As for the BMI restriction, thats a bit trickier. I don't agree that you should be allowed to deny someone employment for being, say, a smoker, but in the fashion industry its been the norm to routinely deny people a job for being overweight, so why not underweight?
Some interesting issues raised by this I think.
This March, Israel passed what are now known as the Photoshop laws. The legislation requires all models to maintain a certain BMI, and all designers to disclose when they've photoshopped their models. Today, The Atlantic posted a thorough look into the making of the laws, and whether governments can intervene in a creative process that doubles as the root of disease for many teenagers and adults alike.
The new laws require all models working in Israel to have a Body Mass Index (BMI) over 18.5. People with BMIs under 18.5 are generally considered underweight, and while being underweight doesn't constitute an eating disorder, politicians claim that most models aren't underweight and eating healthily.
Rachel Adato, a former gynecologist and current politician who pioneered the bill, reported that Israel sees 1,500 new cases of eating disorders every year.
Israel's Photoshop laws will also prohibit any undisclosed airbrushing, computer editing, or other kinds of photoshopping to make models appear thinner. Advertisers that choose to edit their models' photos must clearly state that fact to the viewer. International advertisements must comply with these regulations to have their ads placed in magazines or on billboard space sold within Israel.
While some decry the laws as a blow to free speech, many see them as a way of protecting vulnerable people from a very real and deadly disease. But psychologically, eating disorders aren't always simply about seeing an image and wanting to be that image (if that type of causation were always true, then video games would make more violent personalities). "Developing an eating disorder is a complex process in terms of specific constellation of personality traits that one's born with," Daniel La Grange, professor of psychiatry and director of the eating disorder program at the University of Chicago told The Atlantic. "Genetic, environmental, societal things have to come together in a vulnerable individual, so it's not just one piece that makes it possible."
Israel's laws likely aren't expected to have an effect on computer editing in America, where eating disorders are as much of a problem. Recently, a 14-year-old girl (and 26,000 signatories) petitioned Seventeen Magazine to run at least one spread per issue without digital photo manipulation. While Seventeen didn't make any promises, its campaign did make headlines in photography, fashion, and feminist circles.
They are introducing a disclosure requirement, which surely is well within any government's rights. Like nutrition labels on food.
