Recently, Israel passed a law which requires super models to all have a body mass index of at least 18.6.

BMI is the calculated ratio of weight to height.

Models will have to provide current documentation that they have met the minimum weight requirement.

The last stipulation states that all advertisements must state if the images of the models have been altered in any way.

Israel has the right idea here. The standards which advertisements have created are set at an impossible rate.

A study found that the body type portrayed in most advertisements as the ideal is only possessed naturally by 5 percent of American females, according to National Association of Anorexia Nervosa and Associated Disorders’ website www.anad.org.

There are too many women and all ones who have severe self-image issues, which in-turn result in eating disorders and other destructive behaviors.

It is sad, really. Women should not be aspiring to reach those impossible standards, they should be happy with who they are and how they look. With the average U.S. resident being exposed to an average 5,000 advertising messages a day, according to www.nationaleatingdisorders.org, it is almost impossible to escape it.

I was friends with a girl in high school who worked as a model for Teen Vogue.

I will never forget how she would feel fat when she ate two pieces of bread.

When you know someone like that, you honestly wonder why eating disorders are not at an even higher rate. Honestly, I think the U.S. should consider enacting a similar law. At the very least, require advertisements to indicate when the images are altered. Alcohol advertisements are required to state “Please drink responsibility,” and cigarette companies are not even permitted to advertise anymore, all due to the harmful effects their products can cause.

Editing women who are already far beyond normalcy falls into a similar realm.

Companies could argue this could have a detrimental effect on their profits, but I beg to differ.
People are buying their products whether they fit the model quota or not, why would that be any different if people fit the quota?

If anything, I think this could increase profits.

We need to change our ideals and what we chose to idealize in society.
We look to paper thin models, which reflect only a small percentage of society.
But why?

Why do we chose to torture ourselves and compare ourselves to image that, usually, is not even real?

We need to learn to be happy in our skin, accept that we are all different and that that is what makes the world beautiful.

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