Should the weight of fashion models be policed?

Policing weight creates a healthier working environment

Question: Should the weight of fashion models be policed?
Position1 of 2›: Yes, the weight of fashion models should be policed
Argument1 of 2›: Policing weight creates a healthier working environment

Models who are forced to be too thin by industry standards put their health at risk. Policing this practice protects them from unhealthy demands on their weight.

The argument

The argument for regulating models' weight is framed here as a workplace question rather than a question about beauty standards. Modelling is a job for those in the fashion industry, and the ordinary protections that apply to other jobs are the relevant comparison. If weight requirements were policed, agencies would be prevented from telling their models that they need to lose weight, or undergo surgery, in order to keep working. That instruction is what proponents object to: it makes a change to the worker's body a condition of continued employment. The pressure is documented rather than anecdotal. According to Vogue, 54% of the models canvassed had been told that they needed to lose weight or they would not find another job. The phrasing of that ultimatum is what gives it force. Because modelling is their livelihood rather than a pastime, models presented with it feel obliged to comply, and a choice made under that kind of economic compulsion is not meaningfully a choice at all. The result is a negative working environment in which the terms of employment include an ongoing demand on the body of the person employed. What the argument treats as the clearest indication of how far the standard has drifted is a claim reported from within the industry itself: an editor said that the ideal body shape is one on the brink of hospitalisation. A standard defined by proximity to medical collapse is one no workplace could defend if it were stated as a condition of employment in any other sector, and it is unfavourable for the models held to it and for the viewers shown the results. Because policing weight would create a healthier working environment, this argument concludes, the weight of fashion models should be policed.

Premises

[P1]Modelling is a job, and policing weight would stop agencies pressuring models to lose weight or have surgery to keep working. [P2] A Vogue survey found 54% of models were told to lose weight or they would not find work, creating a negative working environment. [P3] With editors describing the ideal body as one on the brink of hospitalisation, the unregulated standard harms both models and viewers. [C] Therefore, because policing weight creates a healthier working environment, the weight of fashion models should be policed.

Counter-arguments

Models are independent contractors and do not need to follow the same norms for work environments that regularly employed workers do. They are signed by an agency and rely on headshots that are given for specific shows. This is what gives them the chance to model for specific designers.

Rejecting the premises

[Rejecting P1] Models do not work for a certain company and do not need to follow specific rules and regulations standard companies provide.