ISABELLE CARO - AN UNNECESSARY TRAGEDY

It was with sadness that I read, last week, of the death of Isabelle Caro, the French actress and model who had been suffering from anorexia for 15 years.  Caro, who was 28,  actually died on 17th November but her family announced the death on 29th December.

Isabelle Caro's most recent weight was 33 kilograms [5 st 3lbs] for her height of 1.65 metres [5ft 5"] and, during her long battle with anorexia, her weight had, at times, dropped even lower than that.

Here in Italy she was best known for a photograph by Oliviero Toscani in which her bones stick out of her pathetically thin frame.  The photo was intended to spearhead a publicity campaign warning of the dangers of anorexia but the Italian Advertising Authority had it withdrawn because it was so distressing to look at.  The photo was later used by "pro-ana" websites, the sites that promote anorexia as a lifestyle and should, in my opinion, be banned.

Caro clearly had issues with her mother, who, in the model's own words, did not want her to grow, so both were, in their ways, sick women but of course this kind of attitude to women's bodies must, primarily, be blamed on the media and the fashion industry. 

The announcement of Caro's death came on the same day as we learnt of the fashion designer Alberta Ferretti's decision to use "real" women rather than models to show her new collection.  I salute Ferretti but this gesture is not enough.  The media has to stop showing impossibly thin women as role models, designers need to design clothes that look good off the hanger and all of us need to rethink our attitude to weight in everyday life:

As someone who has had to deal with fluctuating weight all my life, I am constantly amazed by the number of people who, although they would never dream of making a remark about any other physical defect, seem to believe that it is OK to say what they like when it comes to weight.  Well, I have news for them:  it isn't and these remarks can ruin someone's day, cause deep hurt and can lead some vulnerable people to take dieting to dangerous extremes.

I can only suppose that people make these cruel remarks because they believe that weight is something that can be controlled but this is not always true:  not everyone has the time or resources to be able to attend a gym, some people cannot, for health reasons, do vigorous exercise and in some cases the body finds its own "comfortable weight".  The last thing that someone who has learnt to accept that they will always carry a few extra kilos needs is a thoughtless remark - which will, I am ashamed to say, nearly always come from a woman - that makes them feel like a sack of potatoes!

So, this year, let's all think before we make that throwaway remark about someone's weight, shall we?