Eating disorders are not unknown in the land of foie gras (and we’re not talking about the force-feeding of geese), and authorities there blame the fashion industry’s unhealthy fondness for starvation-chic. Thus the French law that recently went into effect decreeing that fashion photos be honest about their falsity.
If a commercial image has been altered, or “Photoshopped,” to make a model appear more svelte or zaftig (though the latter doesn’t seem to be much of an issue), the photo must now come with a warning label giving the consumer the skinny. Without the disclaimer “photographie retouchée,” nipping and tucking a few pixels will be punished with a big, fat fine.
Of course, body-image anxiety is a terrible thing, and no doubt glossy, stiletto-thin magazine mannequins play some role in distorting notions of what is natural and normal. But what of the poor fashion models? Without the magic of Photoshop, won’t they be pressed to slim themselves down even further? Won’t models turn toward extreme dieting or extensive plastic surgery to achieve the results now attained digitally?
Well, it turns out there’s a government intervention for that, too: In May, French authorities ordered that models present a doctor’s note certifying they are healthy enough to strut the catwalk. But that license only needs to be acquired every two years and relies on body mass index, a notoriously unreliable health metric. One can imagine models as the reverse of wrestlers—briefly bulking up to make regulation weight and then purging to get back in fighting trim.
Critics have long argued Photoshop-disclosure labels are unnecessary. “Our readers are not idiots,” the editor of French Marie Claire told the New York Times way back when the French law was first proposed in 2009, “especially when they see those celebrities who are 50 and look 23.” Doesn’t the lens always lie? Camera angles, filters, and lighting are all ways of manipulating appearance—artifice as much as art.
The Scrapbook also wonders if France isn’t undermining products that have been cornerstones of its culture. What is lingerie but a way to shape-shift? What is makeup but make-believe? What is perfume but misrepre-scent-ation?
