In July 2000, a group of fashion editors, photographers, and feminist activists met in London for the Body Image Summit, a series of speeches and discussions that attempted to address the effects on society of media images of extremely thin women. Many at the conference criticized the fashion industry for promoting a “thin ideal” that most women cannot attain without adopting disordered eating habits.

Prompted by the summit’s discussion of the relationship between the media and eating disorders, the British government established a self-regulatory code under which fashion magazines will refuse to feature models that are considered to be unhealthily thin. A few prominent figures in the fashion industry supported the regulations. Liz Jones, editor of Marie Claire magazine and a former anorexic, stated, “In the future, if an agency sends us a model whose bones show...