Infantile Supermodels
| By Kay Steiger - Aug 15th, 2007 at 11:49 am EDT |
| Also listed in: Campus Progress Blog |
Broadsheet links to a story in the Sidney Morning Harold about a push in Australia to outlaw underage models. If anyone's opened up a magazine or catalog lately, I think they'd be smart enough to figure out that the average age of these girls is about 14 or 15. That's mainly because the fashion industry likes to photograph the shit out of these girls before pesky puberty -- and therefore weight gain -- kicks in.
I think the conclusion we should draw from this news article is that not only do images of these sexualized teens and pre-teens make young women and girls feel bad about themselves, these kinds of photographs are bad for the actual models.
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I agree with most of what you said, with the exception that I didn't conclude we should *ban the practice* just because we don't like it.
They're underage, sure. But if a parent consents, I don't see an incredibly compelling interest that should trump that. It might not be in the best interest of the kid, but if you're going to ban kids from doing things that aren't in their best interests, regardless of who consents... down that road lies Genarlow Wilson.