France bans super-skinny models in anorexia clampdown

[Martinus]

Incidentally, I love how I went from rants against people who eat unhealthy to posting pictures of fat Polish specialties.

Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative.

[Eddie Teach]

I don't think horse meat would be all that popular in the North American market.

[Martinus]

Also, the traditional Easter brunch dish: roasted "white" sausage:

[Martinus]

I don't think horse meat would be all that popular in the North American market.

Yeah it's funny how these things are. But as I said there are plenty of non-horse meat kabanos.

[jimmy olsen]

Kielbasa is awesome.

[Ed Anger]

I keep my exposure to Polish foods limited to the Polack cookies in the international aisle at Big Lots.

[Caliga]

(please note I have no idea hot to spell any of this good stuff - my Ukrainian is learned entirely phonetically)

Don't worry, it's the same with me and Pennsylvania Dutch... most of it I've just heard spoken and never seen written.

"hog maw" (???) - our version of saumangen
"sitszenzeehauf" (???) - sit down!

edit: Oh Beeb, I've also had the Uke version of ponchkey... I think it's called 'pumpaha' ?

[Caliga]

I keep my exposure to Polish foods limited to the Polack cookies in the international aisle at Big Lots.

They have those same cookies at Dollar General.

[derspiess]

In any case, "Polish sausage" is a bit like "French cheese" or "Belgian beer". There are so many diverse types out there...

Even our Polacks in Chicaaago say "Polish Sausage".  You'd think they'd be more specific.

[Ed Anger]

I keep my exposure to Polish foods limited to the Polack cookies in the international aisle at Big Lots.

They have those same cookies at Dollar General.

I shop at better dollar stores. Like Dollar Tree.

[Caliga]

They probably forgot how to make all those other kinds of sausage once they came over.

[derspiess]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2kXX0xxuF3A

[jimmy olsen]

Authoritarian bullshit

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/11513328/France-makes-glorifying-anorexia-online-punishable-by-prison.html

France makes glorifying anorexia online punishable by prison

French parliament passes law to stamp out "thinspiration" websites that suggest being painfully thin is a lifestyle choice, but abandons amendment punishing agencies that employ very thin models.


By  Henry Samuel, Paris

9:17PM BST 02 Apr 2015


Glorifying anorexia or excessive "skinniness" on the internet will be a criminal offence in France under a new law passed on Thursday.

A host of websites claim to offer beauty tips to girls as young as 12, including starving themselves to create stick legs and a yawning "thigh gap".

Now, those who run so-called "pro-ana" or "thinsipirational" websites risk a maximum year's imprisonment and a fine of €10,000 (£7,344) for "provoking people to excessive thinness by encouraging prolonged dietary restrictions that could expose them to a danger of death or directly impair their health".

The measure was voted as an amendment to a broader health reform.

However, a second proposal to slap fines and prison sentences on anyone employing undernourished fashion models was abandoned last week.

The measure, which sought to oblige models to provide medical certificates showing their Body Mass Index, or BMI, was dropped on the grounds that it would violate France's employment law on discrimination in job recruitment.

Maud Olivier and Catherine Coutelle, two Socialist members who tabled the successful amendment, said: "Some sites known as 'pro-ana' can push people into a vicious circle of anorexia and authorities cannot do anything about it."

They insisted that it would not threaten freedom of expression on the internet, but would help distinguish between harmful sites that celebrated anorexia, and those created to support women suffering from the condition.

Dr Olivier Véran, a Socialist MP and neurologist who tabled the amendment to ban particularly thin models from the catwalk, said he was disappointed not to be able to punish those who "promote malnutrition and commercially exploit people who are endangering their own health".

But he welcomed the successful amendment. "The social impact of the image promoted by fashion, in which women must be skinny to a pathological degree to be beautiful and go on the catwalk is very strong."

France's burgeoning fashion industry has often been criticised for promoting wafer thin models. Star Chanel designer Karl Lagerfeld recently insisted that the industry refused to employ women who were anorexic.

However, Ines Dauxerre, whose daughter Victoire, a former supermodel, had recovered from anorexia, said that talk of starvation diets was taboo in the fashion world.

"There really is pressure on them. They are congratulated for losing weight. They are measured for their thigh circumference, but the fashion world won't ever admit to it," Ms Dauxerre told Europe 1.

Up to an estimated 40,000 people suffer from anorexia in France, nine out of 10 of them women and girls.

[grumbler]

Nah, it's just feel-good bullshit that legislators can use in their re-election campaigns.  No one is going to admit that they "run" such sites, and they will continue to exist unabated.  French parliamentarians may be slightly foolish, like all politicians, but they know they can't actually control the internet.  China can't, and it's spending a fuckton of money and credibility trying.