deathly thin

The row about skinny models rumbles on. Well-intentioned officials in Milan, Madrid and London want to regulate the use of stick-thin catwork models following the deaths of two girls who suffered from anorexia, but fashion houses are fighting the plans.
Issues like this one are never going to be tackled through nanny state type interventions - if it can be solved at all what's required is a complete mind-shift.
More than being slender, it's actually losing weight which gets people attention in this country. Dropping a few pounds is something which makes most people feel good but few will notice. But the more you shed, the greater the fascination from other people.
For proof, look no further than the fat-girl-thin stories in magazine and tabloid papers, or the vanishing size zero celebs.
Of course, eating disorders are about more than seeking attention - they're a form of control for those who cannot express it in a positive way - but it tends to be one of several outcomes, desired or otherwise. Having received treatment for one as a teenager, I should know.
Much as the fuss about weight loss is uncomfortable and on the whole unwelcome, it proves you have been noticed and that people care - which in a bitchy and competitive environment (girls' school/modelling industry/tabloid fodder) counts for something, no matter how warped.
Call it simplistic, but I suspect that's why third-rate celebrities like Victoria Beckham, Nicole Ritchie and their ilk get so wrapped up in their slimness that it starts to define them. They wouldn't know they existed, were it not for the hype around their little bony wrists and ever-decreasing waist size.
In a perverse way they must surely love the faux outpouring of concern in all the gossip mags for their fragile state of health. At least they know they're alive, that people are still interested.

Some blame must rest with our wider society. While everyone agrees that it's bad to be obese, and that it damages health and quality of life, we need to get a grip.
Thin can't be viewed in isolation - it's simply the flip side of the same hefty coin. We're living in one confused culture.
While we know we should all stop eating snacks and fatty food, there's a whole industry waiting to trip us up at every turn - be it through vending machines, fast food or microwave meals.
We've never before been so obsessed with cookery programmes, celebrity chefs and rich, calorie-laden 'taste the difference' type supermarket ranges.
We're told that the number of children and adults deemed obese is rocketing, with the inevitable increase in related problems like type 2 diabetes - which in turn brings in the guilt.
It's no coincidence that there's never been so much money to be made from the diet industry, be it slimming clubs, detox diets, meal replacements, diet pills or rip-off gym subscriptions.
Public humiliation is order of the day, with car-crash TV programmes which shame fatties with bad lifestyles into mending their ways now staple viewing.
After all, they allow the rest of us to shake our heads in disgust and feel smug that we're not quite that bad.
We're almost all - regardless of our size - either actually dieting or on constant red-alert against weight gain. Clearly it's a good thing to stay a constant size, but obsessing is now not simply socially acceptable, it's the norm.
It's really no wonder that some young men and women will take it to extremes. But the question of where (and how) to draw the line is a tough one, and one which I don't believe will be tackled by banning a few models.