Model Teams With Eating Disorder Groups

Once in a while, someone pushes back against the culture of eating disorders despite the possibility of suffering for it. Newswise reports that the international conference for the Academy for Eating Disorders (AED) is scheduled for May 2-5 in Baltimore, Maryland. High on the topic list is the current focus on health standards in the modeling industry. Marvy Rieder will be there as the voice of experience.

Rieder is on the AED's advisory board. She has also been billed in the past as an international supermodel. Her task will be to collaborate with AED members to develop interventions designed to help models avoid eating disorders.

Go, Marvy. The modeling industry needs to hear powerful voices.

It would be even more powerful to see models in active careers taking the same stances and working with eating disorder groups in similar ways. Heidi Klum? Gisele Buendchen? Dare I say Kate Moss? Should Moss ever elect to speak out on this issue, her voice would carry great force.

Not to single out the three names I mentioned above, but the issue at present is that there isn't as much money in being a normal-sized model, because many companies want the superthin for their ads and fashion campaigns. If these ads didn't pay off, they would cease to exist.

And why do they pay off? Apparently, we--the public--want to see thinness at any cost.