Industries can set BMI standards for models

The argument

The argument for policing the weight of fashion models rests on a harm that has already materialised in the industry rather than on a hypothetical risk. There have been instances of fashion models developing eating disorders, with their BMI falling far below the healthy national standard, and two famous cases of models passing away due to complications of anorexia nervosa. These are not incidental misfortunes befalling individuals who happened to work in fashion. They occur in a profession where extreme thinness is close to a professional requirement, which means the incentive runs continuously in the direction of the harm. The medical consequences extend beyond the disorders themselves. Low BMIs have been associated with heart failure, memory loss, and osteoporosis. These are conditions produced by sustained undernutrition rather than by any single episode, and some of them are irreversible, so the damage accumulates over a career and persists after it ends. The proposal follows from the fact that the industry already sets standards. Agencies, designers, and shows specify what they will and will not book, and in doing so they already determine, in practice, how thin a working model needs to be. Since that determination is being made either way, it can be made with a floor attached. Industries can set BMI standards for models, and a minimum threshold would make it harder for anyone in the chain to reward a body weight that is medically dangerous to maintain. The expected effect is on the incentive rather than on any individual. If an unhealthy BMI disqualifies someone from work rather than making them more employable, the professional pressure that currently drives the behaviour is removed. If BMI levels were regulated, it would then be less likely that models would develop severe eating disorders and physical abnormalities, which is why proponents argue the weight of fashion models should be policed.

Premises

Counter-arguments

Lower BMIs do not automatically indicate an eating disorder such as anorexia nervosa or bulimia. Lower BMIs can be genetic or due to a fast metabolism. Some people claim that models eat as much as they want, but because they have a higher metabolism they burn through calories faster. This should not disqualify them from being a model since they are technically healthy. According to a study, only about 40% of models have an eating disorder - the rest are simply naturally thin.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P2] Models can have a low BMI because of genetics and still be healthy.