..............

No, really, when will this madness stop? Even though Ali Michael already blew the whistle on just how common unhealthy weight-loss/dieting practices and eating disorders are in the fashion industry, it's still horrific to hear it corroborated by another model - this time Coco Rocha, who had a fairly busy season in Paris, so no one can accuse her of sour grapes now. (I'd suggest reading this, this and this). And I'm not really sure what to say any more, but one can't help but wonder just what it'll take to change things.

I'm not advocating total revolution (it's far from realistic to expect size 12 girls on the runway as a standard), but just enough change that a 5'10" girl weighing 108 pounds- which is approximately 49 kgs, for those who are more used to that unit of measurement- doesn't have to be told to lose more weight, doesn't have to be told to 'look anorexic', doesn't take diuretics to 'prepare' for show seasons and doesn't have to be told by her agent to throw up after meals to look even skinnier. It's not enough to say the girls aren't being forced to model, and they can walk away if they choose - which isn't entirely true. Models aren't the only working people who can ruin their health for their jobs in the name of doing them properly, but I don't think too many other fields require you to do so.
And if all these discussions and meetings about changing the status quo (and this is just sizism- racism now, that's another can of worms altogether) are really just hogwash, maybe a models' union wouldn't be such a bad idea after all (and I suspect not much will change in the immediate future, despite the fact that three top models have now spoken up about their own experiences- Natalia Vodianova last year, Ali, and now Coco. But seriously, would it really kill the designers to make their samples just a little bit bigger?).