The truth about size zero

LIKE Italy, Spain and Israel, France has joined the ‘ban’ wagon, prohibiting stick-like figures to strut the runway. It is a universal fact that France is known as the world's fashion capital and a news as such came about as a 'wake up' call, of sorts for most err ... skinny people (no pun, intended!)

Reuters had recently reported that the bill voted by French legislature affirms: “the activity of model is banned for any person whose Body Mass Index (BMI) is lower than levels proposed by health authorities and decreed by the ministers of health and labour.”

This rule requires models to have medical certificates, assuring the government that they are as healthy and sturdy as a horse, with a healthy level of BMI.

Fashion agencies that have been purportedly engaging models with unhealthy BMI could face up to six months of jail time and a fine of a whopping 75,000 euros (RM294,500).

Though this law is aimed at curbing the ‘lethal’ idea of the excessively thin or skinny can be laudable, but on one hand, can be pretty detrimental.

Here’s the truth on being skinny:

Firstly, anorexia or bulimia is not just about a woman having trouble nourishing herself with food. It is mostly and mainly about her troubled mind. There's a long list of complicated reasons on why young women take the path down to skinny wonderland.

For whatever reasons this might be, young women who waste themselves away by going on days and days with barely any food or purging out food after each meal, it is in dire need of help and NOT punishment.

Secondly, segregating the skinny from doing what they love and live to do like modelling would mean the shaming of a woman’s body which is morally-degrading.

Thirdly, I don’t think any woman or man need to be controlled by legislation just so the society can achieve a uniform, a standard or a typical physical appearance that is deemed appropriate by a certain entity or authority.

Does a perfect figure or the ideal body statistics really exists? I don’t think so. God creates human with flaws and that's what makes us unique.

Granted, I feel that just because one is thin, it does not constitute of being unhealthy or signifies disease.

Take a look at Kate Moss. She is one of the world's most desirable supermodels but she has been perpetually misunderstood just because she is skinny.

Her famous and controversial "nothing tastes as good as skinny" quote has caused an uproar of sorts from body image campaigners around the globe, claiming the pioneer of the 'waif' in fashion was perceived as an advocate for eating disorders.

And to Moss -- in an interview with Allure in 2013 -- the most hurtful tabloid lies about the focus on her appearance, that being called anorexic is far more upsetting than being called a drug addict.

"...the anorexic thing was a lot more upsetting, to be held responsible for somebody's illness. I wasn't anorexic." she tells Allure magazine.

Though I am no Kate Moss, I totally understand what it feels like having insecurities as such.

See, I have always been thin. I now stand at 5 feet 8 inches and weighs 48kg.

Seven years back, before marriage, I have always had issues with my weight. I was a size-zero with 22-inch waistline and a mini cup A bra. I couldn’t consume the fact how I ate like a pig and couldn’t grow any more than 42 kilos.

In school, in secondary school especially, I got people calling me names like ‘kayu berjalan’ (walking stick) or ‘plywood’ and worst of all ‘airport’ due to my infamous flat chest.

Until today, I still have the occasional consideration on breast augmentation but I’m just too scared to slice my breasts open and insert some foreign objects under my skin.

Oh well … that’s a different story altogether.

Back then, I was really insecure and there was nothing I could do to change the way I look. I went to see a number of nutritionists and dieticians and they all found nothing wrong with me.

When I start my first real job in the early 2000s, I got people asking me whether I am a bulimic or anorexic. I got people calling me ‘kuros’ (skinny) like it was some kind of an adorable nickname.

Truth is - it is not at all a good feeling when you are being labeled. But really, face it: calling a thin person skinny is as bad and as hurtful as calling a fat person fat.

And so, after a lot of consistent and constant motivations from my family and good friends, I swallowed everything in with a pinch of salt and I ended up loving myself just the way I am – long, lean and flat-chested.

My point is, the banning of skinny figure is rather unjust. There are many other ways to go about it than conveniently banishing the trouble out of sight.

It is like banning cars from being on the road because the numbers of road accidents have been escalating.

My question is: If the powers-that-be chose to ban the skinny for portraying anorexia and bulimia, can they also ban plus-sized model for promoting obesity?

Go figure.