Letters: Oct. 23, 2006

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Please Feed the Models

Columnist Belinda Luscombe addressed the decision of the organizers of the Madrid fashion shows to bar from the runways any model who falls below a certain weight [Oct. 2]. ¡Viva España! ¡Viva Madrid! I have never met a man or woman who thinks those gaunt and pathetically unappealing models, who look like something from the worst of the World War II POW camps, do anything for clothes, fashion or themselves. It's time we objected to the twisted concepts of the fashion-industry nitwits.

LOUIS C. KLEBER Las Vegas

Madrid's ban on models who are too thin has started a pointed conversation. If pressure is put on models, it may find its way up to designers and magazine photographers. The emphasis on skinny bodies is demeaning to women and encourages anorexia and bulimia. I know healthy women who are a size 4 or 6 and nonetheless diet to try to look like models. That is not good for anyone. When was the last time you saw men starving themselves to death for a career?

LOURDES FERNANDEZ Miami

Luscombe is right on target about who is to blame for malnourished fashion models: the designers. But the danger to women goes far beyond the fashion industry. As a psychologist, I am seeing an alarming number of young women who enter my office hating their bodies and starving themselves to achieve an unattainable ideal. Any movement to stop this travesty should be lauded and supported. If Madrid outlaws the use of dangerously thin models in fashion work, perhaps that could begin to force those responsible to adapt.

MINNA BAKER Narberth, Pa.