashion pictures count unless the model is deathly thin. in which case the magazine or advertiser should smarten up anyway.

What else could this possibly be targeting? Surely there are no pieces in French magazines explicitly advocating anorexia.

France is stupid Case closed.

What else could this possibly be targeting? Surely there are no pieces in French magazines explicitly advocating anorexia.

well i dont read french magazines but i guess its that spanish thing where the government forbad some hyperthin models from the runway at the big fashion shows.

France is stupid Case closed.

I think that, being that you´re new to the forum and all, you know, you seem have forgotten to use one of the myriad gun smileys.

J/K!

I´m still baffled. I know France upholds a certain standard of women beauty and that women in France tend to be skinny to the point of envy but, do they have such a huge problem with eating disorders that they feel the need to pass a law that gives jail time to those suspected of ¨encouraging¨ anorexia and bulimia? I can´t, for the life of me, put my head around it. Isn´t there anything else that has more importance than that?

France is stupid Case closed.

you know, im amazed that no one got all pissed about that post, or mine...

Guess everyone's just used to France...being France like, lol...by which i mean doing this allot :headbang: lol

Aren't the main people blamed with encouraging anorexia celebrities who are anorexic themselves? And who influenced them?

I'm not going to rant on this. This law is unenforceable. Let's all have a good laugh (at France, as usual), while we can.

Does anyone else find it at least slightly amusing that France faces the pressing problem of anorexia, while the U.S. and Canada face the pressing problem of obesity?

Have you had french food? Case closed