Hot on the heel's of Vogue's new health initiative, where 19 editors vowed cast models who are at least 16 years old and also promote a healthy body image (that means no signs of eating disorders), the internationally recognized magazine's Italian edition has taken it one step further.
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Vogue Italia EIC Franca Sozzani has been a titan in the war against eating disorders, and because magazines are such an integral tool in shaping many adolescents' attitudes on self-esteem and self-perception, Sozzani has enlisted her readers to each create little communities to fight against the wave of pro-ana and pro-mia blogs. She instructs:
Create a blog — or, if you already have one, create a special section inside it — where you can discuss eating disorders, in which you can try to help and support young people suffering from these disorders, anorexia and bulimia, seeking alternatives or practical advice to support them. A place in which to demonstrate the inadequacy and harmfulness of pro-ana and pro-mia websites, trying to convince the young people that suffer from these diseases to no longer turn to them. Only with positive blogs can we cancel them out, winning the fight against these websites, which no law seems to be capable of doing.
Essentially, Sozzani aims to create a conversation between young people and their peers - without replacing doctors - where they can focus on health, nutrition and issues related to anorexia, bulimia and other eating disorders without discouragement. With such a huge name like Vogue behind the initiative to eradicate pro-ana blogs everywhere, the feat seems plausible.
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But there's just one thing - doesn't Karlie Kloss' spread for Vogue Italia's December issue rightfully serve as thinspo for millions of pro-ana fanatics? Didn't Franca Sozzani defend those very images, complaining that the photos "were beautiful" and she wished there were more "photography courses to educate many people who work in this field who don't know anything about the history of photography"? Sounds at least a little bit hypocritical to me.
I still have my reservations about the magazine's health initiatives, mostly because, like the CFDA's runway guidelines, they're just that - guidelines. They vow to not "knowingly" cast a girl who's under 16, but is checking ID really that difficult? They vow to encourage casting directors not to keep models unreasonably late - but isn't that subjective? With no actual enforcement or consquences, everything Vogue vows to do can easily become awash if nobody keeps a close eye on them.
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And while I respect Franca Sozzani for starting and encouraging the conversation about positive body image to continue, it's a bigger job than one edition can handle. Monitoring each of these blogs is impossible, but hopefully the role of community leader will fall into the right hands.
What do you think about Franca Sozzani's new initiative to outnumber pro-ana and pro-mia blogs? For more details and information on how to join the discussion, click here.
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