I was just thinking about my previous post on this topic, and it occurred to me that one of the consequences of the proposed law is a ban of all people who appear anorexic from all media.
After all, when a news-station uses a very thin anchor, does it not follow that it promotes anorexia? Notice that it does not even matter if the person is, in fact, anorexic. The appearance of very thin people on television validates and enforces the unhealthy body image of all anorexics.
Nevertheless, this law does seem unjust to me. Why target only extreme thinness? Why even target extreme thinness? Is not extreme fatness a bigger problem in the western world? Wouldn’t it be more appropriate, and more effective for the general health of the people, to criminalize the promotion of obesity? We’d certainly have to ban commercials for plus-sized fashion, fast food, super markets - anything plus-sized or super-sized for that matter. No more Roseanne on television. No more Pavarotti. Surely, there are enough regular-sized people out there who can do the job.
Perhaps, we should consider criminalizing the promotion of all extreme body-images. People who are too tall, let’s say. Did you know that some people willingly submit themselves to unnecessary orthopedic surgery to add a few inches to their height? It happens. Surely, that can’t be right. But what can they do when they see that people prefer taller partners, taller people get the “higher” positions etc? Why doesn’t anyone notice how tall those extremely thin models are?
There goes diversity. (Freedom must have left earlier.)