Too thin to be role models?

Today's blog started when I read an article on Entertainment Weekly online about the new cast of 90210. It seems they are too thin. Read Here or watch below (or both).

90210 then and now


Then I thought, hey didn't they just have a whole bunch of stuff about models being too thin and new regulations about it. Yup.

Model Controversy


The argument in the EW article is framed as one where these thin models/actresses are role models and they are not providing a healthy body image for people to aspire to. But the video about the models hints that this is not the real problem at all. Buried in the long video below (it is about 10 minutes) are a couple of disturbing statements about the way that the girls are not important at all and the designers are artists who should not be impeded in any way. See especially the comment at around the 3:25 mark. This woman is outraged that DESIGNERS are being curtailed.



What I began to find really shocking was the lack of concern for the very young, very vulnerable employees who are exposed to unsafe working conditions.

This kind of exploitation of children or vulnerable people for entertainment is not new, but it is getting more pervasive. And it is NOT about worrying if the models are setting a bad example for others. It is about worrying about the models and actors themselves. Because these things are being done for our amusement and consumption. And we are responsible for our fellow human travellers.

In the biblical story, there are individuals who have again and again tried to remind everyone of the need for justice and the horrors of exploitation. I offer the words of one such man in the Bible, Micah,

"And I said, Hear, I pray you, O heads of Jacob, and ye princes of the house of Israel; Is it not for you to know judgment?
Who hate the good, and love the evil; who pluck off their skin from off them, and their flesh from off their bones;
Who also eat the flesh of my people, and flay their skin from off them; and they break their bones, and chop them in pieces, as for the pot, and as flesh within the cauldron." (Micah 3:1-3)

Are we picking the flesh off of the bones of children and teenagers just to satisfy our need for entertainment or clothes-hangers?

Still in the entertainment industry, a movie theatre was fined for misusing its young workforce. Read Here

Child labour and exploitation is common through out the world. Read Here It occasionally surfaces as an issue. When it does we think of it as an over there problem, one that only affects "developing countries." But the reality is that it happens everywhere.

There are some signs of an acknowledgement of the problem in the fashion industry. But, it also gives me one more very good reason not to watch and support 90210.

K