French Fashion Spreads to Come with Warning Labels?

Just how dangerous to your health is that trip to the magazine kiosk? French politician Valerie Boyer has proposed stamping digitally altered photos with a warning label, telling Reuters that Photoshopped fashion photos create unrealistic beauty standards and could promote eating disorders.

But slapping a health warning on the side of Vogue -- the same as on a cigarette package -- is unlikely to have much of an effect. For starters, the link between fashion photos and poor self-image -- while not insignificant -- isn't quite as clear as the link between smoking and lung cancer. But even more importantly, I think most women are well aware that the images they see in magazines have been altered, just as they're aware that some women have achieved their looks only with the help of plastic surgeons, crash diets and an army of stylists.

The problem isn't that women don't know these images are, to some degree, fake; it's that there are not enough real images being published. When Glamour published a single small picture of a model with a slight belly, there was enough resulting clamor to prompt a spot on the "Today" show -- rather unusual for a three-inch photo published near the back of the magazine.

If the French proposal goes into effect, however, the mandate to label fake photos could cause some consternation -- and just not in fashion. Boyer has promised that the law will cover political campaigns and press photos in the same way it covers advertising and fashion photos. While models and movie stars might own up to getting a little extra help after the fact, politicians would probably find it an entirely unattractive prospect.