Fash Mags To Ban Waifs Following Body Image Summit

The fashion press may create its own self-regulatory body to monitor images of thin women in magazines and newspapers and even stop advertisers placing copy which shows “unnatural” body shapes. The proposal came out of yesterday’s “Body Image Summit”, organised by Minister for Women Tessa Jowell. The Broadcasting Standards Commission has also offered to play its part by surveying “the degree of diversity in shapes of women in TV programmes.”

The summit was called in response to the body of research which shows young women’s self esteem and self-image can be damaged by the media’s portrayal of the “body beautiful”. In the run up to the event, the BMA issued findings that for the first time made an official connection between the incidence of eating disorders and images of thin women in the media (see

Jowell insisted that the summit was “about stimulating the debate and key people finding ways to address the concerns of young women. [Not] about regulation or restricting the freedom of any individual, any company or any industry.” Her opposite number, Conservative Theresa May was unimpressed, however. “This is political correctness gone mad.” she said “What is Tessa Jowell going to do- sit there holding cutout shapes at the screen?”

Certainly there would be some problems for a Press Complaints Commission-style body with no statutory powers, not least in determining what constitutes “thin”. Lisa Armstrong, fashion editor for the Times attended the summit along with key editorial figures from publications including Vogue, Elle and Cosmopolitan. Writing in her column today she pointed out that “With the best will in the world, one can become blasé about degrees of thinness in this business. What seems reasonably slim to a seasoned fashion eye might look too skinny to the general public.”

Liz Jones, editor of Marie Claire agreed, but was more hopeful about the industry working together. “Size is a very subjective thing but we could set down a minimum size for models we would use, and we could refuse to take adverts which show women in an offensive or unrealistic way.” she said.

These are brave words for an industry which relies on its advertisers for revenue. Will the glossies really have the nerve to tell a big name advertiser that the campaign it’s just paid for can’t go in their pages because it stars an unrealistically thin (and probably expensive) model?

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