Should a Healthy Body Mass Index (BMI) Be Required for Models?

This annual fashion show in Madrid, Spain was a little different this year. The organizers of the fashion show, called the Pasarela Cibeles, decided to give a test, based on weight, to each of the models in the Madrid fashion show. This simple test measured each model's body mass index (BMI). To pass this BMI test and be allowed to walk on the Pasarela Cibeles runway, a model must weigh a certain 'healthy' weight.

This healthy weight is deemed anything between 18.5 and 24.9 on the body mass index scale. This BMI range is popular among today's doctors. To find your body mass index first obtain your height in inches. If you are five feet and four inches tall (like me) you would multiply the number of feet (5) by 12 (the number of inches in one foot). This would give you 60 inches. Add the leftover four inches and you have a total height of 64 inches.

Next, multiply this number (64) by itself. So, 64 times 64 is equal to 4,096. Either remember this number in your head or write it down on a piece of paper. Now, plug your weight (in pounds) into the calculator and press the divide key. For demonstration purposes, I'll put in a weight of 105 lbs. (This was my weight when I ran and weight trained regularly and my diet consisted of at least four meals a day.)

Now it's time to plug in that earlier number of 4,096 and then press the equals key. The total comes to 0.0256347 on the calculator screen. Simply multiply that total by 703. (The number 703 is a fixed number that is to be used for every calculation, no matter what your height or weight is.)

Drum roll, please. And the final answer is 18.02. This figure represents my body mass index at five feet and four inches and with a weight of 105 lbs. Even though I was a healthy person who didn't look anorexic or unhealthy by any means, I would not have been allowed to participate as a runway model in the recent Madrid fashion show.

This new body mass index test requirement at the Pasarela Cibeles fashion show might have been why this year's Madrid fashion show had only 68 total models try out. This number is a lot less than the 300 models that were originally expected to apply for this prominent fashion event. Out of these 68 runway models tested for body mass index, five of them were kicked out of the September 16th, 2006 Madrid fashion show.

Could this BMI pass or fail test be the new wave of the future in the modeling world? Madrid fashion show organizer Cuca Solana seems to think so. She was quoted in an Associated Press article saying, "Clearly we don't want walking skeletons." Solana also went on to assert that the Madrid show wants to promote healthy images. In addition to so-called unhealthy models being banned, so was any makeup that would give the impression of a model being pale and unwell.