I find the standard "gosh, proper values should be taught in the home" disclaimer pretty bogus.  Studies do show that what kids are exposed to outside the home influences them, in particular peer pressure, has a greater influence than what parents can do.  Yes, I can keep television away from my kids, but I can't be there 24/7 to ensure that other kids do not criticize their looks, or suggest they don't have enough muscles, or...

Fashion shows are teaching kids that thin-is-in, and that a woman's value is rated by her looks.  Just as sports heroes taking steroids show them that your value in athletics is rated by your muscles, whether artificially acquired or not.  These are not good values to teach anyone.  And they do lead to unhealthy behaviors in kids.

I won't blame the fashion industry particularly.  I think the media is significantly more dangerous and influential.  But I'm still pleased that someone has noticed that fashion models do not represent a healthy reality.

Thalia

I realize BMI is not a perfect measure of health, though I would think it was more likely to err on the side of obesity than on the side of anorexia. What I mean is, you can have a high BMI if you are short and fat, or if you are short and muscular, because BMI is just a function of height and weight, and weight does not discriminate between fat and muscle (which weighs more, per square inch, than fat). I would be willing to assume that these women with such low BMIs, given the industry they are in, are likely really skinny, as opposed to being in good shape.

I'm a relatively normal sized guy - 5'9.5" - and I weigh about 165. Of course, I'm not very muscled, so my BMI of 24.4, while normal, is close enough to overweight that I'd like to either get the number down, or simply have less fat at the same BMI. I'd have to weigh 122 lbs to be at a BMI of 18. If I simply lost 43 lbs, I can't imagine that I wouldn't look pretty sickly. Sure, I know people who probably have such low BMI's and I wouldn't think them unhealthy, but they are definitely the exception rather than the rule. Some people are just frikkin' tiny. Most are not. I think that the 18 BMI limit, while certainly arbitrary, is probably not too far off the mark. Besides, is there a better measure? Body fat percentage, for example, can be quite low for people like professional athletes, or the above-mentioned friends of mine. It is, like BMI, a possible sign of an unhealthy body, one that works generally, but not in all cases, and about as arbitrary as BMI.

Given the choice between arbitrary and nothing, in this particular case, I'm inclined to go with arbitrary.

Now with caps!

I sometimes have to wonder who the cruel and inhuman individuals are who make such decisions about what is or isn't beautiful in a magazine or in a movie... airbrushing women's waists into oblivion, and smoothing faces until they look like they could be made of porcelain instead of actual flesh... self-loathing, the way they excised so much of what was human and interesting ... as though the most ideal humans are the ones who aren't human at all.

The individuals who do this are intent on maximizing thier audiences self loathing as it is the basis of consumerism.  Content people don't buy as much stuff therefor it is imperative that they be induced to a state of discontent before they will open thier minds/hearts to the message that buying shit will salve the discontent.  Pound the world with unattainable ideals/standards of 'happiness' based on material wealth, inhuman beauty, and unsustainable gluttony then offer to soothe intense shame of inadequacy with idiotic clothes, giant homes, fancy cars, gooey goops, slimy slathers, and hard on pills.  Claim it is just giving people what they want and not a giant cradle to grave mind fuck.

"...when theft and high crime becomes obscenely obvious to even the blindest beer sucking idiot, it is always the Republicans who are in office." -- Joe Bageant

Unless things have changed a great deal in the past couple of years since I used to read it, most of the girls who pose for Perfect 10 (NSFW) have BMIs from about 17.5-19.5.  You can take the free tour and see some real-life examples of high underweight/low normal weight BMIs.

Perfect 10 used to publish the height and weight of each of the models who posed for the magazine, so assuming the information was accurate, it was easy to calculate BMIs.  I did an informal survey among my friends of which women in my copies of Perfect 10 they found the most attractive.  Their choices usually skewed toward the higher BMIs.  It's notable, however, that even though the higher BMIs represented by the magazine were just barely in the normal range, my friends all found their chosen model(s) to be just about perfect tens.  None of them said "Well, she's the best the magazine has to offer, but she could stand to gain about 15 pounds and get up to a BMI of about 22."  Part of that has to do with the models' fat distribution, of course.  The illustration you linked had rather shapeless women for the lower BMIs, but the women in the magazine tend to have large breasts and curvy hips relative to their body weight.

In regione caecorum, rex est luscus.

However flawed, that's an awfully interesting chart. I've been wondering since I read the write-up what 18 BMI women look like and whether a low BMI was decisive indicator of ill health, or just a point on a bell curve. I have a sister and cousin who look rather like grayhounds. Their collar bones, ribs and the knobs of their spines are prominent. I don't know what their BMIs are, but they are healthy and eat well.

Since it wasn't a government, free speech regulations would not apply even in the U.S.  A private consortium which puts on the fashion show has quite a few regulations.  For one, they only invite a few designers.  If I wanted to present my innovative approach to clothing (not bloody likely), they would send me home too.  Fashion is an art, and it isn't regulated.  However, if you want to present your fashion at the show in Madrid, you have to meet a bunch of requirements.  Apparently one of them is now that your models cannot be a size zero.

Other than that, I do agree that the fashion industry itself is rather ludicrous.

Thalia

Project Runway gives me the willies

That guy with the neck tattoo...gyahhhhhhh.  I want to read what it says and I want to upchuck every time I see it.