Liberal Democrats Direct Change in Modeling Industry

by Lauren Zahra in Society, September 16, 2009

It has been reported today that the Liberal Democrats are launching a campaign against using airbrushing and other forms of appearance enhancing in advertising campaigns aimed at children under 16.

This is following a piece in The Times earlier this month revealing that catwalk designers are airbrushing models for fashion magazines, despite them already being close to or at ‘size zero’.

Vogue editor Alexandra Shulman has expressed that the responsibility for this lies with the designers, who supply magazines with “miniscule” garments so that they are forced to use models with “jutting bones and no breasts or hips”.

Magazines receive garments around six months before they appear on the shelves, forcing editors to hire models who can fit into the clothes to ensure they can cover the latest trends. In fact, Shulman claims that Vogue frequently retouches photographs to make models look larger.

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The Liberal Democrats are saying that this puts unjustifiable pressure on young men and women, and can be seen as a one of the major causes of teenage anorexia.

Jo Swinson, party spokesperson for the Lib Dems, is forthright on the issue. “Today’s unrealistic idea of what is beautiful means that young girls are under more pressure now than they were even five years ago,” she says. “Airbrushing means that adverts contain completely unattainable images that no one can live up to in real life. We need to help protect children from these pressures and we need to make a start by banning airbrushing in adverts aimed at them. The focus on women’s appearance has got out of hand — no one really has perfect skin, perfect hair and a perfect figure, but women and young girls increasingly feel that nothing less than thin and perfect will do.”