From France to Israel, there has been a worldwide movement to protect the health of models by banning those who are too thin. But instead of requiring a doctor's note or measuring a model's body mass index, British brand Rose and Willard has joined the crusade by implementing a new rule that would require models to eat while on the job. Founder Heidy Rehman recently wrote an essay for The Huffington Post, explaining that Rose and Willard is committed to keeping professional models healthy, so they've introduced a non-negotiable clause with their agencies that will require models to eat a meal in front of them.
"We will not allow her to only eat a tiny morsel and/or suggest she'll eat later," Rehman wrote in the piece. "The consequence of non-compliance will be that neither she nor her agency will be paid."
Although the requirement is controversial, Rehman says that she has responsibility to protect the women from an industry that has a history of exploiting them. Recently, there have been several cases of agency's telling already underweight women that they are too big to model. Not to mention, many models and agencies have learned how to skirt the proposed requirements by adding pounds with weighted clothing and accessories.
In the essay, Rehman goes on to list the reasons she felt the new measure was necessary, describing how models wouldn't eat during test shoots because they were watching their weight for upcoming castings or couldn't afford to eat. She notes that some women would even go to the extreme of eating tissues to keep their stomachs from grumbling. Rehman told Dazed that her words have been twisted around though, "We shall certainly not be forcing anyone to eat nor placing them under scrutiny while they eat. We also are not going to impose any conditions upon what the model chooses to eat... Our only requirement is that she eats a meal in order to sustain herself."
That seems a bit vague from our standpoint. How exactly they're going to ensure that models eat without literally watching them eat from across the table—which can contribute to furthering someone's eating disorder if they have one—it's not too clear. While Britain has been one of the leading countries in terms of regulating model health, this seems a bit too far.
While the intention is good, forcing a woman to eat probably isn't the best form of action to change the industries unrealistic body standards, now or in the long run. But we can only hope that bringing these issues to light will help make the future of modeling safer and healthier for everyone involved.
