On February 22, Britain's Royal College of Psychiatrists published a statement calling for warning labels on airbrushed photos of models and celebrities, and for a ban on underweight models at London Fashion Week.

The college's call to action urges the government as well as the media and fashion industries to take greater responsibility in the fight against eating disorders. The college believes that labels on photos would help to raise awareness of how widespread photo manipulation is, and to dissuade people from attempting to achieve "unattainable physical perfection."

The college also urged the British government to establish a forum, made up of politicians, experts and representatives from the media and advertising, for the development of an editorial ethical code. Dr. Adrienne Key of the college's eating disorders section said the media must be prevented from "glamorizing" excessive weight loss and exacerbating the psychological and social pressures faced by young people.

She commented: "What we need to do is raise people's awareness of what they are looking at. A lot of people have no idea how much manipulation goes on. The aims of the forum should be to collaboratively develop an ethical editorial code that realistically addresses the damaging portrayal of eating disorders, raises awareness of unrealistic visual imagery created through airbrushing and digital enhancement, and also addresses the skewed and erroneous content of magazines."

(Source: www.independent.co.uk)

Labels: eating disorder, media, model

Posted By: Aspen Education Group