aNorEXING the unhealthy-skinny

Yesterday, a photo of this woman appeared in Italian magazines and on billboards sparking debate.

From this photo, she looks like she needs some sleep and a few hamburgers, but otherwise, she looks okay. That's only because from that angle, you can't see the breasts she doesn't have, because breasts are made up of fat, or the ribs protruding from her body, as if she has slipped from the Holocaust directly into today. That's what Italians woke up to in their morning papers on September 26.

This was a diliberate message about the dangers of anorexia by famous, and equally infamous, photographer Oliviero Toscani. Toscani is known for his outrageous photographs, so he is obviously well picked for the job by Nolita, whose message to fashion-lovers everywhere is that anorexia is not the pretty ideal of completely effortless "skinny" that most girls want to be.

"I've been looking into the problem of anorexia for years. Who's responsible? Communication in general? Television? Fashion?" said Toscani. "So it's very interesting that in the end a fashion company has understood the importance of the problem, and with full awareness has found the courage to take the risk that this campaign involves."

This comes from a guy who fights HIV through bare bottoms. But it also comes from a man whose aim is "to use that naked body to show everyone the reality of this illness, caused in most cases by the stereotypes imposed by the world of fashion." Reuters

Good job fashion industry, well, Nolita in particular, who went forward with the idea with the total support of Livia Turco, the Italian Minister of Health. She says that this can "open a communications channel" for youngsters hoping to make it into the fashion industry to "promote responsibility towards the problem of anorexia."

Well, maybe they're doing some good. Others, like the guy in charge of the Association for the Study of Anorexia, thinks that girls may use this as a competition for "extreme thinness."

Why would girls find this attractive? They shouldn't! Fashion week in Milan banned all those unhealthy-skinny chicks from the runway, just like Madrid. A BMI under 18 isn't just unhealthy, it keeps you from walking the runway.