1707.
The Legislature finds and declares all of the following: (a) Professional fashion models face pervasive and hazardous occupational demands to maintain extreme and unhealthy thinness. These occupational pressures create a dangerous work environment. Models experience a substantially elevated risk of eating disorders and other severe health problems associated with starvation.
(b) The majority of models enter the industry as minors, making them especially vulnerable to mistreatment and to the physical and psychological damage caused by eating disorders. Women working as professional fashion models are more likely to have a diagnosis of anorexia nervosa, dangerously low body mass index, and amenorrhea, which is a serious medical indicator of hormonal dysregulation that can have negative health consequences for life.
(c) As with all workers, professional fashion models are entitled to safe working conditions. The time, place, and means of the services provided by professional models are typically controlled by the company paying their compensation. Many models, including minors, are wrongly treated as independent contractors and currently do not receive workplace protections. Clarifying their classification as employees of the companies paying their compensation will enhance workplace protections.
(d) The impact of the fashion industry on health reaches far beyond the hazardous occupational conditions that professional models endure. Through its dominant presence in the mass media and pervasive influence on setting cultural standards for apparel, particularly for girls and young women, the fashion industry helps to define, transmit, and reinforce an unrealistic standard of thinness, a well-documented risk factor for eating disorders.
(e) Scientific research has shown that viewing media images of extremely thin models leads to body dissatisfaction in adolescent girls and young women, especially those who already have heightened vulnerability to eating disorders. In addition, scientific studies have shown that body dissatisfaction in adolescence is a strong indicator that a young person may develop an eating disorder.
(f) Improving working conditions to reduce excessive thinness among professional models is likely to lead to healthier images of models’ weight. This change in media portrayals of models’ weight may help to achieve a larger societal value in making media images more healthful and less damaging to girls’ and young women’s body image, ultimately reducing their risk for eating disorders.