Fashion and Eating Disorders

Recently a friend confided to me that she struggled with an eating disorder. This is the second friend I've known who as suffered from these problems and it occurred to me that if you are a young female it is most likely that you will know at least one person who struggles with eating disorders, even if no-one is aware of it. I didn't want to make a great long post about this as I haven't suffered with it personally and don't have any medical knowledge about it so I don't feel that I'm in a position to discuss it in such a way. I just wanted to put across some thoughts and opinions that have occurred to me on the subject of eating disorders.

The fashion industry employs overly skinny models which has had an impact on our society, causing the image of a 'perfect' woman to become warped into unachievable  thinness. Although this is not the only reason for eating disorders, it is something which certainly does not help those who suffer from conditions such as anorexia and bulimia. Eating disorders are at the root mental issues and many people do not understand so disregard them as attention seeking and pathetic. There are organisations working to help people better understand eating disorders and this is something which needs to continue.

Although many of the top supermodels are still incredibly thin there has been substantial development in the fashion industry of not using size zero models. Many fashion weeks and houses such as Madrid Fashion Week and Prada have banned models under a certain BMI from walking in their shows. In Israel it is illegal to employ any model with a BMI under 18.5. There is still a long way to go before the image of 'perfection' is restored to a healthy, any size woman but there are clear steps in the right direction.

If you suffer from, or know anyone who suffers with an eating disorder, or just want some more information on it then these are some websites I've found helpful:
http://www.rethink.org/young_people/what_is_mental_health/what_are_eating_diso.html?gclid=CJqYitKE67UCFUTItAodkUAAiw
http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/Eating-disorders/Pages/Introduction.aspx
http://www.b-eat.co.uk/